Kankkunnen forges ahead as Auriol hits trouble

Kankkunnen forges ahead as Auriol hits trouble

NAIROBI (Reuter): World champion Juha Kankkunen took a clear lead in the Safari Rally on Thursday's opening day after Toyota team mate and early leader Didier Auriol of France lost more than an hour through suspension trouble.

The Finnish driver, three-time past winner, opened up a six- minute lead over second placed Ian Duncan of Kenya, also driving a Toyota.

Auriol, competing in the Safari Rally for the first time, had rapidly gained an early lead. "Didier was going too fast. We let him go," said Kankkunen, who was three minutes behind after the opening stages.

But the Frenchman's luck soon ran out as he broke the front and rear suspension in separate incidents to be left languishing in 10th place at the end of the day.

Kenjiro Shinozuka of Japan, driving a Mitsubishi, was in third place.

The competitors face another 3,000 kilometres before the finish on Sunday. Leading placings 1. Juha Kankkunen (Fin) Toyota 3 hrs 37 minutes 2. Ian Duncan (Ken) Toyota 6 minutes behind 3. Kenjiro Shinozuka (Jap) Mitsubishi 16 4. Richard Burns (GB) Subaru 22 5. Patrick Njiru (Ken) Subaru 26 6. Satwant Singh (Zam) Toyota 47 7. Jonathan Toroitich (Ken) Toyota 54 8. Michael Hughes (Ken) Subaru 1:02 9. Rudi Stohl (Aut) Audi 1:05 10. Didier Auriol (Fra) Toyota 1:12