How Rovanpera tamed a wild Safari Rally

If you were among those that completed the 2022 Safari Rally, then you could count yourself very lucky indeed, or you were driving a Toyota. The second edition of the World Rally Championship’s revamped Kenya adventure was far more akin to the punishing marathon of old, where merely finishing this trip into the wilderness is an achievement.

After its return to the WRC calendar 12 months following a 19-year hiatus, organisers were happy, but felt it needed to be tougher. On reflection the rally organisers can tick that box as all the crews, and Hyundai and M-Sport in particular, can attest. But, perhaps Hyundai’s Oliver Solberg summed it best, saying: “This is proper rallying”.

While this was a wilder Safari, it couldn’t tame the WRC’s new force of nature Kalle Rovanpera. The Finn took his fourth win from six rounds (and, incredibly, his third opening the roads), despite facing a bolstered entry list that included last year’s Safari winner Sebastien Ogier, back with Toyota, and nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb, who rejoined M-Sport for a second taste of Kenya, 20 years after his first. But even rallying's new wonder kid admitted it was the “hardest” of his career to date.

It was a landmark achievement on two fronts, as Rovanpera headed a Toyota 1-2-3-4, a feat the marque last achieved at the 1993 Safari Rally, won by Juha Kankkunen. It also underlined just how bulletproof the GR Yaris is as the Safari did its best to highlight weaknesses for rivals Hyundai and M-Sport.

Rovanpera led a Toyota 1-2-3-4, the first time the marque had achieved the feat since the 1993 Safari Rally

Photo by: Toyota Racing

The Safari Rally is deeply ingrained in Kenya’s heritage and culture, virtue of the event being the nation’s largest sporting fixture since it was inaugurated in 1953 (when it celebrated the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II). And with COVID-19 restrictions largely reduced since last year’s event, it was no surprise thousands of rally mad locals gathered in Nairobi city centre to greet the drivers as Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta waved off crews, following a party-like opening ceremony.

This atmosphere spilled over into the opening stage held in the grounds of the national sporting stadium, where the hordes of spectators were treated to a true Ogier versus Loeb battle, as the pair were pitched together in the head-to-head Super Special. After emerging from clouds of red dust, it was Ogier who managed to get one over on M-Sport’s Loeb in the duel to hold a 0.6-second overnight lead over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville. Rovanpera was 11th, some 11.6s adrift after almost rolling his GR Yaris, which inflicted a rear puncture. “Nothing really happened, but we had a puncture,” said Rovanpera. “That was a big shame. Let’s try to focus on the weekend now.”

And focus on the weekend he did. By the end of a frantic Friday that offered a glimpse into the gruelling four-day slog for survival, Rovanpera had turned that deficit into a 14.6s lead. Before that, though, it seemed the day would be a battle between Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Loeb.

"I was lost in my own dust! I had a hairpin and it was full of dust and I didn't know where to go" Sebastien Loeb

Loeb (now 48) once again outlined his greatness by winning the first stage proper despite damaging the left rear of his Puma after clipping a tree while correcting a pacenote. There were, however, bigger problems on the horizon for the Frenchman on stage four, where Kenya’s infamous fesh-fesh sand made it difficult to navigate. "I was lost in my own dust! I had a hairpin and it was full of dust and I didn't know where to go,” said Loeb. “The end of the stage is rougher and rougher, so I am not sure we can get through on the second pass.”

Loeb would not reach the second pass as a small fire broke out in the engine bay at the end of the stage. Once extinguished by co-driver Isabelle Galmiche, the engine couldn’t be restarted, leaving the Puma reduced to EV power for the trip back to service in Naivasha. Unfortunately, the battery depleted itself with help just five kilometres away. Loeb would return on Saturday.

All drivers struggled in the fesh-fesh sand in Kenya

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Loeb’s demise was just one part of an M-Sport collapse. Gus Greensmith, sitting fourth overall, one spot behind Loeb, had suffered a right-rear puncture that cost him 13 minutes to fix just moments earlier. And on the following test, team-mate Adrien Fourmaux, sitting eighth, retired following a transmission failure.

That left Craig Breen as the sole works Puma in the fight until Friday’s last stage when a puncture followed by a broken steering arm sent him into retirement from sixth spot, effectively ending the team’s podium hopes after one day. “I can’t remember when we lost all three points-scoring cars on the first day,” said M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson. “Unfortunately the piece that failed [on Loeb's car] probably cost about 10p.”

Hyundai didn’t fare much better. While Ott Tanak was blasting through Kenya’s Savannah, his gear lever snapped off in his hands, costing him 36.4s on day’s first stage. Quick thinking from the 2019 world champion ensured a fix was made by attaching a wheel brace to the remains of the lever. “The lever is gone and you need to figure out how to continue, panicking is never going to take you forward,” said Tanak. “We are fighting more with the rally itself than the other guys, it is quite a big challenge.”

Neuville, meanwhile, suffered gearbox issues before his i20 N ingested a large gulp of fesh-fesh sand that reduced his engine power. A left-front puncture during the day’s last stage also cost him time. The third Hyundai entry driven by Solberg was not without its mechanical issues, but reached the end of the day in seventh despite Solberg admitting it was “the roughest ride” of his life.

At the front, Toyota dominated as Ogier led the way before briefly handing the lead to Evans after his Toyota inbox ingested some sand. A puncture for Evans allowed Ogier to reclaim the lead, only for drama to strike on the day's final stage, a test that teams had questioned whether it should go ahead given how difficult it was for cars to tip-toe through the sand. The Frenchman suffered a left-rear puncture – his fourth in three rallies – costing him two minutes, dropping him from the lead to sixth behind Tanak and Neuville. “It is always frustrating when there is nothing you can do differently, once again I lost the Pirelli lottery,” said Ogier.

There were no such problems for Rovanpera, who scored three stage wins, his time on stage seven firing him into a 14.6s lead over Takamoto Katsuta, with Evans third.

Ogier "lost the Pirelli lottery" again as his charge was halted by a puncture

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

It was Saturday’s six stage leg where the fight for victory turned into a two-horse race. Evans managed to leapfrog Katsuta, who would lose further time to a puncture, to move into second spot, and the Welshman set his sights on Rovanpera.

Evans managed to reduce the gap to 15s but, similar to Rally Portugal in May, Rovanpera conjured up another piece of magic when a rain shower turned the once dry gravel into a mud bath. The Finn was brave in desperately difficult conditions as he drifted through the mud to put clear daylight between himself and Evans, with a 40.3s lead after stage 13. Evans was, however, severely hampered by a windscreen wiper issue that left him peering through a muddy screen.

Rovanpera, who started the day feeling unwell, felt his recent outings in drifting events helped give him an edge, but he wasn’t about to get complacent. “I was using some techniques with the throttle that I use in drifting,” he said. “As we have seen here, nothing is OK [in terms of the lead] until the finish line.”

Toyota locked out the top four positions as Ogier climbed to fourth when Hyundai’s reliability woes were laid bare once again. Tanak retired from fourth after grinding to a halt with a transmission issue on stage 10. He would return on Sunday before a power-steering failure ended his rally.

"We were stuck in the car for three minutes because the marshals wouldn’t help. If the car was green, which it was, there is no reason why the marshals shouldn’t have helped" Gus Greensmith

It was also a familiar tale of heartbreak for Neuville when an alternator failed, requiring him to turn mechanic again to fix. The effort came to nothing as his i20 N’s engine flooded in the afternoon’s wet stages, costing him four minutes. The Belgian managed to coax the engine back to life only to hit a tree 200 metres further into the stage.

At M-Sport, Kenya continued to bite hard. Greensmith retired his Puma after a slow roll damaged his engine’s cooling. The Briton was forced to kick the windscreen out of his car to allow himself and co-driver to exit the vehicle while marshals refused to help despite the car showing a ‘safe to touch’ green light. “We were stuck in the car for three minutes because the marshals wouldn’t help,” said an angry Greensmith. “If the car was green, which it was, there is no reason why the marshals shouldn’t have helped.” It did provide a ‘Mad Max’ moment as Greensmith managed to right the car and continued sans windscreen, wearing goggles. “I really don’t want to be saying this but it was quite enjoyable [driving with the goggles], but at 100mph it is quite hard to breathe.”

The Safari Rally was particularly tough on both Hyundai and M-Sport as all of its cars hit trouble at some point

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Fourmaux suffered his second retirement due to a suspension failure after receiving a puncture from hitting a rock. It prompted M-Sport to put the two drivers to work on repairing the cars for Sunday when they returned to service. “It was a good opportunity to give them a chance to get used to how to change things if it happens again,” said M-Sport team principal Richard Millener. “It is also important for them to understand what the mechanics go through as well.”

Equipped with a healthy lead, Rovanpera then produced a measured drive to successfully navigate Safari’s last offering on Sunday to seal a memorable win to that extended his championship lead over Neuville to a whopping 65 points. Evans was left to settle for his second podium of the season, while Katsuta claimed a well-deserved third as Ogier completed the historic Toyota sweep.

Neuville provided a brief moment of joy for Hyundai by winning the powerstage to bank five bonus points as he finished fifth, almost 11 minutes adrift, while a recovering Breen rejoined the fray to finish sixth in front of M-Sport privateer Jourdan Serderidis.

Loeb provided a glimpse at what could have been with two fastest times in the final three stages on his way to eighth, with WRC2 runner Kajetan Kajetanowicz ninth. Solberg nursed a wounded Hyundai, which forced organisers to cancel the day’s first stage after he had become stranded in the middle of the road, to round out the top 10.

To cap a brutal Safari, Kenya could have new rally star on its hands as 26-year-old Maxine Wahome claimed the WRC3 class, becoming the first woman to win in a WRC support class since Isolde Holderied’s triumph in Group N in 1994.

Rovanpera and Toyota have taken full control in the 2022 WRC title fight

Photo by: Toyota Racing