Four-time world champion Tommi Makinen leads the Kenya Safari Rally after Friday's opening day which claimed no fewer than a dozen casualties. The Finnish Subaru driver, who took two of the four special stages, has a 16 second advantage over Scot Colin McRae in a Ford Focus, with Spain's Carlos Sainz placed third, three minutes adrift.
But out of contention is Makinen's compatriot Marcus Gronholm, the world championship series leader, who failed to break his jinx here after his Peugeot 206 engine seized in the first stage at Ngema, some 70 kilometres north of Nairobi.
The Hyundai team, competing in their first ever Safari Rally, suffered a double blow when their top drivers, Armin Schwarz of Germany and Belgium's Fred Loix, were also forced to retire in the killer stage. Schwarz lost the turbo boost pressure on his car after just 12 kilometres of the competitive stage while Loix retired when his clutch failed.
Other early victims included Mitsubishi drivers Francois Delecour of France and Jean-Pierre Richelmi. The rally suffered its first accident when Kenyans Shanawaz Murji and Mo Verjee hit a ditch and rolled in their Subaru. Both were rushed to hospital with back injuries. Defending champion McRae took the other two special stages.
Filed by Shane Murray
