Rally
21-year-old Toyota driver Kalle Rovanperä added Safari Rally Kenya to his list of wins after a stellar drive during the WRC’s latest trip to Africa.
When you’ve got gravity on your side, there’s not much you can’t do. On Safari Rally Kenya’s Thursday night, Kalle Rovanperä was enormously grateful for Isaac Newton’s thinking on how mass works. For a nanosecond, the #69 Toyota teetered on the brink of falling over in a cloud of dust. Then, mercifully for the world championship leader, 1,350kg of Yaris Rally1 was tugged back down to planet earth.
Back on the throttle, this extraordinary 21-year-old Finn powered his way to a fourth win in five starts.
The heavy rain that ruined so many rallies on Saturday afternoon’s second run through the Sleeping Warrior stage didn’t bother Kalle. Don’t you know? He walks on water these days.
Surely, that’s how his rivals feel.
Stuck in the sand and forced to retire from Safari last season, Rovanperä didn’t put a foot wrong this time around. He was as quick as he was surefooted. If not quicker. The result of that? A 65-point lead in the drivers’ championship. And we’re not even halfway through the season.
If he fancied, he could sit out the next two rounds of the WRC and come back to Belgium’s Ypres Rally in late August and still be at the top of the table – regardless of what his competitors do.
He’s not going to do that. And here’s why: the WRC heads for Estonia and Finland next. He won Estonia last year and, er, he’s Finnish.
So what does he have to say about this astonishing position of utter dominance.
“It’s good,” he grinned. More than that please.
“It’s nice… a nice position to have.”
Rovanperä’s explanation of his brilliance is brief. He just does what he does.
Toyota domination
Two drivers looked like they could pose a serious challenge to Rovanperä – both were driving Toyotas. Last year’s Safari winner Sébastien Ogier led early on, but stopping to change a puncture cost him the lead and left him fourth. There would be no epic French fightback from a two-and-a-half-minute time loss this time around.
The frustration was writ large on the defending world champion’s face. He loved this rally last year, even more so when he topped the podium. He still loves this rally, but fourth doesn’t bring the same smile as first.
Elfyn Evans was the other. The Welshman was P1 for one stage, but couldn’t find an answer to his team-mate’s merciless pace and consistency.
Toyota’s dream result was completed by Takamoto Katsuta, who secured third. A one-two-three-four result went the way of the Japanese marque for the first time since Kenya in 1993.
Just as Rovanperä is looking invincible in the drivers’, so Toyota is easing clear of rival Hyundai – 62 points separate first from second in the makes’ race.
The Safari’s no picnic
Talking to technical directors at the top of the WRC’s first-ever hybrid season on a sunny dock of the Monaco bay back in January, there was one event which stood out. One event which stopped them in their tracks and forced them to swallow hard. Safari Rally Kenya.
“If any of us has got it wrong,” said one of the WRC’s finest technical brains, “we’ll know after three days in Africa.”
How right they were. Hyundai Motorsport and M-Sport Ford both struggled to keep up with Toyota. Both suffered a myriad of technical issues, related mostly to the dust and horribly rough terrain.
Thierry Neuville was the nearest non-Toyota. He’d hauled a powerless i20 through the dust, suffered punctures on the rocks, parked it against a tree, retired and still returned to land fifth.
“There’s not much to say,” offered the disconsolate Belgian at the finish. “The situation is very obvious. I am disappointed for myself, but I am also really disappointed for the mechanics in the team – they are all working so hard, but they’re not getting anything back.”
Just as he had been on his previous Puma outing in Portugal, Sébastien Loeb was right at the front when he retired. This time, there wasn’t a wall in sight – but an engine fire and a lack of battery power left his Ford stranded on the long road back to Naivasha.
Craig Breen was M-Sport Ford’s top finisher in sixth. Like Neuville, he’d retired, taken a penalty and returned after bending the Puma’s steering on Friday’s final test.
The modern-day Safari might not be the marathon of days gone by, but there’s no denying the rough, rocky roads north of Nairobi still pose a massive challenge.
Just not one big enough to knock Rovanperä out of his stride.
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