Ott Tänak dominated much of Friday at the Safari Rally before a defect set him back: Elfyn Evans leads narrowly ahead of Kalle Rovanperä
World Championship leader Elfyn Evans (Toyota) is in the lead after Friday at the Safari Rally in Kenya, the third round of the 2025 World Rally Championship (WRC). The Welshman benefited from a defect in Ott Tänak’s (Hyundai) car, which had dominated the event until the eighth stage.
After ten of 21 special stages, Evans leads with a 7.7-second advantage over his teammate Kalle Rovanperä. Tänak is third, 55.4 seconds behind the leader.
The Hyundai driver started the Friday as the leader and extended his lead on every stage in the morning. He was also initially the fastest driver in the afternoon, and after the eighth stage he was already 46.1 seconds ahead of Evans. But then the Estonian fell victim to the rough conditions in Kenya.
Drive shaft breaks on Tänak’s car
A defective drive shaft forced Tänak to drive his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 in rear-wheel drive only. As a result, he lost more than a minute to Evans and Rovanperä on the ninth stage. Before the tenth and final stage of the day, Tänak and co-driver Martin Järveoja removed the defective right-front drive shaft, but without four-wheel drive, they had no chance and lost another 40 seconds to the leader.
Broken steering for @AdrienFourmaux on SS7 WRC & SafariRallyKenya pic. twitter.com/Gfj0Re7DDs
— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) March 21, 2025
Thanks to the large time gaps at the front of the field, Tänak remains in third place overall – a small piece of damage limitation on an otherwise difficult day for Hyundai.
Reigning world champion Thierry Neuville received a total of two minutes of penalty time, which means that despite a strong performance, he is only in fourth place overall. Without the penalties, he would be leading the rally, as he is just 1:31.4 minutes behind Evans.
Two-minute penalty for Neuville
Neuville received the first 60 seconds because he left the morning service too late after a gearbox change. Then he received a further ten seconds for a jump start on the fifth stage. However, the Belgian blamed the timekeeping for this. After he then arrived too late at the time check before the eighth stage, he received a further 50 penalty seconds.
Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) is in fifth place, but is already almost two minutes behind Neuville. His teammate Sami Pajari follows in sixth place. Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Toyota) is in seventh place and leads the WRC2 standings. Joshua McErlean (Ford) and WRC2 drivers Gus Greensmith (Skoda) and Jan Solans (Toyota) complete the top 10.
