NAIROBI, March 12 (Reuters) - Oliver Solberg led Toyota teammates Elfyn Evans and Sebastien Ogier after the opening two stages of a wet and muddy Kenya Safari Rally on Thursday with the Japanese manufacturer filling the top five places.
The Swede battled over rough and rutted roads to lead last year's winner Evans by 33.3 seconds, with nine-times world champion Ogier more than a minute off the pace.
“I gained much more time than I expected in the first stage," said Solberg. "The conditions were so tricky, switching from dry to full mud and standing water.
"We’ll have to do this crazy stage again first thing in the morning, so we’ve just got to be smart and keep the same rhythm and see what’s possible.”
The only African round of the World Rally Championship featured a 24.35 km opening stage, with Solberg winning it by 30 seconds.
Ogier then took the 8.86 km second "Mzabibu" stage with Solberg fourth but increasing his rally lead by a further 3.3.
"With the rain that we faced in the first stage, I think we can be happy to be only a minute from the lead," said Ogier.
"Those starting around us lost a minute more than we did, so it looks as though we did a decent job to get through those particular conditions."
Evans said he had struggled in places to see through the mud on the windscreen after running out of washer fluid.
Japan's Takamoto Katsuta and Finland's Sami Pajari were fourth and fifth withBelgian Thierry Neuville in sixth place for Hyundai.
"I think all three Hyundais overheated - the radiator’s full of mud. I tried to clean it before the stage but there was still too much dirt on it,” said Neuville.
Friday's second leg, the first full day, features eight stages totalling 125 km, with a trio of stages around Lake Naivasha run twice with a midday service stop in between.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
