World champion Frenchman Sebastian Ogier and his navigator Julien Ingrassia has won the 2021 WRC Safari Rally held in Naivasha, Kenya.
Ogier took control on Sunday after Thiery Neuville retired from the lead following a damage to his rear-right damper that was so huge to repair.
The seven-time world champion and Toyota driver pulled clear of Takamoto Katsuta with just one power stage remaining to clock in the punishing four-day rally by 21.8sec.
Katsuta claimed his first WRC podium to seal Toyota Gazoo Racing’s fourth 1-2 result of the season as he finished 47.7sec ahead of Ott Tänak’s i20.
“It’s been an amazing experience to be here, the support we’ve had from the people we’ve had is incredible,” said Ogier. “Thank you so much guys, you have a beautiful country.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“It’s a great win for us. Today I also want to congratulate Taka he did an amazing job, it was not that easy to catch him at the end.”[/perfectpullquote]
Tanak was fastest through the Wolf Power Stage to claim five bonus points whereas Ogier secured an extra two points for fourth fastest.
“This rally, my approach was like 50 to 60 per cent maximum, not do any mistakes and be as smooth as possible. It’s a shame Thierry couldn’t work it out. Let’s see – now we go back to Estonia, so it should be fun,” said Tanak.
Frenchman Adrien Fourmax ended fourth while Gus Greensmith came in fifth as Safari Rally marked a return in WRC calendar.
Kenya’s Onkar Rai finished the Safari Rally as the highest ranked local ahead of compatriots Karan Patel and Carl “Flash” Tundo who came second and third respectively.
The Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 pilot, Rai sealed the victory by 4min 04.0sec. He dedicated the win to his brother Tejveer, who crashed out on Friday.
“It’s amazing. I hope he is watching, this is for him,” said Rai. “It was a really hard drive, and I am really happy that we have got the rally back.”
Final positions after SS18
1 Ogier/Ingrassia 3h18m11.3s
2 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota) +21.8s
3 Tänak/Järveoja +1m09.5s
4 Fourmaux/Jamoul +1m44.7s
5 Gus Greensmith/Chris Patterson (M-Sport Ford) +1m54.6s
6 Rovanperä/Halttunen +10m53.4s
7 Onkar Rai/Drew Sturrock (Volkswagen) +29m26.4s
8 Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (Ford) +33m30.4s
9 Carl Tundo/Timothy Jessop (Volkswagen) +36m40.7s
10 Evans/Martin +49m22.7s
Championship standings
1 Ogier 133 2 Evans 99 3 Thierry Neuville 77 4 Tänak 69 5 Katsuta 66 6 Rovanperä 54 7 Fourmaux 32 8 Greensmith 32 9 Sordo 31 10 Craig Breen 24
Manufacturers standings
1 Toyota Gazoo Racing 273 2 Hyundai Motorsport 214 3 M-Sport Ford 109 4 Hyundai 2C Competition 28
