It was a bad day for world Rally Champion Thierry Neuville who crashed off in the last day of World Safari Rally Championships in Kenya.
The two day leader’s dreams of victory at Safari Rally Kenya collapsed today morning in the opening Loldia speed test.
The Belgian started the 11.33km stage with a lead of almost a minute in his Hyundai i20 over Japanese Takamoto Katsuta.
But Neuville and navigator Martijn Wydaeghe were in the 5th with 45sec slower than the Japanese driver and although their lead.
Elfin Evans was handed road-sweeping duties on the first pass through the 11.33km of the narrow and twisty Loldia stage and completed in 7min 49.4sec.
In SS16 Katsuta and Sébastien Ogier were joint lead of the rally with just two stages remaining.
Ogier was the quickest of the pair on the Malewa test, but only by 0.8sec.