The first full day of this rally would see the crews tackle 137 kilometres over eight stages. There had already been two stages on Thursday afternoon with really tricky conditions in the first one and Oliver led from Elfyn by over thirty seconds with Seb a further thirty seconds back in third overall. Thierry was the best of the three Hyundai crews holding sixth overall, whilst Jon was seventh for M-Sport.

Onto Saturday then and unfortunately the first stage was cancelled, SS3 Camp Moran 2. This was the stage hit by huge rain and puddles on Thursday afternoon.

The first action then was in SS4 Loldia 1 and Seb set the pace from his teammate Sami, whilst Adrien was third. Oliver who was leading the rally was eighth fastest whilst his closest challenger for the lead, Elfyn, was sixth. The Frenchman reduced the gap to the front in this stage.

Next up then came SS5 Kengen Geothermal 1 and Sami set the pace from Seb and Elfyn in this one. Once again Oliver was near the bottom end of the top ten with the ninth best time and thirteen seconds off the pace. His two teammates had reduced the gap as well with Elfyn less than thirty seconds away and Seb now under forty seconds. It was an impressive stage win for the Finn as he suffered a puncture as well.

Sami also won SS6 Kedong 1, the stage with the jump near the tree, from Takamoto and Thierry was third fastest. Interestingly, Oliver beat both Seb and Elfyn in this stage going sixth fastest with Seb eighth and Elfyn tenth. There was no big-time gaps between the three of them meaning the gaps remained pretty much as they were at the end of Kengen.

After service the crews returned to SS7 Kedong 2 and Seb was fastest this time from Sami and Esapekka. There was a little bit of movement on the overall leaderboard as Seb passed Elfyn for second overall and despite a twenty second penalty Sami moved ahead of Takamoto. The Japanese driver sadly suffered double punctures on his front tyres, losing thirty-two seconds and falling to fifth overall.  At least he had two spares on-board to be able to change before the next stage. It was a good drive from Jon in this one who set the sixth best time, just four tenths of a second behind former M-Sport driver Adrien.

Then it was back to SS8 Kengen Geothermal 2 and once again Sami showed that he had this one figured out going fastest again from Seb and Thierry. With no spare tyres, Takamoto just took it easy going sixth fastest. There was some time loss for the rally leader though as Oliver had a puncture on the right-hand rear corner which then saw his lead reduced to just one second over Seb with Elfyn now just a further 4.7 seconds back. Also getting a puncture was Jon in his Puma and he fell one position overall to ninth as Esapekka moved into eighth.

Seb ended Sami’s run of fastest times, winning SS9 Loldia 2 from Adrien and Oliver who set the identical time of fourteen minutes, fourteen seconds and four tenths. Seb’s pace took him a little closer to his Swedish teammate, with just seven tenths of a second between them! There was some movement further down the leaderboard as both Thierry and Adrien passed Takamoto for sixth and seventh overall. There was more drama for Jon though who stopped in the stage for over twenty minutes. The reason was that he’d lost the rear and clipped something at the edge of the road and broke the driveshaft and a part of the suspension. He and co-driver Shane got it changed, but this left the Puma with front-wheel drive. They did make it through to the end which was important.

Onto the final stage then, SS10 Mzabibu 2 and Sami was once again setting the pace from Oliver and Seb. Oliver opened the gap to his world champion teammates to one second whilst Elfyn who remained in third overall saw the gap grow to just under twenty seconds.

Let’s take a look at the top ten positions and hear from the drivers.

Classification after Day One

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Oliver Solberg

“Today the goal was to try to be clean and keep a similar pace to Elfyn. This afternoon was so rocky, and for my first time in the car in these conditions it isn’t easy. We probably lost half our lead from being careful, and half the lead from the tyre damage in SS8. That was unfortunate but a lead is a lead and I have to be happy with that. Seb has been incredible today, probably taking more risks, but there’s such a long way to go and to be one second in front is better than two minutes behind.”

Sébastien Ogier

“I think I can be very happy with today, starting with a deficit of more than a minute and being only one second from the lead tonight. Of course, we always believed that we could come back after last night, but it felt like a long shot even here in Kenya. Now it’s all very open, so let’s see. I think we are all expecting that tomorrow is the biggest day of the rally with three very demanding stages, so many things can still happen, but we’ll try to keep the same approach and a strong rhythm.”

Elfyn Evans

“It’s been a bit of a mixed day for us. We gave away a bit of time at moments, some of it a bit unnecessarily, but that’s also the nature of this rally. We damaged a wheel in the first run through Kedong and dropped a bit of time with that. It’s been going OK but I wouldn’t say I’m happy. The stages that are coming tomorrow are prone to a lot of rain, especially in the afternoon, and conditions could be difficult already in the first pass. We’ll just keep trying to do the best we can.”

Sami Pajari

“It’s been a nice day for us. The conditions were relatively straightforward, and I just tried to choose the sections where I could push. I still felt that in the most tricky and rough places I was trying to back off. Still, we could set the fastest time in four of the stages and be very close in the others, and that was really nice to see. It’s not like we were just flat-out everywhere because that will end very quickly: you need to be clever too. That will be important too on tomorrow’s stages, where we’ve seen a lot of rain and drama before.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“This morning I was driving quite steady and not really pushing, but still the times were not too bad and the feeling in the car was good. Unfortunately, in the first stage of the afternoon we got the double puncture. That was really not ideal, and I just tried to survive the afternoon with so many rough sections knowing that we didn’t have any spare tyres. We’ve lost a few positions but a minute on this rally is almost nothing and we know that tomorrow anything can happen. Hopefully there will be some drama and I’m ready if it rains.”

Hyundai Motorsport

Thierry Neuville

“It has been an eventful day here in Kenya. I didn’t have the best start this morning, but when we got into a rhythm we felt more comfortable, especially this afternoon after we made some changes. The roads are more rutted, but I just couldn’t drive the car faster. We had a few troubles this afternoon with a stone causing our fan to break and our radiator to overheat. Tomorrow, we’re expecting the worst, although we’re not quite sure what that will be – so we need to focus on getting through, keeping a rhythm, accept the weather isn’t in our favour and do everything we can to stay out of trouble.”

Adrien Fourmaux

“I was really enjoying today – we had the pace, and we were able to do some very good times, so overall I am pleased. We were missing out on the fastest time by a few tenths each stage, but at least we were there and able to close the gap to those ahead of us. That is a positive, and let’s see what we can do tomorrow. We know many things can happen, so we just need to make sure we are performing well in the rain.”

Esapekka Lappi

“This morning it became clear that the settings I have on the car, which I chose myself, are not right, but there isn’t much we can do about the situation. Instead, we focused on what we can control, and were able to make it a bit better. Today we took a similar approach to yesterday – just try to survive until the finish.”

Saturday

The second full day of both morning and afternoon stages sees the crews tackle just under 123 kilometres over six stages, with the longest stage of the rally Soysambu as well at twenty-four kilometres run twice. There is also the possibility of rain arriving in the afternoon as well.

Who will be holding the top positions at the end of the day?

Time for the first round of this seasons championship on gravel and on some of the most iconic roads of Kenya. After their win last time out Elfyn and Scott lead the championship and will open the road throughout the stages on Friday.

This years edition has 350 kilometres over twenty stages. The action begins with shakedown on Thursday morning before two stages that afternoon which total just over 33 kilometres. Then Friday sees the most amount of stages at eight with almost 140 kilometres of action. Saturday is a little shorter with six stages and almost 123 kilometres of action whilst Sunday’s stages see the crews tackle four stages with just over 57 kilometres of action.

Let’s hear from the drivers.

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Elfyn Evans

“It’s been an incredible start to the year for the team, but we certainly can’t underestimate the challenges ahead of us, especially going into a rally like Safari. It can be a really unpredictable event: you can find rocks in the middle of the road or hidden in the grass, and when it rains there can be standing water and zero grip. It’s been a very successful rally for our team, which works hard to give us a strong car with modifications to help us in those tough conditions. Last year’s rally was quite extreme with the weather, and I was very happy to get through it and come away with the win for the first time. It won’t be an easy feat to repeat but that will be the target.”

Oliver Solberg

“Safari Rally Kenya is a rally that I love and I’m looking forward to doing it with the GR YARIS Rally1 car for the first time. It’s a very different type of rally to somewhere like Sweden or Estonia because it’s not about pure speed or finding the ultimate feeling with the car. There are some sections you can attack and have a lot of fun in the car, but you can’t do that everywhere, so you need to try to find a consistent and safe pace. The team has an amazing record in Kenya, and we can be confident that the car will be strong. The main goal is to have a clean rally and if you can do that, you can bank some very good points.”

Sébastien Ogier

“It will be a pleasure to return to Kenya after missing the last two editions of the Safari Rally. I look forward to being back in this beautiful country and seeing the excitement of the African fans, and it’s always a unique experience different to any other rally. It will be my first time being there at this earlier time of year, and it looks like it could be wetter than I’ve seen in the past. How you approach this rally depends a lot on the conditions you face, and these can evolve very quickly. It’s an event you need to start with humility, but the team has been in amazing form and Kenya has been good ground for us in the past, so let’s hope we can achieve another great result.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“It was enjoyable to be in the fight in Sweden and hopefully I can take this feeling forward to Kenya, even though that will be a very different challenge for everybody. For the Safari, you need to forget about driving flat-out like in Sweden and sacrifice some speed to try to manage everything. Despite this, it’s another rally that I really like, and it seems to suit me quite well. Our team has also been very good there and they are always providing us with a strong and reliable car for those tough conditions. It’s a special rally for me and for the team and we always feel great support, and I’m confident we can aim for another good result.”

Sami Pajari

“Sweden was a really nice rally for me with a solid performance and result, but Kenya will be a completely different and unique challenge. Doing the rally for the first-time last year was a real adventure. On some stages it’s more a matter of surviving, but there are others which are more fast and flowing. It’s a rally where I believe experience is playing quite a big role. Last year we had a clever approach and finished fourth, which was a good result for our first time, but I hope this year we can have more speed and fight for the podium positions, while still needing to be smart about where we push and where we back-off.”

Hyundai Motorsport

Thierry Neuville

“Safari Rally Kenya is one of the most demanding events on the calendar for both man and machine. It’s been a tough event for us, but last year we were able to secure our first podium, and that’s where we want to get back to. It’s hard to know what the conditions will be like but based on what we’ve had over the past few years, we expect a huge variety. Rain tends to be very localised, but it’s usually heavy across stages like Sleeping Warrior. As well as navigating the conditions, we must optimise our setup to protect the car as much as possible. Balancing reliability with the right setup is always a challenge, but avoiding punctures is an even bigger one. My goal is to have a trouble-free event; we can be fast in Kenya, but we’ve also struggled to get through without any issues. Hopefully this year we can bring home another strong result.”

Adrien Fourmaux

“Safari Rally Kenya is a unique event for our championship. Everything from pacenotes to the unpredictable weather are very different to other rallies, and they’re not necessarily things that we are used to. This event can be a mix of fesh-fesh, mud and deep puddles across rough sections – this can be very hard on both the car and the mechanics. Tyre management is crucial; we have to get the best out of them without doing too much damage. We’ll be fourth on the road in Kenya, which is a strong position for this event. It’s ideal because you avoid the destroyed roads you’d get starting further back, and you can also make the most of the lines in the road from the cars in front. Our target is to have a clean rally – avoid damaging the car and risking any punctures – so we can finish on the podium.”

Esapekka Lappi

“We’ve tried to maximise our preparations for Kenya by focussing on reliability, including enhancing our demisting system for the best visibility in wet conditions. Pure performance is not as crucial in Kenya, so we are at less of a disadvantage there. It’s difficult to prepare for the fesh-fesh as it’s almost impossible to find similar conditions in Europe, so it’s often just full throttle and fingers crossed. Enni hasn’t competed in Kenya before, but she did do a recce there two years ago, which gives her some understanding of what it’s like. Her most important preparation will be getting advice from our co-driver colleagues. I’d like to be in a position where we’re on the pace to fight for a good finish, but to do that we need a calm and collected approach.”

M-Sport Ford WRT

Josh McErlean

“Safari Rally is one of the toughest events of the year. The focus is on being smart, looking after the car and putting together a consistent performance. If we do that, we can come away with a really positive result.”

Jon Armstrong

“Kenya will be a unique challenge for me and Shane, as it’s our first time there it will be a lot to discover. As we work through our preparations and research, I can tell it’s not going to be easy, but we will give it our best shot and focus on keeping it as clean as we can! We recently spent time in the workshop preparing with the team and working on the car which was very valuable going into such a rough event.”

Romet Jürgenson (WRC2)

“Kenya will be a very different challenge compared to the rallies I’ve done in the past. Maybe Greece in my Junior WRC years compares a little, but it’s definitely an event where we have to think about the long game and getting through without major issues to secure a good position in the end. That will be our aim, to get the experience of this unique and great event and then just hope for the best result we can get.”

Summary

The action gets underway tomorrow with shakedown before the first two stages in the afternoon.

Who will take victory this year?