Evans wins brutal Safari Rally to spice up WRC title bid

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans clinched a second win of the World Rally Championship season to spice up his title hopes after surviving the hardest Safari Rally for the reason that occasion 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 3rd, 3m32.0s off Evans, to mark Hyundai’s best-ever Safari outcome.

Evans’ victory was the primary for a British driver on the Safari Rally since Colin McRae’s triumph in 2002. It got here throughout an occasion the place WRC drivers remained silent at stage-end interviews till the Energy Stage in response to the FIA’s clampdown on drivers utilizing inappropriate language.

Whereas Toyota maintained its 100% profitable report in Kenya since its WRC return in 2021, it was removed from plain crusing for Evans and the Japanese model.

This 12 months’s prolonged 384km version of the occasion offered a mix of brutal roads and wild climate, testing drivers and machines to the restrict. Evans was the one Rally1 driver to keep away from a serious mechanical subject throughout the occasion, nevertheless it wasn’t straightforward for the Welshman.

Evans led the rally after profitable Thursday’s tremendous particular stage in Kenya’s capital Nairobi however dropped to fifth after stage two. Evans rapidly shot up the leaderboard to sit down second, 24.4s behind Tanak, who dominated Friday morning by profitable three of the 4 levels.

The lead modified on stage 9 when Tanak’s i20 N, operating with out the 2025 upgrades, suffered a driveshaft failure that promoted Evans to the lead. Evans was by no means headed regardless of struggling two punctures, and a few spins when torrential rain created a number of the worst situations within the occasion’s historical past on Saturday.

There was then a short scare on Sunday morning when Evans’ Toyota developed a difficulty which was fastened on a street part.

Evans opted to not assault for Tremendous Sunday and Energy Stage factors however nonetheless left the occasion with 27 factors to maneuver right into a 36-point lead over Neuville – the most important margin for a driver after three rounds in WRC historical past.

Tanak’s driveshaft subject initially dropped the 2019 world champion to 3rd, 55.4s from the lead, as Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera climbed to second, 7.7s behind Evans.

Nonetheless, Rovanpera’s rally started to unravel on Saturday morning when the two-time Safari winner picked up two punctures, the second coming from hitting a rock whereas leaving the street to keep away from a herd of zebras.

One other collision with a rock within the waterlogged stage 14 [Sleeping Warrior] broken his Toyota’s left-rear suspension, prompting a makeshift restore with using ratchet straps. The Finn dropped greater than six minutes nursing his automobile again to service in fifth place.

Rovanpera’s hope of securing important championship factors have been quashed on Sunday when an alternator subject pressured him into retirement. His demise helped Tanak get better to second regardless of battling a misting windscreen and a puncture on Saturday.

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photograph by: Pink Bull Content material Pool

Neuville inherited third after a chaotic begin to the rally for the defending champion, which started with a 20-second loss to a driveshaft subject on stage two. Hyundai opted to vary the transmission as a precaution, so Neuville was late arriving to stage 3 and was hit with a one-minute penalty. A leap begin in stage 5, adopted by a late examine into stage eight because of a cooling subject, meant Neuville amassed two minutes’ value of time penalties.

Neuville, who was additionally battling sickness, was capable of survive a wild Saturday and Sunday’s remaining levels to assert third. Crew-mate Adrien Fourmaux salvaged the utmost 10 factors on Tremendous Sunday after {an electrical} subject pressured him to retire on Thursday, which was adopted by damaged suspension that dominated him out of Friday.

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta appeared heading in the right direction to complete a commendable fourth after battling by means of a bout of meals poisoning and delays attributable to six punctures by means of the occasion. Katsuta displayed beautiful tempo within the moist and was heading in the right direction to grab third earlier than the final of his puncture struck on stage 16. Nonetheless, a dramatic roll on the ultimate stage resulted in him crawling to the tip of the ultimate stage in fifth, 8m15.7s again, however it’s unclear if he’ll attain the ultimate time management.

Sami Pajari duly inherited fourth on Safari debut for Toyota after being among the many drivers struck by punctures.

Gregoire Munster led M-Sport-Ford’s cost, operating as excessive as third on Thursday earlier than a sequence of punctures, a suspension failure and a gearbox subject resulted within the Luxembourger recovering to sixth, 11m35.3s off the win. Crew-mate Josh McErlean sat fourth on Friday however completed outdoors of the points-paying positions in eleventh after dropping nearly half-hour whereas repairing a damaged steering arm on Saturday.

Seventh-placed Gus Greensmith took the WRC2 honours from Jan Solans after title favorite Oliver Solberg retired when his Skoda grew to become caught within the fesh-fesh sand on stage seven.

Images Rally Kenya Day 4