Sebastian Ogier shines on day two of WRC

The 2021 WRC Safari Rally Kenya winner Sebastien Ogier. [File, Standard]

The World Championship rally has entered the second day of competition with drivers covering 125 kilometres through Loldia, Geothermal and Kedong.

In the seven stages that were covered today, 2021 rally champion Frenchman, Sebastien Ogier navigated by Vincent Landais topped in four of them with their Toyota Gazoo Racing Yaris.

"It's been a good day. Except for the hybrid issue this morning we had a perfect day, so we can be happy," remarked Ogier.

Ogier outpaced Kalle Rovanpera with 15.3 seconds although Rovanpera had a 2.5 seconds head start in the Loldia 2 stage.

Still, on the same stage, Pierre-Louis Loubet lost three minutes of his time due to a broken wheel which he had to stop 11.3 kilometres into the stage to change it.

"Under braking, in the middle, there was a big step and we broke the wheel there," said Loubet.

Esapekka Lappi and Rovanpera won in the Geothermal 1 and Kedong 1 stages respectively.

Ott Tanak experienced a rough day since he had a puncture in the morning making him drop around two minutes. He is still celebrated because he topped on Thursday in the Super Special Kasarani stage.

Toyota recorded the highest number of drivers in the top six list from each stage with victory circulating amongst Ogier, Rovanpera, Evans and Katsuta.

A major difficulty that most drivers pointed out during the afternoon race is a lack of grip since it was drying up therefore the route was more slippery.

"When the stage was drying up it got much slippery. I think we made a small mistake on the set-up because we expected to have more grip in the afternoon," said Rovanpera.

Kenyan Hamza Anwar, Wahome, Davite and two others were slowed down with late check-in penalties.

Three of the drivers, Oliver Solberg, Minesh Rathod and Thierry Neuville have retired from the race due to mechanical issues. Neuville's Hyundai experienced front-left suspension damage.