WRC: Sebastien Ogier leads early stages of Safari Rally

The Safari Rally is underway this weekend and Sebastien Ogier has laid down an early marker with the Frenchman seeing off Sebastien Loeb in the super special opening stage, though the latter hit back by winning stage two.

Ogier is defending his Safari Rally crown this weekend and has started as he means to go on, by taking an early lead in Kenya.

The super special stage was hosted by the country’s capital city of Nairobi, with Ogier and Loeb going head to head on the 4.84km course.

Whilst Ogier came out on top, Thierry Neuville was actually second-fastest, just 0.6 seconds off of the fastest time.

Standings leader Kalle Rovanpera got off to a difficult start, meanwhile, with him losing 11.6 seconds to Ogier after picking up a puncture following a near-roll at the first corner.

Stage two, meanwhile, has just been completed and Ogier maintains the overall lead but it’s incredibly tight at the top, with Loeb winning the stage.

He took victory by just two tenths of a second from Elfyn Evans, whilst Ogier was five-tenths off the ultimate pace, meaning he’s still on top overall at this early stage.

His lead is slim, though, with Evans 0.9 seconds back and Loeb 1.3 seconds off, so the margin for error right now is about as small as it can get.

Five more stages are due to take place today in the African nation.