2025 Safari Rally Kenya – Thursday report
Kenyan President William Ruto formally launched Safari Rally Kenya in Nairobi at present. On the levels, it was Ott Tänak who got here out swinging, topping the timesheets after the opening two checks.
Ruto was on-site to flag away the main crews as they crossed the beginning ramp within the Kenyan capital, earlier than heading to the close by Kasarani Stadium for a brilliant particular stage. 1000’s of followers packed each out there vantage level to catch a glimpse of the WRC stars in motion, earlier than the rally moved to the all-new Mzabibu take a look at, simply 10 kilometres outdoors of rally base Naivasha.
Championship chief Elfyn Evans set the early tempo in Kasarani, however Tänak hit again in SS2 with a commanding run on the longer, extra technical stage. The Hyundai i20 N Rally1 driver vaulted from fourth to first, ending the day 2.4sec away from Takamoto Katsuta, with M-Sport Ford Puma ace Grégoire Munster simply two-tenths additional again.
“For me, it was all wonderful,” Tänak stated. “I feel the primary stage tomorrow will present quite a bit. It’s tremendous tough, very demanding and lengthy on the identical time. I feel the entire day shall be fairly an enormous present.”
Katsuta – already a three-time podium finisher in Kenya – may properly have led outright have been it not for a wild second in SS2. The Toyota driver ran vast on a left-hander and misplaced valuable seconds scrambling to regain traction.
His GR Yaris Rally1 team-mates Kalle Rovanperä and Evans accomplished the highest 5, however there was bother for Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, who didn’t make it to SS2 after his engine refused to start out following the regroup.
Fourmaux’s team-mate and defending champion Thierry Neuville additionally endured a troublesome begin, combating a technical downside on his i20 N Rally1 following a two-wheeled second that left him eighth behind Josh McErlean and Sami Pajari.
The motion resumes on Friday morning with the primary of the day’s six levels. The largest problem would be the 31.40km Camp Moran take a look at, which opens the morning and afternoon loops.
Fourmaux: Down however not out
Regardless of being pressured into retirement for the day, Fourmaux will restart on Friday morning and has vowed to salvage as many factors as attainable from the rest of the week.
“It is the kind of rally the place we will nonetheless rating some factors, even after retiring on the primary day,” he stated. “It isn’t perfect, however we’re going to attempt to get the very best that we will.”
Describing the issue he confronted together with his automobile, the Frenchman continued: “We’ve {an electrical} subject, the battery is totally useless. We pushed it to get out of regroup after which we tried to start out it utilizing the battery from the wheel however gun to get a little bit little bit of life, which we did handle to get sooner or later.
“We managed to leap begin the automobile, however after 10 seconds the automobile stops and dies. It is actually irritating, however there’s nothing else we will do.”
