Reigning world champion Rovanpera was one of the few to avoid punctures or mechanical issues to complete the day’s six stages with a 2m08.9s lead over Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, with M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux third [+3m13.3s].

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The trio will bank 18-15-13 championship points respectively under the new-for-2024 scoring system if they finish the rally tomorrow.

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans started the day in second but dropped to fifth after picking up two punctures across the morning. The Welshman climbed to fourth when a fuel system issue stuck title rival Neuville, which dropped the Hyundai from second to fifth.

Evans ended the day in fourth [+5m35.6s] to bag a provisional 10 points, despite suffering another two punctures. Neuville nursed his car through in fifth [+11m48.6s] to scoop a provisional eight points, while top WRC2 runner Gus Greensmith held sixth overall [15m02.0s].

Forecast rain for the afternoon prompted Hyundai to fit its snorkel for the first time this weekend, joining Toyota and M-Sport-Ford, who have run their Safari-spec intakes throughout the rally.

It didn’t have to work too hard in the first stage of the loop [Soysambu, 29.32km], which was bone dry but full of the hazardous fesh-fesh sand.

Dust was however an issue for Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, who rejoined the rally on Saturday after crashing out on Friday’s stage six. A broken side window made conditions in the cabin particularly challenging as dust found its way inside. Tanak also revealed that he was carrying another yet to be defined issue.   

Team-mate Esapekka Lappi navigated through the stage fifth fastest, but Hyundai’s Safari Rally misfortune continued when Neuville slowed. The Belgian appeared to be battling a fuel system problem that required two stoppages in the stage. Neuville eventually engaged EV mode to reach the stage end, having slumped from second to fifth overall and dropping 2m38.7s in the process.

“I have absolutely nothing to say,” said a frustrated Neuville.

Thierry Neuville, Hyundai World Rally Team

Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport

After working on the car, he was able to fire up the engine and head to the next stage.

Katsuta pipped team-mate Evans by 2.6s to win the stage, inheriting second overall following Neuville’s drama. Rovanpera was third fastest, but the Finn actually extended his rally lead to 2m20.2s.

Likewise, M-Sport’s Fourmaux climbed into the podium places in third as the Frenchman continued his sensible approach to the rally.

Neuville’s engine issue continued into stage 12 [Elmenteita, 15.08km] despite starting the stage seemingly with full power engaged. However, he ground to a halt in the stage before finding a way to refire the car to reach the stage end, albeit down on power. Despite dropping more than seven minutes, he held onto fifth overall.

The stage was claimed by Evans who pipped Tanak by a second, the latter having solved the dust issue that hampered him on the previous test.

Evans’ first stage win of the event to date was chalked up with a front-left puncture on his GR Yaris. Fourmaux extended his strong showing by recording a third fastest time, 2.9s slower than Evans.

“I’m feeling good. You know the movie with Ricky Bobby, Talladega Nights? Shake and bake baby,” said a happy Fourmaux.  

Rally leader Rovanpera was again untroubled. The Finn was able to adopt a measured approach given his sizeable lead over Katsuta. 

The expected heavy rain showers failed to arrive for the day’s final test [Sleeping Warrior, 36.08km] but it didn’t dampen the drama on show.

Lappi’s run of bad luck continued after striking two birds in separate incidents that smashed his i20 N’s windscreen, reducing him to a crawl.  

«[I have] just some glass in my eyes. On one straight we hit a big bird then later on we hit a second bird. Two different places,” said Lappi, who pulled over to let Tanak through.

Esapekka Lappi, Janne Ferm, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Team-mate Neuville fared slightly better nursing his wounded i20 N to the finish, dropping 59.9s, but he crucially held on to fifth overall.

However, his nearest championship rival Evans also lost time to a fourth puncture of the day when his left rear let go towards the end of the test, causing a 2m19.3s deficit.

It wasn’t the only tyre problem on the stage as third-placed Fourmaux encountered his first issue of the rally. The Frenchman’s front-left tyre exploded, but luckily it only resulted in a 39.7s time loss.

«It’s our first issue since the beginning, so statistically it’s okay. The lines were pushing me out and there was a rock. At one point the tyre just exploded,” said Fourmaux.

Tanak won the stage by 10.0s from Katsuta with Rovanpera, without hybrid power, third fastest. 

The crews will tackle six more stages on Sunday to conclude this year’s Safari Rally.

Toyota’s Rovanpera was among the fortunate to enjoy a clean run through a gruelling and incident-filled Saturday morning loop of stages, to open up a 1m27.9s lead over Hyundai’s Neuville, who leapt from fourth to second.

Neuville took advantage of a chaotic loop for Evans and Katsuta, who were delayed by double punctures. Katsuta ended the morning in third, where he started the day, albeit 2m22.9s adrift of the lead. Evans plummeted from second to fifth [+3m43.8s] after his tyre dramas.

M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux climbed to fourth [+2m50.6s] with an ill WRC2 class leader Gus Greensmith in sixth [+11m47.3s] after M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster retired with broken suspension.

Saturday kicked off with a drama-laden run through the Soysambu [29.32km] test. Overnight rain threatened to provide damp conditions, although the first stage of the day was largely dry.

The action began before crews reached the test as Ott Tanak, returning after his crash in stage six on Friday, encountered problems with his Hyundai i20 N on the road section. The Estonian failed to properly fasten a bonnet pin during his roadside repairs, which forced a stoppage mid-stage to address a flapping bonnet, costing him more than a minute.

«We had a very busy road section with loads of work and the bonnet pin was our mistake, just realised it didn’t click correctly,” said Tanak.

Tanak wasn’t the only driver to hit trouble though, as second-placed Evans suffered a left-rear puncture that cost him a place in the podium positions. The wheel change, completed 12.7km into the stage, cost the Welshman 1m50s, dropping him from second to fifth overall.     

Munster joined the list of those to suffer issues when the M-Sport driver suffered a broken rear suspension on his Ford Puma that reduced him to a crawl. Munster and co-driver Louis Louka attempted a repair after reaching the stage end, but they were forced to retire from the day.

Rovanpera’s streak of six consecutive stage wins came to an end on the stage as the rally leader opted for a careful approach to preserve his lead. The Finn, who was hampered by dust from the delayed Evans, dropped 5.2s.

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

The stage was won by Katsuta despite the Japanese struggling with dust coming into his eyes. Katsuta was 0.2s faster than Lappi, who rejoined the rally after his gearbox failure on Friday.

«I have a bigger problem with my eyes, I really hate this fesh-fesh sand. I can’t open my eyes. Blind rally! It’s not easy,” said Katsuta.

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Lappi’s run through the test was however compromised by a front-left tyre coming off the rim towards the end of the pass.

After inheriting third following Evans’ puncture, Neuville set his sights on reeling in second-placed Katsuta in stage nine [Elmenteita, 15.08km].

The Belgian picked up his second stage win of the event to close to within 4.8s of Katsuta. However, Neuville wasn’t happy to find the road had been changed in places since the recce.

«It was a good run, but we were told that the road wouldn’t be modified after recce. We had a big moment. They put big stones in the middle of the road.»

Neuville took the stage win by 5.2s from Lappi, who also took aim at the rally organisers.

«The organisers are not doing a good job. They promised us that nothing will change, but they changed the cuts after the recce which is really shit,” said Lappi.

Esapekka Lappi, Janne Ferm, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Rovanpera maintained his cautious approach clocking the third-fastest time ahead of Katsuta and Fourmaux. Tanak was sixth fastest despite completing the stage without a working intercom. He was 1.2s quicker than Evans, who opted to “play it safe”.

Drivers had been fearing the final stage of the loop [Sleeping Warrior, 36.06km] and their fears were realised. The test featured sections of slippery mud, standing water and tyre-shredding rocks.

The rocky sections took their toll on the field as Katsuta, Evans and Lappi all suffered punctures. Lappi was first to pick up a right-rear failure towards the end of an eventful run that saw him clip a zebra that dashed out into the road at the start.

Katsuta hit a big rock that cost him 1m24.6s after suffering a front-right and rear puncture, but somehow he managed to maintain third position overall. 

His team-mate Evans was hit by his second puncture of the loop, right-rear, that resulted in him losing 51.9s. 

While his team-mates hit trouble, Rovanpera managed to escape all of the chaos to win the stage by 24.8s from Neuville, who was without hybrid power at the start of the stage. Neuville, who jumped to second overall, also revealed that he bent something on his car at the stage end.

«It’s situations like that where you can do time by just driving clean. Incredibly tricky stage. I felt I took care of the tyres and [was] not pushing hard when I could,” said Rovanpera.

A second pass of the stages await the crews this afternoon.

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The Rally Sweden winner was forced to surrender second position when his i20 N ground to a halt in stage five with a transmission issue.

The Finn cut a frustrated figure, admitting there was no warning of the imminent failure. His exit comes after suffering four propshaft failures during last year’s visit to Kenya which triggered the team to fit a stronger version of the component ahead of the 2024 edition.

«The gearbox exploded,» said Lappi. «At first it started to go to front wheel drive and after one acceleration there was no impact or a really big noise coming from it, it just went to front wheel drive. A couple of hundred metres later there was no pull from the car at all it didn’t matter if I was in first or fifth gear.

«At that moment there wasn’t any impact but for sure during the stages there has been impacts. Everyone has had the same conditions so there is nothing that should cause this problem. It is really frustrating.

«We can change the gearbox and go [again] but I don’t know what the point is to try tomorrow.

«I have some idea of what I would like to do [tomorrow] and I have already presented those to the team and let’s see if they agree or not. I would like to do only the morning.»

Hyundai technical director Francois-Xavier Demaison says the gearbox is one of the i20 N’s known weaknesses and is difficult to find a long-term fix.

«The gearbox is broken and we know that it is a weak point of the car but we have to live with this,» said Demaison.

«We had a big hope we could solve this, but it seems to be complicated for the future. Esapekka’s retirement is a reliability issue and we are not happy with that but we can’t do much about that within the current [homologation joker] rules, it is difficult to fix it. We will do what we can.»

Esapekka Lappi, Janne Ferm, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport

Lappi’s exit did hand team-mate Ott Tanak second position but this was short-lived as the Estonian crashed out on stage six. The 2019 world champion struck a rock in the middle of the road which sent the car into a bank causing terminal damage to the i20 N’s steering.

«It is something that happens quite often at the Safari Rally. It [the rock] was in a place where it was quite hidden and I couldn’t really react to anything and the road was narrow with the banks on the side,» said Tanak.

«I had nowhere to go really so I had to take the rock and it was far too big and it put us off the road. I don’t think the rock did too much damage, but I hit the bank so hard and we got all the damage from there.»

Tanak’s exit left Thierry Neuville as the sole remaining Hyundai, the Belgian managed to survive a puncture to end Friday in fourth 1m07.3s behind rally leader Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera.

After hearing about Lappi’s gearbox failure Neuville admitted he was concerned by the nature of the Finn’s transmission issue.

«We are going to keep fighting. Obviously, it is not nice to see two of my team-mates retire and it is another bad day here in Kenya for Hyundai,» said Neuville.

«It is difficult for me when I hear about Lappi’s problems, to be 100% confident to attack 100% in places where it is really rough. I don’t want to face the same issues.»

The Safari Rally is renowned as the most gruelling event on the WRC schedule testing drivers and teams to the absolute limit.

The event returned to the WRC calendar in 2021 after a 19-year hiatus but in a much shorter format. This year’s edition, operated by a new Kenyan organiser, will be contested over four days with crews covering 367.76 kilometres of timed stages.

In the past, the event was regarded as a marathon rally and when it adopted a special stage format from 1996-2002, it featured 1000km of competitive tests.

Speaking at Thursday’s ceremonial start for the 2024 edition, President Ruto outlined his wishes for the event to be extended in the future. 

“The Safari Rally runs for four days but we would like to revert to the old tradition when it featured longer distances. I direct our Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba to start engaging the FIA and the Promoter on possibilities of a much longer version of Safari,” said President Ruto.

There is a possibility that Ruto’s wishes could come to fruition, with the FIA and the WRC Promoter keen to explore the possibility of more flexible event schedules in the future. Introducing a variety of endurance and sprint rallies to the championship featured as part of the FIA’s vision for the future of top-level rallying, which was released last month.

Former WRC team boss David Richards, a member of the FIA’s working group, which is behind a raft of proposals to improve the WRC, told media that the world motorsport governing body is “open-minded” when it comes to the format of future events.

Takamoto Katsuta, Aaron Johnston, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

“We are trying to give organisers more scope and freedom to develop the rally that works for them,” he told media including Motorsport.com earlier this month.

“With the meeting in Kenya, they wanted to go outside Nairobi and have a second base in Mombasa, for instance, and do something of that nature.

“Let’s look at what they are proposing and see if it fits in. We’re not saying yes, we’re not saying no, but we are certainly saying let’s look at these ideas and see if it works for the World Rally Championship.

“At the moment I think we have been too prescriptive. We’ve created a formula which everyone’s had to work hard towards, and I think it is not necessarily in the best interest of the championship going forward.”