Estonian Ott Tanak savoured a 24.4 seconds lead from hard-charging Toyota’s Irishman Elfyn Evans following the first loop of WRC Safari Rally Kenya’s Day Two in Naivasha.
The 1999 Word Rally champion started Day Two on a high note; claiming three out of four stages in the morning loop which revolved around Loldia, Ken Gen Geothermal, Kedong and Camp Moran.
Tanak powered his i20 N to his first stage win at Camp Moran, where he beat Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville by 2.1 seconds.
Tanak said: “We had clean stages, especially in the second one. I lost some time in muddy and slippery places in the morning. Afternoon is coming so it’s going to be another tricky loop.”
He was at it again on the 19.11km Loldia 1 speed test, where he beat Neuville by 1.5 seconds to cling on to his lead.
Tanak racked up his third stage win of the day at Kedong 1, the venue for the world-famous Miti Mbili stage, after which he returned to WRTI Service with a 24.4 secs cushion.
Seventh-placed Japanese speedster Takamoto was left to rue the two punctures he picked up on the early morning run at Camp Moran.
Taka said: “Basically, the morning stage was a long one with lots of rocks and things. We had no clear impact. We got two punctures there and unfortunately, we have no tyres left so we have to be careful.”
M-Sport’s Josh McErlean, who is making his safari debut in 2025, settled for sixth going into Service ‘B’ which was preceded by the morning loop.
On Thursday, crews were not allowed to service their machines and only went into Service ‘A’ for 15 minutes on Friday morning.
Asked what it felt like to manage high speeds on the rocks, Josh said: “I think this afternoon, the repeat run is going to be puncturous than in the morning. The morning run was tricky with the rocks, so we had to tread carefully.”
