Coming into the first full day of action there’d been two stages to start this year’s rally on Thursday. We had a top three which was Ott from Takamoto and Greg. In addition the top five were covered by just four and a half seconds.
First up then was SS3 Camp Moran 1 – 31.40 km and Ott was fastest from Thierry and Elfyn. The Welshman’s pace took him up three positions and into second overall, whilst Kalle moved into third. Ott now had a 13.1 second lead over his former M-Sport teammate.
Next came SS4 Loldia 1 – 19.11 km and Ott was again setting the pace from Thierry and Elfyn third. At this point there were three Hyundai’s in the top four fastest times. Setting good pace in his Puma was Josh who was holding fourth overall as his teammate fell nine positions to thirteenth overall.
The penultimate stage of the morning loop came next, SS5 Kengen Geothermal 1 – 13.18 km and Kalle was fastest from Thierry and Ott. Elfyn was sixth fastest and saw the gap to Ott grow to 19.3 seconds whilst Kalle was now 44.1 behind and holding third. Thierry was on the move up the leaderboard, past Josh and into fourth.
Onto the final morning stage then, SS6 Kedong 1 – 15.10 km with service to follow and Ott was fastest from Kalle and Elfyn. Further back Takamoto was gaining positions moving into seventh overall. He was climbing the field after his earlier puncture in the first stage of the day.
Into the afternoon stages then with a repeat of the morning loop and in the same order, first up was SS7 Camp Moran 2 – 31.40 km and Thierry took a stage win from Ott and Kalle. Takamoto was climbing some more passing Josh for fifth place. Also gaining quite a few positions was Sami in the fourth Toyota and he’d gained four positions thus moving into seventh overall. We lost Adrien in this one as the Frenchman tried to complete the stage with a puncture and ended up heavily damaging his front right suspension. He could not continue sadly and was out for the rest of the day.
Next up was SS8 Loldia 2 – 19.11 km and Ott was again fastest from Elfyn this time with Thierry third. Sami gained another position moving into sixth place overall. Ott now held a 46.1 second lead over Elfyn. This was some drive from the Estonian.
It was all change though at the end of SS9 Kengen Geothermal 2 – 13.18 km as the leading Hyundai suffered what would turn out to be a driveshaft problem the result being he’d lose over a minute on just this one stage and emerged 16.8 seconds behind new leader Elfyn and now in third overall. Kalle who was fastest in the stage from Elfyn was now second overall. Takamoto suffered a second puncture of the day.
Onto the final stage of the day then, SS10 Kedong 2 – 15.10 km and how would Ott get on? Well, it helped that he and Martin would be able to remove the driveshaft which had failed meaning he could push a bit more. He was twelfth fastest which doesn’t sound great but managed to keep the time loss down to 42 seconds meaning he’d keep third overall. Kalle won the stage from Takamoto and Elfyn.
Let’s take a look at the top positions and hear from the drivers.
Classification after Day One
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Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Elfyn Evans
“It’s been a clean and strong day for us. Maybe we were not always the fastest, but I’m happy to be at the end of the day with no trouble. It was a tough day, and this first stage of the loop was especially rough; the chance of damage was high with so many loose rocks. We definitely erred on the side of caution in places and that seems to have paid off, but there’s still a very long way to go. It can be a bit frustrating when you feel that you can go a bit faster and take more risk, but I just keep reminding myself where we are. Tomorrow might be slightly shorter but it’s still not going to be an easy day.”
Kalle Rovanperä
“It has been a good day. The morning could have been better as I was losing some time in the more narrow and technical roads in the first two stages, but when we went to the faster stages it was much better and I had a really good feeling. The afternoon was much better overall. The conditions were really tough, but we were able to take care of the car like we planned: it’s always important on this rally to manage your pace and stick to your plan. You can go quicker but you can run into trouble easily. Tomorrow the stages have a different style, and the weather could play a big part too.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“The day started badly in the first long stage this morning with a lot of rocks, and we got a double puncture. It was very frustrating, and we had no spares left for the rest of the morning, so we had to be very careful, but we managed to get through it and back to service. This afternoon was even rougher, and we were trying to avoid mistakes. Unfortunately, we got another puncture but the pace when I pushed was quite OK and the feeling is nice in the car. There’s still two days to go, which is a long way in this rally, and everything is still possible.”
Sami Pajari
“We knew that today would be challenging and it was the case already in the first stage this morning, where we stopped to change a tyre and again got a stone to the windscreen somehow. But we were able to regather ourselves with a couple of clean stages to end the morning, and then the afternoon was really good. The car is working really nicely with no issues and the times are also pretty solid, so I can be happy with that. I’m getting more used to the conditions and reading the changes in the road, and I’m starting to understand where I can push and where I need to be cautious, so it’s a good feeling to end the day.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Ott Tänak
“At the end of the second stage of the afternoon, I noticed we had a driveline issue, but we managed to finish the stage. We then realised it was an issue with the driveshaft, but we were unable to remove it before the penultimate stage, so we had to drive through it carefully to stop it from damaging the engine. Luckily, we managed to remove it for the final stage, so we didn’t have to nurse it. We will try to come back tomorrow but we know it’s rough, its demanding and its hard on the car.”
Round 03, Safari Rally Kenya
19-23 March 2025
Photographer: Dufour Fabien
Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Thierry Neuville
“It has been a really challenging day, but we were giving our best. We had some cooling issues this afternoon that we tried to fix by dismantling the whole front end of the car and putting it back together, but it didn’t work as well as we wanted it to, so we had to take care on the stages. It was extreme conditions, but we are happy to be here at the end of a difficult day. If we take away our penalties and the time we lost from the puncture, we would have been leading the rally today, but it is what it is and there is still a long way to go.”
Adrien Fourmaux
“I was happy with the car and the balance today, and I was being careful in the rocky places but then pushing where I knew I could. I was feeling really comfortable but then everything went wrong this afternoon. We had a slow puncture, so we managed to continue for a few kilometres before the tyre started deflating, then in the fesh-fesh I didn’t see a rock and we had a big impact which broke the suspension. It is frustrating and we should have stopped to change the puncture, but it is easy to say this in hindsight. We will come back fighting tomorrow and target Super Sunday points.”
Oliver Solberg (WRC2)
“I came out of a hairpin and into the first fesh fesh section. The sand was so, so soft and so deep. Because we’d come from a slow corner, we weren’t carrying any speed to come through the fesh fesh and we got stuck. “We were the first Rally2 car in there, so it’s tough. There was no warning, nothing.
“It’s such a shame, everything was going really well. Me and Elliott [Edmondson, co-driver] were really controlled with no risk – just steadily building the lead and then this happened. There was literally nothing I could do, we tried to come through, but the car just dug in and bottomed out. The marshals tried to move us, but we couldn’t find a rope strong enough.
“It’s tough to go out like this, the car is just perfect. But OK, this is Safari, and it can do these kind of things to you, we have seen it before. We will keep pushing and come back tomorrow.”
Saturday
The second full day of action will see the crews tackle 146.5km’s over six stages. Who will be in the lead by the end of the day? We may see the rain out there and this can-do crazy things to the stages.
