Friday
World Rally Championship (WRC) leader Elfyn Evans led Safari Rally Kenya after a dramatic and attritional Friday leg, as frontrunner Ott Tänak fell foul of mechanical problems late in the day.
The Welshman, who arrived in Kenya with a 28-point championship lead, ended the day with a slender buffer over team-mate Kalle Rovanperä – a rear-right tyre deflation near the finish of the final stage being his only notable scare.
In true Safari fashion, few crews emerged unscathed from the rally’s first full day, which featured eight brutal gravel speed tests across the Great Rift Valley. Over half the Rally1 field suffered issues – a stark reminder of the rally’s unforgiving nature.
Rovanperä was just 7.7sec adrift in second and might have been leading himself but for a spin on a particularly narrow section of the Kedong stage
Tänak wasn’t the only Hyundai driver to hit trouble. Reigning champion Thierry Neuville’s day began with a one-minute penalty after his i20 N was delayed leaving service due to a gearbox change.
More issues followed – including a jump start (+10sec), a debeaded tyre, and a further 50sec penalty for lateness to SS8 after another technical glitch. Despite the setbacks, Neuville reached the overnight halt in fourth, 36.0sec behind Tänak.
Adrien Fourmaux, who had rejoined under restart rules following an electrical issue on Thursday, retired again when a front-right steering arm broke on SS7.
Saturday
Fortune favoured the Welshman once again as Africa’s legendary endurance test served up another brutal helping of carnage.
He is poised to extend his FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) lead after surviving a chaotic Saturday at Safari Rally Kenya, ending the penultimate leg with a hefty 1min 57.4sec advantage.
Conditions deteriorated on the repeated afternoon loop, and although Rovanperä clawed back 11.7sec from Evans on a sodden second pass of Sleeping Warrior, he arrived at the finish with a damaged rear suspension arm.
A makeshift roadside fix involving a ratchet strap kept him going, but with no choice but to back off through the final two stages, he dropped almost five minutes and slipped to fifth overall behind Ott Tänak, Thierry Neuville and Takamoto Katsuta.
Sami Pajari brought his Toyota home in a lonely sixth overall, 54.4sec behind Rovanperä but more than four minutes ahead of Grégoire Munster’s Ford Puma Rally1. Munster began the day in 11th and even bagged a stage win on SS15.
Sunday
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans clinched a second win of the World Rally Championship season to boost his title hopes after surviving the toughest Safari Rally since the event rejoined the calendar.
Evans and co-driver Scott Martin emerged from a gruelling 21-stage rally of attrition with victory by 1m09.9s from Hyundai’s Ott Tanak. Reigning world champion Thierry Neuville recovered to third, 3m32.0s off Evans, to mark Hyundai’s best-ever Safari result.
Evans’ victory was the first for a British driver at the Safari Rally since Colin McRae’s triumph in 2002.
Rovanpera’s hope of securing vital championship points were quashed on Sunday when an alternator issue forced him into retirement. His demise helped Tanak recover to second despite battling a misting windscreen and a puncture on Saturday.
Team-mate Adrien Fourmaux salvaged the maximum 10 points on Super Sunday after an electrical issue forced him to retire on Thursday.
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta appeared on course to finish a commendable fourth after battling through a bout of food poisoning and delays caused by six punctures through the event.
Katsuta displayed stunning pace in the wet and was on course to snatch third before the last of his puncture struck on stage 16. However, a dramatic roll on the final stage resulted in him crawling to the end of the final stage in fifth, 8m15.7s back, but it is unclear if he will reach the final time control.
Sami Pajari duly inherited fourth on Safari debut for Toyota after being among the drivers struck by punctures.
McErlean sat fourth on Friday but finished outside of the points-paying positions in 11th after losing almost 30 minutes while repairing a broken steering arm on Saturday.
Seventh-placed Gus Greensmith took the WRC2 honours from Jan Solans after title favourite Oliver Solberg retired when his Skoda became stuck in the fesh-fesh sand on stage seven.
