Toyota triple trouble puts Katsuta on verge of WRC Safari Rally Kenya win

Takamoto Katsuta (pictured above) is closing in on his first FIA World Rally Championship victory after a day of unprecedented attrition at Safari Rally Kenya left the Toyota driver with a 1m25.5s lead heading into Sunday's final leg.

In a rally renowned for its brutality, Saturday’s leg delivered a level of chaos rarely seen in the modern WRC era.

A day that began as a dominant 1-2-3 leaderboard lockout for Toyota Gazoo Racing, courtesy of Oliver Solberg, Sebastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans, completely unraveled during a brutal morning loop that destroyed the rally of all three in rapid succession. That paved the way for another of Toyota’s five factory entries, Katsuta, to inherit a shock advantage that he successfully defended through a treacherous afternoon.

The complexion of the rally was entirely rewritten during the first run through the notorious Sleeping Warrior test and its subsequent road section. WRC points leader Evans was the first major casualty, retiring mid-stage with terminal rear-right suspension damage to his GR Yaris Rally1. Soon after, the event was turned completely on its head during the liaison section back to the Naivasha service park.

Rally leader Solberg, who’d just navigated the deep mud of Sleeping Warrior virtually blind after running out of washer fluid, succumbed to an alternator failure. His teammate, nine-time and reigning WRC champ Ogier, saw his morning charge also come to an abrupt halt with a similar problem on the very same road section, wiping out the top three cars within minutes of each other.

Toyota’s triple retirement unexpectedly thrust Katsuta into the overall lead. The Japanese driver had deliberately adopted a cautious, survival-first approach through the morning after suffering a double puncture on the 11.2-mile Elmenteita test that forced him to complete the remainder of the loop without any spare tires. His strategy paid the ultimate dividend as he inherited a lead of more than a minute as the surviving crews limped back to midday service.

The afternoon offered no respite for the battered and depleted field. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who’d started the loop in second overall in his i20 N Rally1, despite battling overheating issues all morning, retired on the second pass of the 15.5-mile Soysambu stage after sustaining a triple puncture with no spares remaining.

That allowed his teammate, Adrien Fourmaux, who’d avoided the carnage, to grab the overnight runner-up spot. The Frenchman claimed a stage win on Soysambu and focused entirely on protecting his car, ending the day 1m25.5s adrift of a nervy Katsuta, who admitted he was trying to avoid "every single rock" to safeguard his first WRC win.

“It’s very stressful to drive like this,” said the rally leader. “It’s definitely easier when you are fighting for tenths of seconds.”

Katsuta’s job was made a little easier when the leg-ending second pass through Sleeping Warrior was canceled, rally organizers deeming the deep, water-filled ruts too challenging for rescue vehicles to access following heavy afternoon rain.

Completing the overnight podium, Sami Pajari sits in a surprising third overall in the fifth Toyota Rally1 entry, this despite a high-speed tire explosion on Saturday morning's Elmenteita test that cost him more than five minutes and caused significant bodywork damage to his GR Yaris.

Sami Pajari brushed off a high-speed tire explosion to sit third overall in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. Toyota Gazoo Racing photo

The Finnish rising star bounced back brilliantly to win the afternoon pass of the same stage, leapfrogging Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi into that final podium position. Lappi ended the leg in fourth, having crawled through the afternoon with understeer and a front-left puncture, bluntly stating he was no longer looking at the results and is simply trying to finish.

M-Sport Ford's Jon Armstrong endured a torrid afternoon, battling water temperature alerts and a front-right puncture on his Puma Rally1, while teammate Josh McErlean also nursed a persistent engine issue. They languish outside of the overall top 10, in 16th and 15th respectively.

But at least they kept going… Josh McErlean is best of the M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1s, albeit in 15th overall. M-Sport photo

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Estonia’s Robert Virves is in sight of a well-earned win, successfully navigating the chaotic and bruising Saturday stages to build a 55.3s advantage over Gus Greensmith.

Virves kept his Skoda Fabia RS out of major trouble through the deep mud and tire-destroying ruts, maintaining a measured pace to protect his lead. He admitted that leading the rally was incredibly stressful and that, instead of finding any rhythm, he found himself looking out for every potential hazard on the road.

Greensmith isn’t out of it in second place, despite a rollercoaster afternoon loop. The Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 driver suffered a rear-right puncture on the second pass of Soysambu, but responded with one of the standout drives of the afternoon on Elmenteita 2. Brushing off his struggles from the morning pass, the British driver clocked the sixth-fastest time overall on the stage, impressively beating three top-tier Rally1 cars in the process.

Robert Virves kept his Skoda Fabia RS out of major trouble on a chaotic day to close in on Safari WRC2 victory. Red Bull Content Pool

Sunday’s final leg includes four more stages totaling 35.7 competitive miles. As Katsuta focuses on finishing and grabbing that elusive first overall win, Solberg, Ogier and Evans will return to the fray with the sole focus on gaining maximum bonus points on the rally-closing Wolf Power Stage, a second pass through the 6.5-mile Hell’s Gate test.

WRC Safari Rally Kenya, positions after Saturday/Leg Two, 16
1 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 2h41m00.2s
2 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m25.5s
3 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +5m29.1s
4 Esapekka Lappi/Enni Malkonen (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +6m18.5s
5 Robert Virves/Jakko Viilo (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 leader) +9m42.1s
6 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +10m37.4s
7 Fabrizio Zaldivar/Marcelo der Ohannesian (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +10m43.8s
8 Andreas Mikkelsen/Jorn Listerud (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +11m24.4s
9 Diego Dominguez/Rogelio Penate (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +11m57.8s
10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +18m21.0s

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