The afternoon lap of the last day of competition at the Safari Rally began with Special Stage 17, the 14.83 kilometer Oserian 2 which, in fact, is the most demanding and difficult test of the day.
In a weekend to forget, M-Sport took away the small satisfaction of having signed a double in the third to last round of the sixth round of the WRC 2022 with Sébastien Loeb and Isabelle Galmiche who set the best time in 9’05 “7.
Behind the 9-time WRC world champion is Adrien Fourmaux, back in the race after helping his mechanics to repair his Ford Puma Rally1 yesterday afternoon. The Frenchman had already taken away the satisfaction of winning the test this morning.
For Hyundai Motorsport, things continue to go in the worst possible way. After signing the fifth time of the special, with a delay of 10 “7 from Loeb, Ott Tanak was forced to retire due to a power steering failure on his i20 N Rally1.
Oliver Solberg, on the other hand, lost power after a pass – actually at very low speed – on the fesh-fesh. As happened to the Swede and Thierry Neuville yesterday, the i20’s engine lost power due to the air filter being completely filled with sand.
As if that weren’t enough, Solberg had to ask two photographers on site for help to remove the fesh-fesh from the windshield after discovering the fault in the system that activates the wipers.
In Special Stage 18, Narasha 2 of 13.30 kilometers, Sébastien Loeb and Isabelle Galmiche repeated it, winning it with a time of 6’59 “2 and a 2” 4 advantage over Sébastien Ogier and Benjamin Veillas.
Many drivers in the standings preferred to run this special very cautiously to try to safeguard the tires in view of the Power Stage, that is the next special which will also be the last of the Kenyan event.
To signal the umpteenth test in which Oliver Solberg was forced to drive very slowly. The problems on his i20 N Rally1 are not only related to the windshield wipers, so much so that he takes part in the test in “road mode”, that is, with the less thrust mapping that is used during the transfers between one test and another.
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