GR YARIS DICTATES PACE AS CREWS ENDURE TOUGH KEDONG TEST

Friday's morning run of WRC Safari Rally Kenya treated fans to some exhilarating displays of ‘fesh fesh’ racing, but the dreaded Kedong test was truly the reason crews felt constant butterflies in their stomachs.

Toyota Gazoo Racing - who claimed a 1-2-3-4 finish in 2022- showed it had lost none of its fesh fesh knack over Kenya’s rugged speed tests.

Frenchman Sébastien Ogier, who competes on a part-time basis, savored a slender 2.5sec lead over team-mate Kalle Rovanperä as crews returned to Service B at the Wildlife Research and Training Institute (WRTI) in Naivasha.

The Frenchman racked up the tight and twisty Loldia opener and extended his advantage into double figures with a top-two time at Geothermal. 

His efforts were undone in the super-fast Kedong stage, however, when a hybrid unit fault cost almost 10sec and allowed Rovanperä back into the fight.

“I had no hybrid for the whole stage,” Ogier revealed, adding: “We are in the lead and it's still a very long weekend ahead. Of course it's very disappointing when you lose time and you cannot do anything, but I think we can be happy with our loop for sure and we hope that our car will be 100 per cent again for the afternoon.”

KCB Bank Kenya is the official financial partner injecting Kshs. 150 million into this year’s edition which marks 20 years since KCB started sponsoring motorsports in the country.  

Other sponsors of the event include Governement of Kenya (GOK), Talanta Hela, Toyota Kenya and Kenya Wildlife Service among others.

LOOP 1 RESULTS AFTER LOLDIA 1, GEOTHERMAL 1 & KEDONG 1

1 (FRA) S. OGIER ( TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT)   38:57.4 

2 (FIN) K. ROVANPERÄ (TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT) +2.5

3 (GBR) E. EVANS ( TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT )+19.5 

4 (BEL) T. NEUVILLE (HYUNDAI SHELL MOBIS WORLD RALLY TEAM)+21.2 

5 (JPN) T. KATSUTA (TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT) +29.1