TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team is celebrating a fifth successive victory on Safari Rally Kenya after Elfyn Evans conquered the epic African event for the first time to extend his championship lead.
This year’s Safari Rally was widely acknowledged to be the roughest and toughest since it returned to the FIA World Rally Championship calendar in 2021, but an expert drive from Evans and co-driver Scott Martin ensured that TGR-WRT maintained its unbeaten record across that period.
They also provided the team with a victory to mark its 100th start in the WRC since debuting in 2017: the 53rd win and 123rd podium result that the team has achieved in that time.
Alongside an extended distance of 383.1 competitive kilometres, the Kenyan stages proved to be particularly demanding this year with the rocky terrain posing a high risk of damage to tyres and cars, and wet weather making Saturday’s stages especially treacherous.
While rivals showed more speed on the rally’s first full day on Friday, the more measured approach of Toyota and Evans paid off, and he led team-mate Kalle Rovanperä by 7.7 seconds at the end of the day. Continuing to avoid major trouble despite the conditions, Evans’ advantage grew to almost two minutes by the end of Saturday, allowing him to take a safety-first approach to the final five stages on Sunday, and secure victory with 1 minute 9.9s still in hand.
Successive victories in Sweden and Kenya mean Evans now leads the drivers’ championship by 36 points after three rounds. He and Martin were joined on the podium by Deputy Team Principal, Juha Kankkunen, who received another Safari winning trophy 40 years after scoring his maiden WRC win as a driver on the very same event with Toyota. This latest win extends Toyota’s all-time record on the event to 13 victories.
Rovanperä started the final day in fifth overall after sustaining suspension damage during Saturday afternoon, and was ultimately forced to retire due to an electrical issue on the road section towards SS18. After a battling performance, fourth-placed Takamoto Katsuta took up the push for additional points on the final day, winning two stages to move within 0.3s of the lead in the Super Sunday classification ahead of the rally-ending Power Stage. Unfortunately, he would roll near the start of the stage, and although he managed to continue to finish the stage in fifth overall, the damage to his car meant he had to retire before reaching the final time control.
Sami Pajari gained fourth place overall at the finish of his first ever Safari Rally Kenya following an impressive and mature drive in which he avoided major trouble and gained significant new experience.
Quotes:
Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman)
“Elfyn and Scott, congratulations on your victory! Their victory has brought the team three consecutive wins this season and a fifth straight win at the Safari Rally Kenya. Also, they brought Juha, who was on-site as Deputy Team Principal this time, to the podium. As a long-time rally fan, I wanted Juha to stand on the podium again at the Safari Rally, so I am grateful to them for making that happen.
We were able to win the rally thanks to Elfyn and Scott, but the roads in Kenya were as challenging as ever. It wasn’t an easy victory. We approached Kenya with thorough preparations based on four years of experience there. However, this year we faced new challenges once again. So many things happened up until the last day and the last stage. I wish we could have made it easier for Elfyn and Scott to win. I wanted to let Kalle and Jonne drive until the end. I wanted Takamoto and Aaron to finish the rally with a strong result and I wanted to give Sami and Marko more opportunities to showcase their skills.
We get excited every time we encounter a road that reminds us, ‘there is no end to ever-better car making’. Starting tomorrow, everyone in the team will work on improving the GR YARIS Rally1 to make it easier to drive and stronger. And these improvements will extend beyond rally cars to all Toyota vehicles running around the world. The roads of Kenya made us reaffirm the significance of participating in rallies as a car manufacturer. To all the team members, let’s work hard to create ever-better cars from tomorrow, and let’s enjoy the competition with our rivals!”
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“I’m really happy that we managed to win the 100th WRC rally for the team, and that I could celebrate another Toyota win on the Safari Rally, 40 years after my first victory here. It really brought tears to my eyes. Among the modern day, shorter Safari rallies, this was absolutely the toughest one I have seen. There were a lot of things happening all the time, so I was a lot more nervous following it than I ever was when I was driving myself. We were maybe a little bit unlucky compared to previous years, especially on this final day, but the most important thing is that we managed to win this rally for Toyota once again. It was a really good job from Elfyn and Scott, who have made a fantastic start to the season.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s amazing to have won this rally. It’s not quite sunk in fully yet but the Safari Rally is a special event to win. A huge well done to the team, who work very hard to give us an amazing car, and I’m proud to be a very small part of Toyota’s great history on this rally. It’s been a massively demanding weekend, probably the most extreme Safari we’ve seen since we’ve been coming here, and the weather added an extra twist on Saturday. It was not easy to manage the final day, having quite a big lead and needing to bring it home. There was the temptation of extra points to play for on Sunday, but in the circumstances it was important to get the car to the finish, and I’m very happy at the end of it.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It has been a difficult weekend but we hoped to still try and take some good points from the final day. Everything was fine in the first stage this morning but on the road section to the next stage, we started to see some electrical issues on the car. We tried to fix them but we couldn’t make it happen in the end and we had to retire from the rally. It’s really disappointing to leave without any points, but we will go again in the next rally.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“I’m devastated to end the rally in this way. Near the start of the Power Stage we had a half spin, we caught the inside bank and then we started to roll. It was a very unexpected thing and I don’t know exactly what happened. It has been a very difficult rally and of course I had to try to push, and this kind of thing can always happen. But I’m just very, very sorry for the team.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It is really a big relief to cross the finish line, which was our only plan for the whole rally. It has been quite a long week, from the recce and through four days of rallying. It can be quite exhausting but we managed it quite well. There were no big mistakes or issues, which is exactly what we wanted from this event, so I can be super pleased with that. I’m happy for the team to have won this rally once again and with the experience we gained here, we can be even stronger next time.”
PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, SAFARI RALLY KENYA
1 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 4h20m03.8s
2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m09.9s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +3m32.0s
4 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +7m18.7s
5 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +11m35.3s
6 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +14m11.6s
7 Jan Solans/Rodrigo Sanjuán (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +17m26.6s
8 Jourdan Serderidis/Frédéric Miclotte (Ford Puma Rally1) +28m45.5s
9 Fabrizio Zaldivar/Marcelo Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +35m38.8s
10 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +37m15.8s
Retired Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1)
Retired Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1)
(Results as of 18:00 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 3:
1 Elfyn Evans 88 points
2 Thierry Neuville 52
3 Ott Tänak 49
4 Sébastien Ogier 33
5 Adrien Fourmaux 31
6 Kalle Rovanperä 31
7 Takamoto Katsuta 25
8 Sami Pajari 19
9 Grégoire Munster 16
10 Mārtiņš Sesks 8
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 3:
1 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 148 points
2 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 122
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 47
4 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT2 25
What’s next?
Rally Islas Canarias (April 24-27) is new to the WRC for 2025, taking place on asphalt roads across the island of Gran Canaria and marks a return to Spanish territory for the first time since 2022. An abrasive surface, consisting partly of volcanic lava, should offer high grip.
