At the end of Friday afternoon, Kalle Rovanpera remains the leader of Safari Rally Kenya with Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta following him.
Kalle Rovanpera increased his lead at the end of the afternoon loop on Friday as he was the fastest driver again in all stages.
Elfyn Evans gained three positions since the morning and stole the second place from Takamoto Katsuta at the end of Stage 7 as the Japanese driver lost 14,4 seconds on the final stage of the day after his missing a junction. However, their gap is at 3,9 seconds which means that Evans must defend his position over his teammate on Saturday.
Thierry Neuville is just 6,5 seconds far from the third place and had a huge moment in Stage 6 as he hit a ditch on two wheels.
Adrien Fourmaux completes the top five and believes that he lost a lot of time in the morning.
Gregoire Munster does the 5-6 for M-Sport Ford and said at the end of SS7 that he found a good balance with his Puma on that stage.
Esapekka Lappi was the first victim of Safari Rally as he pulled over his i20N 9,8 KM into SS5 with a transmission damage. He was in second place overall at the end of Friday morning and would give a fight with Tanak for the second place.
Ott Tanak crashed out of second position in Stage 6 after Lappi's retirement as he clipped something on the inside of a left-hander and it appeared to have broken his Hyundai's steering. The Korean team was second and third on the overall classification with Tanak and Lappi respectively, but its hopes are based only on Neuville. Finally, the Estonian said at the end of SS5 that Hyundai mechanics did not work so much on his car during the midday service as they were very busy repairing the damaged car of Neuville.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification after SS7:
Photo Credits: Toyota
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