Sebastien Ogier held through in FIA WRC Safari Rally ahead of Kalle Rovanpera and Elfyn Evans in a Toyota 1-2-3-4 finish.
Thursday –
Thousands of fans flocked to the outskirts of Nairobi on Thursday afternoon to witness Ott Tänak take the quickest time through the Kasarani super special stage and claim the early lead at Safari Rally Kenya. Fans were vying for every vantage point possible as the 70th edition of the iconic Safari Rally Kenya got underway on a purpose-built stage on the edge of the nation’s capital following the ceremonial start in downtown Nairobi.
It was M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tänak claiming the quickest time through the 4.84km super special, going 0.1sec quicker than 2021 Safari winner Sébastien Ogier in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. Completing the top three in another Yaris was Ogier’s team-mate and 2022 Safari winner, Kalle Rovanperä, who was simply relieved to make it through the opening test of the weekend – a near-roll on the same stage 12 months ago still fresh in his memory.
Winner last time out on Sardinia, Thierry Neuville was the best of the Hyundai Motorsport drivers, completing the stage fourth overall, whilst it was Welshman Elfyn Evans in Toyota Gazoo Racing’s third manufacturer points-scoring Yaris rounding out the top five. Sitting just outside of the top five were Esapekka Lappi and Takamoto Katsuta, both of whom will be feeling more settled after each suffered separate setbacks during shakedown on Wednesday. Lappi’s i20 N sustained a broken propshaft while Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston walked away unscathed from a jarring roll.
Dani Sordo initially appeared to have claimed seventh-fastest overall but he incurred a 10sec penalty for a jump start, dropping the Hyundai pilot down to 16th overall. This pushed Pierre-Louis Loubet in his M-Sport Ford Puma up one spot while Oliver Solberg, driving a Rally2-specification Škoda Fabia – albeit not scoring WRC2 points this weekend = snuck in ahead of the Puma of Jourdan Serderidis, who completed the top 10.
Friday –
Sébastien Ogier was the pride of the plains on Friday at Safari Rally Kenya as he recovered from a minor morning setback to build a commanding overnight lead. The Frenchman showed his rivals a clean pair of heels on the opening day of action and had established a double-digit lead just three special stages into this seventh round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
A hybrid unit fault hindered the eight-time world champion late in the morning, however, slicing his buffer to just 2.5sec over team-mate Kalle Rovanperä before the midday service in Naivasha. But that failed to deter Ogier, who gambled by carrying only one spare wheel aboard his Toyota GR Yaris for the repeated afternoon loop. Those weight-saving tactics clearly worked wonders as he romped to a hat-trick of benchmark stage times, ending the day 22.8sec clear of Rovanperä at the sharp end of a Toyota 1-2-3.
Championship leader Rovanperä found understeer an issue particularly over the second half of the day, the road-opening Finn forced to pave a new line in the rutted sandy tracks. His colleague Elfyn Evans completed the early podium 20.7sec behind on a day which the Welshman admitted he approached too cautiously.
Thierry Neuville had been Hyundai’s leading light for much of the day but the Belgian retired in the penultimate test when a heavy compression destroyed the front-left suspension on his i20 N. Safari debutant Esapekka Lappi, driving a similar car, inherited the position and trailed Evans by 10.5sec at close of play, passing Takamoto Katsuta in the process. Katsuta donned his mechanics gloves after SS3 to replace a damaged steering arm on his Toyota.
He heads sixth-placed Hyundai man Dani Sordo by just 9.0sec approaching Saturday after a dramatic finale saw him clip a tree branch and also sustain tyre damage. M-Sport Ford drivers Ott Tänak and Pierre-Louis Loubet had a day to forget. Both lay several minutes back from the lead in seventh and eighth overall after carrying out mid-stage wheel changes, although their second-tier colleague Grégoire Munster gave the British team something to smile about by leading the WRC2 category from Kajetan Kajetanowicz in a Fiesta Rally2.
Saturday –
Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mates Sébastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä will go head-to-head for Safari Rally Kenya supremacy after Saturday’s final stage blew the victory fight wide open. On a day when Toyota GR Yaris cars topped the timesheets in every single stage, Ogier looked set to end this penultimate leg comfortably in front of his championship-leading colleague, the Frenchman happy to measure his pace and keep a watchful eye on those behind after overcoming tyre damage in SS8.
But a sudden downpour in the closing 31.04km Sleeping Warrior caused chaos. The dry and dusty roads quickly turned to mud and offered minimal grip in conditions akin to ice. Ogier, the last of the of the Rally1 cars into the stage, was perhaps hit harder by the conditions than any of his rivals, limping to the finish line with two slow punctures. It meant the Frenchman’s advantage was sliced in half after conceding more than 15sec and he will start Sunday’s six-stage finale just 16.7sec clear at the top.
A repeat 1-2-3-4 Safari finish looks all but guaranteed for Toyota, but which driver will be heading it come tomorrow afternoon is anybody’s guess. There was more drama in the battle for the final podium spot after Esapekka Lappi, who held the place until SS12, retired his Hyundai i20 N with suspected propshaft failure.
Elfyn Evans inherited the position before being passed by Takamoto Katsuta, although the Welshman fared better in the wet weather conditions and moved back in front. 16.7sec split the Toyota-driving duo at close of play, with Rovanperä more than two minutes further up the road. Lappi’s demise, coupled with Thierry Neuville’s Friday retirement, means that Hyundai’s hopes now rest on Dani Sordo’s shoulders.
The Spaniard trailed Evans by 1min 12.3sec to hold fifth overnight with Ott Tänak almost five minutes behind. Tänak’s Safari frustrations continued when he and co-driver Martin Järveoja stopped in Soysambu 2 to carry out their second wheel change of the weekend. Pierre-Louis Loubet, driving a similar M-Sport Ford Puma, held seventh despite a run-in with a bush in SS10.
Grégoire Munster’s retirement handed the WRC2 lead to Kajetan Kajetanowicz, now eighth overall. Neuville climbed to ninth by the day’s end while Oliver Solberg, who is not registered to score WRC2 points this week, completed the leaderboard.
Sunday –
Sébastien Ogier defied team-mate Kalle Rovanperä’s charge to head home a dream 1-2-3-4 finish for Toyota Gazoo Racing on a spectacular final day at Safari Rally Kenya. Ogier recorded his third victory from just five starts so far this season but his rally very nearly unravelled in Sunday’s second special stage when a patch of Kenya’s infamous fesh-fesh sand sent his GR Yaris car wide on a right-hand bend.
The Frenchman, fighting hard to recover time lost to Rovanperä in the rocky opener, clipped a tree and ripped off his car’s entire rear tailgate. Amazingly winning the stage and making all the time back, he then patched the gap using a bin liner to keep dust at bay in Hell’s Gate 1.
More permanent repairs in service did not extinguish the drama, however, as all four Yaris crews completed the penultimate blast with dust-induced overheating engines. Ogier, one of the hardest hit, saw his lead whittled down to just 9.2sec before the Wolf Power Stage finale, where the eight-time world champion’s run was again without incident, arriving at the flying finish with a cracked windscreen.
Despite the late incident, he was able to triumph by 6.7sec after four brutal days to spearhead Toyota’s second clean sweep in as many Safari Rally editions. President William Ruto presented Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais with their trophies, commemorating Ogier’s second win at the event, amid stunning scenery at Hell’s Gate.
Finishing as runner-up felt like a personal victory for the title-defending Rovanperä, who extended his championship lead to 37 points after round seven of 13. Takamoto Katsuta’s hopes of surpassing team-mate Elfyn Evans and achieving a third Safari Rally podium vanished when his car’s hybrid unit stopped working, sapping vital performance. He settled for fourth overall, 25.3sec back from the Toyota-driving Welshman with Ogier and Rovanperä more than two minutes up the road.
Dani Sordo overcame power steering failure in SS16 to finish an isolated fifth at the end of a testing weekend for Hyundai Motorsport, which now trails Toyota by 42 points in the manufacturers’ title race. Early podium challenger Esapekka Lappi was way down the order after being plagued by transmission issues in his i20 N while Thierry Neuville, recovering from suspension failure on Friday, could only muster eighth.
Tyre troubles earlier in the rally prevented M-Sport Ford Puma drivers Ott Tänak and Pierre-Louis Loubet from mounting any form of attack. They finished sixth and seventh respectively. Eighth-placed Kajetan Kajetanowicz secured his second Kenyan WRC2 victory in a Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo. Oliver Solberg was not nominated to score points in the support category but finished ninth overall while Martin Prokop completed the top 10.
Here’s WRC Safari Rally results: https://www.wrc.com/en/wrcplus/live-timing/
UPDATE: Thierry Neuville has been disqualified from Safari Rally Kenya on Sunday evening after event stewards found the Belgian to have conducted illegal recce activities during the rally. The Hyundai Motorsport driver finished eighth overall at the FIA World Rally Championship’s seventh round but was disqualified by event stewards following a hearing at the rally base in Naivasha.
The stewards summarised the finding of the report received from the clerk of course that was initiated independently by the Safari Rally organisers. It indicated instances where an unauthorised person was seen, after reconnaissance, to be driving on routes that would be used as special stages over the course of the rally.
The person was on private property without authorisation and was stopped by Officials in two locations on two different days. The evidence presented to the stewards indicated links of this person to Neuville. When asked, Neuville promptly admitted to the stewards that he was aware of the identified person and that he had requested this person’s support in identifying specific concerns (areas where rocks had moved) in some special stages.
Article 35.4.2 of the 2023 FIA WRC Sporting Regulations, states that: “After the publication of the Supplementary Regulations, only with the express authorisation of the Clerk of the Course and the FIA Rally Department may any person connected with an entered crew travel on or over the route of a special stage of the rally (except on foot). This rule shall apply until that special stage is terminated, open for public traffic and will no longer be used within the rally.”
In another late Sunday evening stewards decision Oliver Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson were penalised two minutes for using one tyre more than their allotted number of 26. The two minute penalty had no impact on the pairing’s overall standing with Martin Prokop still nearly nine minutes in arrears. The disqualification of Neuville moved Solberg into ninth overall.
[Note: The story is as per press release]