At the end of leg one of the Safari Rally this afternoon, Abarth factory driver Andrea Navarra leads the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) classification, however his team mate Umberto Scandola was hit by bad luck and is out of the event.

Scandola was lying in a strong second place before he was forced into retirement after his engine overheated. It is thought that the Grande Punto's radiator filled up with sand and savannah grass as Scandola was running first on the road - leading to the car overheating. Abarth's engineers were waiting for the crew to return to service in order to find out the full story. There were no such problems though for his team mate Andrea Navarra, who returned to final service with his Grande Punto leading the IRC classification fully intact. In second place at the end of leg 2 is local driver Sammy Alsam in a Mitsubishi. After final service this afternoon, all the crews face a 120 kilometre long road section back to parc fermé in Nairobi.

The Safari Rally, the first round of the 2007 IRC got underway at 1500 hours local time yesterday with the ceremonial start in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Abarth´s rally team manager Nic Gullino was advising caution as his drivers crossed the start ramp first and second. Scandola's Grande Punto Abarth was the first off the ramp, followed by his team mate Andrea Navarra. The Safari Rally is new for both drivers, but for Abarth the African event represents a golden opportunity to score a useful haul of points at the very beginning of the season.

“One of the hardest parts of the event for us will be reminding our drivers that they are no longer in Europe,” said Gullino. “We expect them to finish the rally above everything else, so I think they know what they have to do. It's a question of taking things easily and driving within themselves.” The Abarth cars were flagged off the ramp by the vice-president of Kenya, Moody Awori.
 

Following the ceremonial start it was time for the traditional crowd pleasing opening "super special" stage, and it was Japanese Mitsubishi driver Hideaki Miyoshi who was quickest over the short all-asphalt test in Uhuru Park located in Nairobi city centre, going just one second quicker than the faster of the Abarth Grande Punto drivers, Navarra. Miyoshi, driving one of the latest-specification Group N Mitsubishi Lancers, has plenty of experience of Africa and he put it to good use throughout the first kilometre of the rally. “There was a fantastic atmosphere with huge crowds, both at the start of the event and also on the spectator superspecial,” commented the Japanese driver. “This is just a warm-up though: the real stages start tomorrow.” Navarra made a solid start in the Grande Punto, but his priority was more to entertain the crowds than to set fastest time. “I wanted to slide the car a bit and give people something to remember,” said the Italian. His team mate Umberto Scandola was just two seconds slower, comfortably within the top 10.

The Safari Rally, which will see a distance of 800 km (300 km of which is timed spread over 19 stages) covered by the crews, got underway in earnest this morning, and Navarra claimed an early rally advantage after the opening six stages, all of which were run to the north of Nairobi. The Italian said he was taking it carefully in the difficult and hot conditions, following his team’s instructions precisely. “I knew it was going to be tough, but it’s even more challenging than I expected,” said the Abarth driver. “One of the biggest problems we had was one I only realised this morning. We completed the recce in a large 4x4, where you have a really good view of the road ahead and all the potential traps. In the rally car though you are much lower down, so it is a lot more difficult to see the rocks and holes. It would be so easy to make a mistake in these conditions so there is no point in taking any risks.”

Navarra’s Grande Punto led from his team mate Scandola, but with no live timing available it was difficult to estimate by exactly how much. Scandola, however, believed that he had some way to go to catch his more experienced team mate. “I’m sure Andrea is quicker than me: this is my first gravel rally for a year and I’m really not pushing at all hard,” said the young Italian. “My objective is simply to get to the finish and I am not going to risk that. It’s one of the most difficult rallies I have ever done.” However it was not to be, and Scandola's rally ended abruptly this afternoon when all the crews faced a repeat of the morning’s loop of five stages, but with temperatures climbing even higher, and with most drivers not yet knowing the gaps to their key rivals, they had no choice but to push hard.