Ogier more and more alone
On the second day of the Safari Rally Sebastien Ogier he had established himself as the absolute protagonist of the test kenyota, managing to reconfirm himself also on Saturday, i.e. in the penultimate stage before tomorrow’s decisive round. The eight-time world champion widened the gap on his pursuers before the final practices, when he was alone Kalle Rovanperä he managed to get closer to the eight-time world champion, now a serious candidate to win the seventh round of the 2023 season. Much further back, however, Elfyn Evans, third but initially destined to chase after Esapekka Lappi after a technical problem during the morning.
Toyota derbies. Evans and Lappi alternate bad luck
A day which, just like yesterday’s, opened immediately with another masterful performance by Ogier, who stretched ahead of his pursuers inflicting rather severe gaps. The only one who was able to keep up with the pace of the French Toyota driver was Kalle Rovanperä, still 7 seconds behind but still against the 26 seconds of the third classified: Esapekka Lappi. The latter, moreover, also managed to get the virtual podium in the general ranking by exploiting a problem with Toyota Elfyn Evans: just like Katsuta in Sardinia, the Welshman also suffered a loss of engine power after fording, thus losing precious seconds. Subsequently, the reigning world champion won both SS9 and SS10, with Ogier preferring to manage his advantage without taking excessive risks, even finishing 3rd behind Lappi in the last race of the morning. With the advent of afternoon however, the situation smiled completely at Ogier again, who regained the leadership of a special stage in SS11, once again ahead of Rovanperä. Also in this case, the greatest news came from the fight for the third position, thanks to a technical problem this time occurred to the Hyundai of Lapland which pushed the latter not only out of the podium area in favor of Evans, but even al withdraw. The general classification became even more favorable to Ogier in the SS12, at the end of which the Frenchman finished 2nd behind Katsuta, further increasing his advantage over the reigning world champion, who was only 5th. In SS13 the Finn redeemed himself, with Ogier 3rd behind Evans. A result that allowed Rovanperä to reduce the gap on his team mate by almost 17 seconds.
WRC | Safari Rally, ranking after SS13 – Top 10
POS. PILOTA AUTO TEMPO/GAP 1 Sébastien Ogier Toyota 2:43:49.2 2 Kalle Rovanperä Toyota +16.7 3 Elfyn Evans Toyota +2:23.3 4 Takamoto Katsuta Hyundai +2:40.0 5 Dani Sordo Hyundai +3:52.3 6 Ott Tänak Ford +8 :39.8 7 Pierre-Louis Loubet Ford +13:56.6 8 Kajetan Kajetanowicz Skoda (WRC2) +19:53.1 9 Thierry Neuville Hyundai +24:06.2 10 Oliver Solberg Skoda +24:06.6
All ready for the last day
The last rounds of the Safari Rally will thus be held tomorrow, June 25th, the latest of the program in Kenya. Five specials, from 6:00 to 11:10 Italian time, to which will be added the final and decisive Power Stage in program all 13:15broadcast live on television from Sky Sport F1, as well as streaming su Sky GO e NOW TV. At that point, the WRC will take a break of nearly a month before returning to Europe for Rally Estonia.
FP | Alessandro Prada
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