Sébastien Ogier of France has successfully recaptured his WRC Safari Rally title after a hard-fought battle with Finland’s incumbent champion Kalle Rovanperä.
Ogier finished in 3:30:42.5, beating Rovanpera’s time of 3:30:49.2. During the previous year’s event, he lost the title against Rovanpera.
Elfyn Evans (3:33:41.0) finished ahead of Takamoto Katsuta (3:35:47.9), allowing Toyota to repeat their 1-2-3-4 clean sweep from last year.
Ott Tänak of M-Sport led the rally after Thursday’s super special stage, but only by 0.1 seconds over Ogier, and as soon as the car entered the wilderness, Ogier’s Toyota took the lead.
Since then, it’s been an exciting battle as Ogier has led the team, closely followed by Rovanperä, who has been second all weekend.
Ogier was caught off guard as his chasing teammate Rovanperä ramped up the heat on Sunday’s first stage, cutting his gap and reigniting the battle for the lead.
Ogier replied in style on the next stage, regaining lost time and seizing command despite the hurdles.
Evans’ third-place performance was fantastic since he defeated Katsuta, who will be missing the podium for the first time in his WRC career.