Safari Rally: Rovanperä edges closer to second safari victory
Kalle Rovanperä employed a cautious strategy combined with luck to stay away from Safari Rally woes that befell the rest of the crews during leg three on Saturday. Saturday proved a busy day for crews following changing weather conditions to encountering punctures and mechanical mishaps for many crews. For the reigning world rally champion, Rovanperä […] The post Safari Rally: Rovanperä edges closer to second safari victory appeared first on Kawowo Sports.
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Kalle Rovanperä employed a cautious strategy combined with luck to stay away from Safari Rally woes that befell the rest of the crews during leg three on Saturday.
Saturday proved a busy day for crews following changing weather conditions to encountering punctures and mechanical mishaps for many crews.
For the reigning world rally champion, Rovanperä backed off a little from his aggressive approach to keep a clean and incident-free run throughout the day. He only won one of the six stages compared to leg two where he swept all the day’s stages.
The Finnish driver now holds a comfortable lead of 2 minutes, 8.2 seconds ahead of the final leg.
“The lead is now quite good. Of course, we took it careful,” said Rovanperä.
“It is not so enjoyable when you have a big lead and in a stage like this you just go around every rock, it’s scary. Tomorrow is still a tough day and we will try to finish the job,” he added.
The two podium positions kept changing hands after Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta suffered punctures that pushed them behind elevating Thierry Neuville to the second.
However, the Hyundai driver did not stay long in second after his car developed a fuel system issue that saw him limp through SS8 losing more than two minutes.
Toyota’s Katsuta would eventually claim the second position with M-Sport Ford Adrien Fourmaux sealing the podium in third.
Evans ended the day in fourth while Neuville in fifth.
In WRC2, Gus Greensmith continues to lead the pack followed by his teammate Oliver Solberg with Kajetan Kajetanowicz in third.
Among the local crews, Carlo Tundo finished leg three sitting 15th overall.
The final day which is the shortest will cover a total of six stages before the winner is announced.
The post Safari Rally: Rovanperä edges closer to second safari victory appeared first on Kawowo Sports.
