It’s been nineteen years in the making, but the Safari Rally Kenya (24-27 June) is finally here. The year’s most eagerly awaited event on the FIA World Rally Championship calendar didn’t disappoint. The rally that was famously known for its gruelling nature has lost none of what once made it great. After Thursday and Friday’s running, it is Hyundai Motorsport’s Thierry Neuville who leads the way. His fortune comes in the wake of several championship protagonists succumbing to the Safari stages.
On Thursday afternoon, Safari Rally Kenya officially marked its return to the WRC circus with a Super Special Stage on the outskirts of Nairobi. The stage featured a purpose-built 4.84km track full of sweeping curves and exciting jumps in front of excitable crowds. Those crowds had the pleasure of seeing WRC stars take to the stage in a head to head style format.
The stage led to a frighteningly close result in the standings, with the Toyota Gazoo Racing squad heading the field with a 1-2-3. Championship leader Sébastien Ogier led his young Finnish teammate Kalle Rovanperä by just 0.3 seconds! Following behind the Toyota trio was Ott Tänak in fourth, Thierry Neuville in fifth and Takamoto Katsuta in sixth.
Drama, drama, and yet more drama is what awaited the WRC’s top guns throughout Friday’s action. Several big names suffered issues, from the alarming to fatal during Friday’s running, with harsh luck seeming to befall upon everyone’s shoulders. Championship leader Ogier suffered an oil loss in a rear damper on the longest stage of the weekend (Stage 3). This setback contributed to his near 2-minute deficit to the Rally leader come to the end of the day. Welshman Elfyn Evans suffered an even worse fate, retiring for the day just 300 metres from the end of SS3, a rock hitting his front right wheel being his downfall.
Dani Sordo came a cropper in the same stage, a stone smashed a suspension arm on his Hyundai i20, sending him sideways and buried in a ditch. His Belgian teammate Neuville suffered no such issues on Friday morning, taking the first two Stage victories and an early rally lead.