Ogier closing in after puncture

Sebastien Ogier is closing in on Solberg in the Safari rally in Kenya after the friday stages. Ogier is now only one second behind leader Oliver Solberg. Photo: Christian Flodin / FotoINorr

The morning started late for the drivers, since the first morning stage was cancelled late. The stage got cancelled because it was impossible for the safety vehicles to enter. Overnight leader Oliver Solberg held on to his lead all day, but a puncture on SS8 made him lose most of the time he had. The top trio, Solberg, Ogier and Evans, all were within six seconds (Ogier 1.0 behind Solberg), and Ogier was faster than Solberg on SS9 as well, making the difference 0,7 seconds before the final stage of the day. Evans dropped a bit of time in the last two stages, but is still third overall, just 20,5 seconds after Solberg, which in Safari rally is just about no time. Ogier in second is just one second behind Solberg.
Pajari sits in fourth place, but the team discovered an issue with his car during the midday service that had to be repaired, and took two minutes more than the time given, which means he got 20 seconds penalty. Pajari still has over half a minute down to fifth place where Thierry Neuville is, the fastest non-Toyota in the rally. Just behind Neuville, a little bit over a second behind, is Adrien Fourmaux and 6 seconds behind him is Takamoto Katsuta.
The M-sport team had some troubles in Sweden, both Jon Armstrong and Josh McErlean faced troubles in Kenya on friday too. McErlean found himself with a cracked gearbox in SS7, and Armstrong changed a suspension arm and got a puncture during the day. Both M-sport cars will be starting on saturday, says Richard Millener, team principal of M-sport.

Standings after friday:
1) Oliver Solberg, Toyota
2) Sebastien Ogier, Toyota, +1,0 (diff 1st)
3) Elfvyn Evans, Toyota, +20,5
4) Sami Pajari, Toyota, +1.10,5
5) Thierry Neuville, Hyundai, +1.46,1
6) Adrien Fourmaux, Hyundai, +1.47,3
7) Takamoto Katsuta, Toyota, +1.53,3
8) Esapekka Lappi, Hyundai, +2.53,2
9) Robert Virves, Skoda, +6.53,6*
10) Gus Greensmith, Toyota, +7.08,1*

*WRC2

Written by: Christian Flodin