NAIVASHA, Kenya, Mar 23 – Elfyn Evans is closing in on his maiden WRC Safari Rally career victory after coming out of the opening three stages of the final day unscathed on Sunday.
And it was heartbreak for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT teammate—double world champion and two-time Safari Rally winner, Kalle Rovanpera— who was forced to retire from the event in Competitive Stage (CS) 17- Oresengoni due to an auxiliary belt issue.
Welshman Evans who leads the 2025 WRC standings played it safe, finishing the opening three stages of the day in 10th, ninth and ninth overall in that order.
However, he has a commanding 1:38.3 with two stages left to finish the Safari Rally, with the Wolf Power Stage at Hell’s Gate Naivasha closing the action in the third round of the 2025 on Sunday afternoon.
Behind him, the Hyundai Shell Mobis WRC duo of Ott Tanak and world champion Thierry Neuville are going flat out in a bid to pounce should misfortune befall the leader.
Tanak, the Estonian 2019 world champion, won the opening stage of the day, Mzabibu 2 before Toyota ace Katsuta won the second and the longest of the day, Oresengoni.
Ford M-Sport Puma star Adrien Fourmaux is enjoying a good finish to the rally, winning the third stage Hell’s Gate 1.
In the overall standings, Katsuta is fourth ahead of teammate Sami Pajari.
Gus Greensmith meanwhile is closing in on the WRC2 after also steering out of trouble in the opening sequence.
Carl ‘Flash’ Tundo, in 14th remains the top placed Kenyans in the dying embers of this year’s Safari.
WRC SAFARI RALLY LEADERBOARD AFTER SS19
1. # 33 Elfyn EVANS/Scott MARTIN/Toyota GR Yaris Rally1: 04:02:42.0
2. # 8 Ott TÄNAK/Martin JÄRVEOJA/Hyundai i20 N Rally1: 4:04:20.3 + 01:38.3
3. # 1Thierry NEUVILLE/Martijn WYDAEGHE/Hyundai i20 N Rally1: 04:06:51.3 + 02:31.0
4. # 18 Takamoto KATSUTA/Aaron JOHNSTON: Toyota GR Yaris Rally1: 04:07:28.7 + 04:46.75.
5. # 5 Sami PAJARI/Marko SALMINEN: Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
-Dramatic Saturday-
From bone-dry dust bowls to rain-soaked mudbaths, Saturday showcased the full spectrum of Safari extremes – and Evans was one of the few who stayed in tune.
Evans started Saturday with a slender 7.7sec buffer but immediately laid down a marker on the Sleeping Warrior opener. Even with rear tyre damage near the end of the 26.97-kilometre test, he still extended his lead by 8.2sec over Toyota GAZOO Racing team-mate Kalle Rovanperä.
Rovanperä’s response unravelled swiftly. A front-right tyre deflation five kilometres from the end of Elmenteita cost him 21.1sec, and worse followed at Soysambu, where a front-left puncture dropped him another 55.5sec. By midday service, his deficit to Evans had ballooned to 1min 32.5sec.
Then came the rain.
Conditions deteriorated on the repeated afternoon loop, and although Rovanperä clawed back 11.7sec from Evans on a sodden second pass of Sleeping Warrior, he arrived at the finish with a damaged rear suspension arm.
A makeshift roadside fix involving a ratchet strap kept him going, but with no choice but to back off through the final two stages, he dropped almost five minutes and slipped to fifth overall behind Ott Tänak, Thierry Neuville and Takamoto Katsuta.
Evans, who arrived in Kenya holding a 28-point championship lead, is now within touching distance of his first Safari Rally victory – and a significantly bolstered title advantage, should he make it through Sunday unscathed. That’s no foregone conclusion.
His Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 sustained front-right damage after a moment in the final stge – a timely reminder of how the event can bite back.
The drama didn’t stop with Rovanperä. In classic Safari fashion, nearly every Rally1 frontrunner faced some form of adversity.
Second-placed Tänak lost time with a deflated tyre early on, then grappled with visibility issues when the windscreen of his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 fogged up on SS12. Even so, he carries a 2min 36.0sec cushion over team-mate Neuville into Sunday’s five-stage finale.
Neuville’s day was anything but straightforward. Two punctures, a misted windscreen, and a misfiring engine late in the day all combined to slow his charge. But he still gained a position on the final test when Katsuta was forced to stop and change a wheel – his third deflation of the day. The Japanese driver has also been battling illness, making his pair of stage wins even more impressive.
Sami Pajari brought his Toyota home in a lonely sixth overall, 54.4sec behind Rovanperä but more than four minutes ahead of Grégoire Munster’s Ford Puma Rally1. Munster began the day in 11th and even bagged a stage win on SS15.
Gus Greensmith stole the WRC2 lead from Jan Solans on the day’s final stage, snatching an overall eighth place in the process. Just 5.8sec separate the pair going into Sunday, where five stages totalling almost 66km lie in wait.
