Solberg storms clear as WRC Safari Rally Kenya delivers mud and drama

Oliver Solberg surged into an early lead at Safari Rally Kenya on Thursday afternoon, the Toyota driver (pictured above) mastering treacherous conditions to end the opening leg of the WRC’s African classic with a commanding advantage.

Heavy rain in the days leading up to the FIA World Rally Championship’s toughest event has turned many of the upcoming stages from rocky, dusty car-breakers into mud-filled car-swallowers, and Thursday’s curtain-raising pair of tests hinted at what’s to come.

Heavy rain turned the opening stage near Naivasha into a muddy assault course, with the 15.13-mile Camp Moran 1 test already stringing out the leaderboard. Solberg handled the chaos best of all, guiding his factory Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 to a lead of almost half a minute over teammate and WRC points leader Elfyn Evans.

While nobody expects the Safari to ever be straightforward, Solberg admitted the conditions were among the most unpredictable he’d ever experienced.

“It was an adventure already,” said Solberg, who’s just three rallies into his first full Rally1 campaign with Toyota and already has a Monte Carlo Rally win under his belt. “I was a bit surprised by the gaps, but I just tried to have a rhythm and read the road. Sometimes it was dry, then all of a sudden wet around the corner.”

Evans survived a particularly fraught run to hold second overall at the overnight halt. The Welshman ran out of washer fluid midway through the opening stage, leaving him struggling for visibility as mud coated his GR Yaris’s windscreen before a late rain shower helped clear it.

WRC points leader Elfyn Evans struggled for visibility, but still grabbed an overnight second place in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. Toyota Gazoo Racing photo

Nine-time and reigning WRC champ Sebastien Ogier, back on the championship trail after opting out of last month’s Rally Sweden, ended the opening two stages third in his GR Yaris, more than a minute adrift of the lead after predicting the large time swings that the conditions would create.

Drama struck elsewhere across the field as another Toyota driver, Takamoto Katsuta, lost his intercom before the opening stage, forcing co-driver Aaron Johnston to resort to hand signals. Despite that, the pair trailed Ogier by just 10.2s in fourth overall, with the fifth factory GR Yaris of Sami Pajari almost one minute behind.

Hyundai Motorsport endured a difficult start to the rally, with all three of its i20 N Rally1 entries suffering overheating issues as thick mud clogged their radiators on the second stage, 5.5-mile Mzabibu 1.

“Obviously, very difficult conditions out there,” admitted Thierry Neuville, the best placed of the trio in sixth. “I don’t know actually how you can describe it at the end – you don’t find the words for it. We weren’t in the best road position for that, so we lost a lot of time.

“In the last one we overheated. I think all three Hyundais overheated – the radiator’s full of mud. I tried to clean it before the stage, but there was still too much dirt on it.”

Jon Armstrong impressed on his Rally1 gravel (and mud and waterholes…) debut to hold seventh in the best of the M-Sport Ford Pumas, the Irishman describing the opening test simply as “muddy, muddy stuff.” His teammate Josh McErlean languished in 14th after nursing rising water temperatures on the second stage.

Welcome to the Safari, Jon... M-Sport Ford driver Armstrong holds seventh after a muddy start to his Kenyan debut. M-Sport photo

Completing the Rally1 crews, Hyundai duo Adrien Fourmaux and Esapekka Lappi hold eighth and ninth, with Fourmaux already 2m38.1s down on rally leader Solberg.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Gus Greensmith holds a slender class lead after those two punishing opening stages. Driving a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 for the first time following his switch from Skoda, the British driver ended the day with a 3.0s advantage over Paraguay’s Diego Dominguez in a similar machine.

Conditions on the opener proved almost undriveable, with the thick mud even more churned up and glutinous for the WRC2 cars after the passage of the Rally1 entries. Fabrizio Zaldivar handled the chaos best to set the early pace in his Skoda Fabia RS, finishing 4.7s clear of Greensmith despite running out of washer fluid late in the stage.

The second stage ran in far more stable conditions and reshuffled the order, Dominguez going fastest to vault into second overall. Former WRC2 champ Andreas Mikkelsen and Greensmith followed close behind, the latter moving into the class lead despite reporting rising radiator temperatures.

WRC2 leader Gus Greensmith enjoys the drier conditions while he can, but mud defined the Safari’s opening tests. Red Bull Content Pool

Friday includes 85.25 competitive miles across eight special stages, beginning with a second pass of the Camp Moran mud. Morning and afternoon runs through 15.56-mile Loldia, 8.18-mile Kengen Geothermal and 8.57-mile Kedong should be no less daunting, while a second pass of Mzabibu ends a leg that’s almost guaranteed to deliver drama.

WRC Safari Rally Kenya, positions after Thursday/Leg One, part one, SS2
1 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 30m18.6s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +33.3s
3 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m05.1s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m15.3s
5 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2m06.4s
6 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m21.9s
7 Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne (Ford Puma Rally1) +2m32.2s
8 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m38.1s
9 Esapekka Lappi/Enni Malkonen (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m52.9s
10 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2 leader) +3m42.5s

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