NAIROBI, June 22 (silubaba) -- Estonia's Ott Tanak has taken the overnight lead after the 2023 World Rally Championship (WRC) Safari Rally in Kenya began in the outskirts of Nairobi on Thursday.
Thousands of fans flocked to the Kasarani stadium, the venue of the opening special super stage, as the 70th edition of the iconic event officially got underway following a ceremonial start in downtown Nairobi.
M-Sport Ford's Tanak claimed the quickest time through the 4.84km super special, going 0.1 second quicker than Sebastien Ogier of France in his Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Yaris Rally1.
Tanak is the 2019 WRC champion and finished third in his first ever Safari Rally in 2021.
Record eight-time WRC champion Ogier won the Safari in 2021, the year it returned to the WRC calendar following a 19-year hiatus.
"This rally is demanding. Let's see after Saturday. I would say this day will tell us a lot," the overnight leader told the WRC website.
Reigning Safari and WRC champion Kalle Rovanpera closed the top three in his GR Yaris Rally 1 car, ahead of the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 of Belgium's Thierry Neuville and another GR Yaris of Welsh driver Elfyn Evans, with 31 drivers going through the SS1.
"It's going to be a new challenge this year. Different from last year. Definitely more rough. Let's try to do the same as last year. We need to be steady and keep a good pace," Rovanpera remarked.
Five-time Safari winner Carl Tundo, also chairman of the 2023 edition's local organizing committee, was the best placed Kenyan on the leaderboard, clocking 3:35.9 in his Skoda Octavia WRC2 car to finish 17th, 21.6 seconds adrift of Tanak.
Elsewhere, Hyundai's Esapekka Lappi and Toyota's Takamoto Katsuta - who suffered a propshaft failure and a roll respectively in Wednesday's shakedown in Naivasha, brought their machines home sixth and seventh in the opening stage.
The action proper gets underway at 8am local time on Friday morning, with the first of the day's six stages in Naivasha, a town 90km northwest of Nairobi.
The biggest challenge will be the 30.62km Kedong stage, which makes up the final stage of the morning and afternoon loops. ■
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