Toyota Gazoo Racing returns to victory, its first in the 2024 World Rally Championship, and does so in one of the terrains most congenial to the GR Yaris Rally1. Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen won the Safari Rally for the second consecutive year, thanks to a race they literally dominated right from the first special stage on Friday.
The reigning world champion crew, employed only part-time this year and therefore not fighting for the world title, won by making very good use of their starting position, the best possible one after missing their debut in Monte- Carlo and having retired at the Swedish Rally.
This success, however, is not only the result of luck and the rules, but also of perfect driving: fast when needed, careful in the most treacherous moments. When everyone else encountered problems, Rovanpera was free from trouble and thus deserved the victory.
Behind him was a whirlwind of emotions, punctures, accidents, technical problems and errors which mixed up the rankings. It is no coincidence that in second place we find Takamoto Katsuta, who thus gave the double to Toyota Gazoo Racing. For the Japanese, good at maintaining a very careful pace, it is yet another podium on Kenyan soil.
The person who gets on the podium in Nairobi for the first time is Adrien Fourmaux. The Frenchman from the M-Sport team continues to convince in a surprising way. Solid, fast enough to get on the bottom step of the podium but not in a reckless way. He too made good use of everything that happened to others to be able to do his race without too many risks and the result arrived: second consecutive podium of the season and an increasingly solid third place in the World Championship. Things went less well for Gregoire Munster. The Dutch driver, M-Sport's second official, made a mistake on Friday and ended up breaking the left rear suspension. For him it is the third retirement in as many events.
Tremendous weekend for the two drivers who, at least at the moment, are competing for the Drivers' world title. Elfyn Evans and Thierry Neuville did not go beyond fourth and fifth place. The Welshman was slowed down several times by several punctures (4 in three days of racing, 3 just yesterday), while Neuville had to deal first with a puncture, then with a fuel pump failure. Finally today with the breakage of the right rear suspension caused by the impact against a large rock left in the path while taking a left-hand bend.
The two competed on Sunday for the day's ranking which gave away further points, with the Belgian coming out on top by a whisker, closing the weekend as leader of the World Championship with 67 points against Evans' 61 and Fourmaux's 46. He will open the special stages of the Croatian Rally, the next event of the season.
While Neuville ran into several problems but still managed to finish the race without retiring, things went worse for Esapekka Lappi and Ott Tanak. The Finn was forced to retire on Friday due to a broken gearbox. On Sunday he had to deal with another transmission problem, but it only slowed him down.
The Estonian found a stone in the middle of a left-hand bend which catapulted his car into a bank of dirt on Friday, forcing him to retire. Tanak, thanks to good performances between Saturday and Sunday, managed to get back on top, so much so that he returned to the Top 10 and finished in eighth position behind the two Rally2 teams that dominated WRC2.
In this regard, Gus Greensmith authoritatively won the lower class at the wheel of the first Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 managed by the TokSport team. The Briton took advantage of his rivals' troubles to take off and go on to comfortably win the event ahead of teammate Oliver Solberg. The two completed the race in sixth and seventh place respectively in the general classification. Third position in WRC2 for Kajetan Kajetanowicz, again at the wheel of a Skoda Fabia RS Rally2.
Jourdan Serderidis, at the wheel of the third – but private – Ford Puma Rally1, managed to finish in the points in the Safari Rally, taking tenth place. His pace was certainly much slower than that of his rivals and the few participants in the event helped him bring home some championship points. For him, however, a great satisfaction.
The WRC returns in just under a month with the Croatian Rally, the second asphalt event of the season, which will be held from 19 to 21 April.
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