WRC

Sebastian Ogier edged Toyota team-mate Kalle Rovanpera to win the opening super special stage as the Safari Rally officially made its return to the World Rally Championship. The reigning world champion made light work of the 4.48km two-by-two Kasarani gravel test held in front of a vocal crowd at Kenya’s capital city Nairobi. The stage marked the first WRC action in Africa since the 2002 Safari Rally. Soft compound shod Ogier managed to comfortably beat Hyundai’s Ott Tanak on the hard tyres in their race around the stage, posting a 3m21.8s time to top the times. The effort was good enough to edge Toyota team-mate Rovanpera by 0.3s, while the Toyota of Elfyn Evans, also on softs, was third fastest, a tenth further back. “Tomorrow is going to be the biggest start but It’s amazing to see such a crowd. So far so good, but tomorrow the real stuff is coming,” said Ogier, who also topped Wednesday’s shakedown. Tanak was fourth quickest, 2.5s adrift of Ogier through the stage as Hyundai elected to fit hard tyres to all of its entries. “For sure, this one was quite slippy, but I am happy that we didn’t use the soft tyre,” said Tanak. Thierry Neuville was another 2.5s in arrears after he clipped a bank during his pass through the stage that saw him go head-to-head with Evans. Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta was sixth ahead of hard tyre shod Gus Greensmith in the leading M-Sport Ford. Oliver Solberg, making his WRC gravel debut for Hyundai, was eighth after beating M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux in their battle around Kasarani. The big surprise was Hyundai’s Dani Sordo who was 11th and last of the WRC class after dropping 10.5s to Ogier in the test. Martin Prokop was the top WRC2 runner in 12th overall ahead of local hero Karan Patel who emerged fastest in WRC3. Former three-time European rally champion Sobieslaw Zasada, aged 91, made history as he successfully completed the stage to become the oldest ever WRC competitor. The rally proper starts tomorrow with seven special stages, the longest a 32km run through the tricky Kedong test. The first special stage of the event is due to begin on Friday at 05:09 GMT.

Kenya’s famed Safari rally is making a comeback at home after a 19-year wait. The race has earned a reputation as the toughest event on the World Rally Championship calendar. Riders have to cover enormous distances in arduous condition. This year it begins from Friday June 25 till Sunday June 27. “So part of our preparations is stripping down the car, taking out the entire drive train to just go through item by item, to make sure everything is spick and span”, said Greenlife Rally team driver, Evans Kavisi. Kenya’s Safari rally is the 6th round of the 2021 World Rally Championship. In this edition, the event has attracted 58 entrants from across the world. The last time Kenya took part in the World Rally Championship was in 2002. And so it is no wonder that locals are enthusiastic about the showdown on Kenyan soil once again. “For us this are exciting times. It’s like the Olympics, that’s the only way I can put it, in fact I feel it’s bigger than the Olympics for us. It’s one of those privileges in motorsport for you to be able to rally, and rally with the best and be able to compare yourself against the best, it’s a ridiculously beautiful feeling”, Kavisi added. This week’s event is made up of 18 stages spanning four days. The Great Rift Valley and Lake Naivasha will be the base for this tough challenge. And local drivers are surely up for another exciting adventure. “I don`t want to put a lot of pressure on myself. My plan is just to finish the rally, at whatever position. Of course I try to be competitive”, said Batika rally team driver, Andrew Muirui. And it seems that after all these years, locals continue to hold fond memories of the game. Like Edwin Jnor, a Betika Rally team navigator. “I have a childhood memory that I have to do, I was a small boy, the cars used to pass in Ruaka. I remember I woke up early, went to see them, coming back my dad gave me a good beating. Now you know what? We are passing through Ruaka and I will be in the seat so it’s a good feeling”, he said. On Thursday, President Uhuru Kenyatta flagged off the 2021 World Rally Championship in Nairobi. The Rally will finish at the foot of Mount Kenya Sunday.

Toyota boss Jari-Matti Latvala has praised Sebastien Ogier for the “professional and fantastic job” he performed after he was involved in an accident ahead of this morning’s opening Croatia Rally stage. The collision between another vehicle is understood to have happened on a section of dual carriageway, with the impact causing significant damage to the co-driver’s side of Ogier’s Toyota Yaris World Rally Car. Both Ogier and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia escaped the shunt uninjured but were forced to carry out remedial work on the supermini, which was subsequently deemed safe to continue by FIA technical delegates. Ogier led going into the final day by 6.9 seconds but had his advantage trimmed by teammate Elfyn Evans to 4.2 seconds on stage 17 before losing top spot to the Welshman on the antepenultimate test. With one stage remaining – the 8.8-mile ‘Zagorska Sela to Kumrovec’ power stage – Evans enjoys a slender 3.9 second buffer, with Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville a further 4.1 seconds adrift in third place. For the entirety of the final leg of the Tarmac counter, Ingrassia has resorted to wearing goggles inside the car to protect his eyes from fine particles of dust and dirt that are managing to find their way into the cabin. Despite the magnitude of the damage, Latvala confirmed the car was “fine” from both a technical and performance perspective and was confident seven-time champion Ogier would push for the victory. “The engineers and the designers, they do a big effort to get the aerodynamics working in the car, so obviously that is upset,” said the Finn. “The aerodynamics now – how the airflow should be going – it’s not getting better. For sure, it is difficult to say how much it is affecting the speed but clearly it is not making the car better or faster. “But I know Sebastien very well and this incident was definitely not giving you the best feeling to start the stages – but he is a professional and he has done a fantastic job in that sense [after the accident]. “Now is the time to reset and after the reset I still expect he can get the feeling and I am still confident he will be able to fight – even for the victory.”

Rally Croatia victor Sebastien Ogier will maintain the WRC event win but has been slapped with two fines and a suspended ban for his part in a traffic crash on the morning of the final day. Ogier crashed with a BMW as he made his way from service to the start of the day’s opening stage. It left the Toyota with damage to the passenger side door but was otherwise able to continue in the rally. In doing so, it was judged that Ogier had left the scene of an accident, for which he was fined €5000 (AUD $7802) and handed a suspended ban. Soon after, he ran a red light, which attracted another €2000 (AUD $3121) fine. In reviewing the incident, officials noted that Ogier left the scene of the accident despite a police officer standing in front of the car. He and co-driver Julien Ingrassia had been trying to pull to the side of the road to check their Toyota Yaris after leaving service. “Mr Ogier explained that after they had left the service park, they realised they needed to stop to check something on the car,” the stewards’ decision stated. “Once they started from the traffic lights, they saw a suitable bus stop on the right and changed the lane to reach the bus stop. “Another car was approaching at the same time fast from behind on the same lane and crashed into the right side of car No. 1.” Once police arrived, a Toyota team member attended the scene of the crash to help translate. As the matter was in hand, Ogier felt he was able to leave – information that was not relayed to the police officer standing in front of the car (see video below). “Mr Ogier added that he fully understands that this should not have happened and that this makes his behaviour to look very bad as videoclips are spreading in the social media,” the stewards’ decision said. “Mr Ogier apologised for this offence and promised to contact the driver of the other car involved in the accident and also the police officer who was standing in front of the car to present his apologises (sic) also to them. “The Stewards concluded that as such a traffic accident is not necessarily a breach of the regulations. Nevertheless, the behaviour of Mr Ogier cannot be accepted. “By driving the car and pushing the police officer aside, Mr Ogier caused an unsafe situation. “The incident is prejudicial to the interests of motorsport.” Leading the rally at the time of the crash, Ogier ceded top spot to team-mate Elfyn Evans during the final day, stealing it back on the last Special Stage of the event. The Frenchman now leads the championship as a result with 61 points over Thierry Neuville (53) and Evans (51).