Rovanpera storms to WRC Safari Rally victory

The 21-year old has been in inspired form this season grabbing his fourth event win already and leading in the WRC standings with a commanding lead of 145 points.

“It feels great! I have to say, this was the hardest rally I have ever done and to be honest we just have to thank the team. To have four cars like this with no issues - it is clearly the strongest and fastest car. The team did a fantastic job.” An overjoyed Kalle remarked.

Elfyn Evans capped off a good weekend with a second position finish as Japanese driver Takamoto Katsuta claimed back to back podium finish in the Safari Rally after finishing second last year.

“First of all I have to say thank you so much to the team, everybody did a good job. It was a very tough weekend and I’m really happy for getting the last podium place” Takamoto said after securing position three.

Defending champion Sebastian Ogier finished fourth after finding it hard to replicate last year’s fine form, struggling with punctures as well as technical issues.

Hyundai’s mechanical problems cost them hugely with their drivers Thierry Neuville, Ott Tanak and Oliver Solberg all suffering various mechanical problems.

Neuville was the biggest loser as his troubles cost him a podium finish here in the Safari after flexing his elbows to sit third on the log by the start of Day three, behind the flying Toyota’s of Kalle Rovanpera and Elfyn Evans.

Neuville who overall has finished fourth in the WRC Safari rally seemed to blame his team for their troubles over the weekend.

“Since the beginning of the year we’ve spoken about technical problems race after race; not only one driver but every driver of the team, so somehow it’s difficult to keep confidence that we will stay without any trouble all day, it hasn’t been the case since the start of the year. We’ve seen that our expectations were right.” Neuville remarked.

Hyundai have had to deal with a myriad of issues from Tanak’s snapped gear lever to cooling problems to power steering fault as well as loss of power, all pointing that the team has lots to fix before the seventh round of the WRC which is in a fortnight’s time.

M-Sport have been another team that has a Safari Rally to forget with a series of retirements in various stages across the weekend. Their legendary driver and nine-time world champion Sebastian Loeb was the first casualty retiring at the SS5 with engine problems and a stage later in SS6 it was Andrien Fourmaux’s turn as he also retired. Craig Breen experienced less trouble in the Safari Rally and he finished a decent sixth.

Sebastian Loeb’s damage limitation after early retirement only got him into 8th position 1.56.1 behind Ford teammate Jourden Serderidis who impressively finished in the seventh position.

WRC2 winner Kajetan Kajetanowicz was eight and Oliver Solberg showed a lot of resilience to finish 10th overall.