WRC | Safari Rally, PS7: Rovanpera finishes on top. Evans second

The first stage of the 2024 Safari Rally goes to the archives in the same way it opened this morning, that is, with Kalle Rovanpera as the absolute dominator of the day. The 2-time world champion won all 6 special stages scheduled for today, thus marking the perfect day.

To complete the work, the victory in SS7, the 31.50 kilometer Kedong 2, in which he was able to beat Thierry Neuville with a margin of 4″4. This led him to end the day with an advantage of almost 1 minute on the first of the rivals, teammate Elfyn Evans.

Speaking of the Welshman, the third time obtained in SS7 and the simultaneous performance below expectations from Takamoto Katsuta led him to overtake his teammate and climb to second place in the general classification.

Evans is 56″9 behind Rovanpera, therefore a very large gap, while the margin over Takamoto Katsuta is only 3″9. Tomorrow the fight for second place will continue with Thierry Neuville as third wheel.

The Belgian remained the only representative of Hyundai Motorsport after the retirements of Esapekka Lappi and Ott Tanak, who ended up KO respectively due to a transmission failure (the third in three years at the Safari for the Korean company) and an accident triggered by a rock found in full trajectory from the Estonian.

Neuville is 6″5 from the bottom step of the podium and Evans' second place isn't that far away. Today he had to grit his teeth due to a puncture caused by a collision with a dirt bank on SS2, the opening one of the day , but then he did well to resist, maintain a good pace and close close to his rival for the title despite being forced to open all the day's special stages.

Adrien Fourmaux completes the Top 5, convincing in most of today's tests despite a few too many awes in the two longest tests of the day (the same one repeated twice) in which he lost several seconds. The fact that today's times are objectively growing is positive, as is the consistency and tendency to stay out of trouble: the impression is that the year he made with the Fiesta Rally2 in 2023 has made him mature.

Behind the first Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid, that of the Frenchman, there are the other two put on the road by M-Sport, with Gregoire Munster sixth and the gentleman driver Jourdan Serderidis in eighth place in the general classification.

Between the two was Gus Greensmith, the undisputed leader of the WRC2 due to his own merits, but also due to various problems that slowed down his most dangerous rivals such as Oliver Solberg (held back by 2 punctures during the morning) and a mechanical failure on the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 by Kajetan Kajetanowicz.

The first stage of the 2024 Safari Rally ends here. The event will resume tomorrow morning with Special Stage 8, the 29.32 kilometer Soysambu 1. The tour will be made up of 6 tests (3 repeated) and the great unknown will not only be represented by the many timed kilometers that await the riders, but also by the rain, the fords and the fesh fesh, which will become protagonists after a much rockier first stage . The first car will enter testing at 06:01 Italian time.

WRC 2024 – Safari Rally – Ranking after PS7