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Evans second in Toyota 1-2 as Breen retires
Photography by TOYOTA, HYUNDAI & M-SPORT
In partnership with Goodwood Festival of Speed
Kalle Rovanperä has vaulted from fourth to first to lead Safari Rally Kenya overnight as erstwhile leader Sébastien Ogier stopped to change a tire and Craig Breen retired.
Kedong had thrown a major spanner in the works earlier on Friday morning, as no less than five cars either ran into problems or retired.
The deep sections of fesh-fesh in particular caused some real strife, but Ogier and Breen ran into their problems elsewhere on the stage.
Ogier punctured early and therefore had to stop and change the wheel, dropping over two minutes and down from first to sixth in the process.
Breen meanwhile stopped near the start of the stage in his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 before getting back under way again. But Breen failed to make the end of the stage as his car was spat off the road on a straight with what looked to be broken steering.
He had been sixth overall, but it means none of the manufacturer-nominated M-Sport cars made it through Friday as Sébastien Loeb and Adrien Fourmaux both also retired earlier in the day.
Takamoto Katsuta was another to lose time on Kedong – a stage he said he really didn’t want to go back to after the first pass.
The Toyota Next Generation driver had been second overall before SS7 but slipped to fourth after being caught up behind Breen’s Puma.
“Already in the beginning we had a lot of dust from Craig and some corner I couldn’t see anything because of the forest and dust stayed there, and there were big rocks on the straight where Craig went off and I had to almost stop,” Katsuta described.
“Hopefully we can get some time back, if we don’t get it it’s not fair. So hopefully we can get something.”
Rovanperä felt he “had no power” for the first part of the stage but that’s of little concern given he was again quickest on Kedong, just as he had been the first time round.
His overnight lead is provisionally 22.4 seconds over Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans who simply backed off in order to make it through the daunting stage.
“It’s just so extreme,” Evans said. “I was careful, I was sure it would be a car graveyard in there so from my side I just had to make it through.”
The 2022 season has been one of herculean efforts in the face of adversity for Thierry Neuville, and the first example of this on the Safari occurred on the second pass of Kedong.
Dust infiltrated the cockpit of his Hyundai halfway through the stage, and then the front-left tire detached itself from the rim for the last few miles.
But despite this adversity – Neuville growing a dust moustache and coughing at stage end – he only dropped 3.6s to Rovanperä and was quicker than team-mate Tänak as well.
Tänak’s co-driver, Martin Järveoja, was bizarrely seen with a spare air filter between his legs in the footwell, but when asked about it at stage-end Tänak was his usual clever and cagey self: “It’s a marketing trick!” he said.
Despite his gearstick problems earlier in the day, Tänak is now up to third place overall such has been the attrition.
Neuville is fifth, 1m10.7s up on Ogier while the third Hyundai of Oliver Solberg is seventh.
“It’s absolutely mad, absolutely mad!” Solberg said, sounding very much like his 2003 world champion father Petter.
“I’m just very happy to be through because it’s been a terrible day, to be honest.”
Gus Greensmith’s Puma was the only works example to make it to the end of Friday, but he lies behind Breen who is ninth on the leaderboard under restart rules.
Privateer Ford entrant Jourdan Serderidis is also ahead of Greensmith in 11th, while WRC2 leader Kajetan Kajetanowicz lies eighth overall.
Tags: Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanperä, Ott Tanak, Safari Rally 2022, Sébastien Ogier, Takamoto Katsuta, WRC 2022
Publish Date June 24, 2022 DirtFish https://www-dirtfish.imgix.net/2022/06/WRC_2022_Rd.6_067B.jpg?fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=519&ixlib=php-1.2.1&q=70&w=780&wpsize=entry-main June 24, 2022
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Copyright © 2022 DirtFish, LLC. All rights reserved.
Subaru Impreza STI Sedan & Hatchback Features
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels aiding in the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: Our Subaru STi’s use a 2.5 liter 4-cylinder Turbo-charged Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru STi is equipped with an advanced all-wheel-drive system with an active center differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. In order for the wheels to fit on our Subaru STi’s, we had to convert them to a Group N brake setup.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels to aid the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: The Subary BRZ is powered by a 2.0 liter naturally aspirated Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru BRZ is rear-wheel-drive and equipped with a limited slip differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. Luckily with the Subaru BRZ’s, the stock brake system is more than adequate for our programs.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
Below you will find an aerial view of the DirtFish property. Go through and check out the courses you’ll be driving on during your driving program! View everything from The Slalom all the way up to our longest course, the Advanced Mill Run!