The 70th edition of the Safari rally Kenya officially revved off with a Super Special stage at Kasarani in Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak showed early intent to win a first Safari by posting the fastest time in the 4.84km stage.
Tanak was 0.1 sec faster than Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier. Reigning Safari rally winner Kalle Rovanpera was further in third 2.4 seconds down on the leader.
“I cannot talk about strategy now, lets see after Saturday. We need to make sure we won’t incur any mechanical setbacks with the tough conditions and then it’s up to us to give our best performance,” says Tanak.
Hyundai’s Thiery Neuville finished the super special in fourth followed by Elfyn Evans who completed the top five.
Among the local crews, Carl Tundo completed the stage in 15th position followed by McRae Kimathi and Karan Patel in 17th and 18th respectively.
The rest of the competition heads to Naivasha where 18 stages will be covered starting with six stages on Saturday.