Battered and bruised Ogier holds on for Safari Rally victory

Naivasha, Kenya, June 26 (IANS) France's Sebastien Ogier held his nerve to win the 2023 WRC Safari Rally Kenya, after an epic last day battle against teammate and World Champion Kalle Rovanpera.

Ogier added gloss to his second Safari Rally victory in three years, when he led his Toyota GR Yaris teammates to complete a second successive top four sweep, reports Xinhua.

Elfyn Evans of Wales and Japan's Takamoto Katsuta came home third and fourth to repeat the dream 1-2-3-4 Toyota achieved here last year.

"Unbelievable! Look at that, even on the Power Stage I got a stone on the windscreen! We had a lot of issues to face but it could have been a more comfortable rally for us in terms of pace. A lot of misfortune but we brought it home," Ogier said moments after his landmark victory, his second in the Safari after previously having won the 2021 edition.

The Frenchman and his navigator Vincent Landais were presented their trophies by Kenya's President William Ruto at the scenic Hell's Gate finish, some 100km northwest of the capital Nairobi.

It capped a frenzied final day that saw over 50,000 fans converge at the finish area, causing a traffic snarl up that saw some fans spend the night on the roads up from Nairobi.

Ogier recorded his third victory from just five starts so far this season, but his rally very nearly unraveled in Sunday's second special stage, when a patch of Kenya's infamous fesh-fesh sand sent his GR Yaris car wide on a right-hand bend.

The Frenchman, fighting hard to recover time lost to Rovanpera in the rocky opener, clipped a tree and ripped off his car's entire rear tailgate.

But amazingly, he still won SS18 and held on in the end after the dramatic final Wolf Power Stage to win the rally by only 6.7 seconds from Rovanpera, despite arriving home with a cracked windscreen.

Finishing second felt like a personal victory for the title-defending Rovanpera, who extended his championship lead to 37 points after round seven of 13.

"You always want to fight for the win but we did our best starting first car on the road, so regarding that I think it's not bad.

"Good points for the season anyway," Rovanpera remarked.

Dani Sordo overcame power steering failure in SS16 to finish an isolated fifth at the end of a testing weekend for Hyundai Motorsport, who now trail Toyota by 42 points in the manufacturers' title race.

Early podium challenger Esapekka Lappi was way down the order after being plagued by transmission issues in his i20 N, while Thierry Neuville, recovering from suspension failure on Friday, could only muster eighth.

Tyre troubles earlier in the rally prevented M-Sport Ford Puma drivers Ott Tanak and Pierre-Louis Loubet from mounting any form of attack, and they finished sixth and seventh.

Eighth-placed Kajetan Kajetanowicz secured his second Kenyan WRC2 victory in a Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo.

Oliver Solberg was not nominated to score points in the support category but finished ninth overall, while Martin Prokop completed the top 10.

The FIA World Rally Championship returns to Europe next month when the super-fast gravel roads of Rally Estonia host round eight from July 20 to 23.