72. Safari Rally Kenya 2024
28. 3. – 31. 3. 2024, Naivasha • WRC Safari Rally Kenya • gravel 367.76 km • total distance including road sections - 1259.09 km • Other years
Info
SS19
Stopped, continued
"I'm so so pleased. But I have to congratulate the team, there were no issues with the car all weekend. This is for them, they deserve it."
"We gave it a go, I didn't feel like I was moving anywhere to be honest. A very difficult weekend, but we move on."
"I tried. I don't know where I get the 'never give up' spirit from, but it's there. We have to be pleased with the performance, let's see what the points are like."
"Some places there were some very strange roughness, it was not a great run. At least Sunday was OK, I was very unfortunate on Friday. It's a big shame, let see what comes next."
"We had a top result. It's an occasion for me to forget the business. Maybe I'll do something else...Acropolis, maybe..."
"The speed was good from the beginning, we need to be pleased with that. The rest...is not so positive"
"We tried to have a clever approach. We could have had a top 5, but luck wasn't with us. Looking forward to Croatia"
"It's been a long weekend! I'm really, really happy. Thank you to the team this weekend, they've been perfect."
"For sure it's been a great weekend. It's been good, without Friday's issues it could have been very different. It's been a real challenge, but I've enjoyed it. Good start to the championship."
"We can say we did it again in WRC2 Challenger. I was careful, sometimes boring, but that was important for me and my sponsors."
"For sure it's a very unique rally, maybe the most difficult one I've ever done. The team did a great job to prepare the car, and I tried my best. I'll see you in Croatia, where we'll have an engine update"
SS17
"No issues. It's the most horrible conditions I've ever seen anywhere, so I just drove slowly"
"It was very stressful, I had to take extra care as I got a puncture here this morning. I'll try to enjoy the next two stages."
"It's so rough today, I don't want to damage the car. We just kept enough speed to stay focused"
"Everything's fine. It still felt pretty rough to me in there"
"It was good, a good stage."
"We improved a lot, the grip is better than last time, so we tried to push a bit."
"Wow. Happy to be through, it's much more rough than before."
"They didn't have time to replace driveshaft, we were 5m late anyway"
"A lot of stones, very rough. I hope they get rid of this stage for next year. It's just a nightmare, zero fun"
SS16
"Doesn't matter if you win the stage or not. So many rocks. Just pure gamble. Main goal today is to protect the 2nd place, good for the championship."
"I saw the video of Thierry hitting a rock and then I just kept the car as straight as possible."
"It hasn't been an easy loop. Driving so carefully and it feels like making more mistakes than driving normally. Very soft here and lots of loose stones. No issues for us."
"It's quite bad actually. Lot of big big rocks everywhere and in the line. Not so happy to see those already. We will try to manage."
"I've been slowing down a lot, I had info about a huge rock and slowed down for that."
"Was a clean enough run. So many huge stones in the line, sometimes very close. Sometimes it's a lottery like that."
"Loose stones! I don't know where they came from, two of them! I had to slow down to get the car back!"
Rear right suspension broken
"We lost the Hybrid so we don't have it all the time. The pacenotes were too careful, we want to finish."
"I spun in here and reversed. Yeah.. some car in the front has put massive stones on the road. In a 4th gear corner I spun and reversed. It was in the middle of the first part."
"Transmission finished! It was a good decision to drive yesterday! (sarcastic)"
Powertrain issues, driving slow
"This stage is quite nice and flowing, but soft underneath and zero traction. We had some knock off from the brake pads and that was scary."
SS15
Off road
SS14
"Not really nice. More rough and rocky than last year, trying to go around and sneak through the stage."
"Very very lottery stage, quite stupid to be honest. The rocks are moving all the time and impossible to know where they are. Quite stupid."
Puncture, front left
"It was a really rough stage so I was careful. Just want to get through, we need to go the car is quite warm."
"I was thinking it was better, but clearly the guys don't care about the cars or the tyres."
"At one point I lost the rear and I thought I had a puncture, but I didn't so pushed on. Very tough in there. Important to take some points here, important to get through clean."
"A lot of grip, much more than expected. Much too careful!"
"Can't be much less demanding for me. It's so rough. Even with nothing to lose, it doesn't feel natural to push. Just hope the teeth stay in the mouth."
"After one kilometer puncture on the rear. No luck!"
Puncture, rear right tyre off the rim
SS13
"Awful to drive in there! High grip, smooth road.. the car is not nice to drive. At least a clean run, but there's rocks everywhere. Unbelievable."
"No rain, no punctures. We must be happy. One day to go, we'll see. The gap should be quite well."
Stopped
"It's been fine. Feeling better now. Took the last one nice and easy, no sense losing a big chunk of time. Today was easy."
"The lead is now quite good so we took it carefully. Not so enjoyable when you have a big lead and this stage where you go around every rock. We didn't have Hybrid either. Tomorrow is a tough day aswell."
"Not a 100% sure, but similar place to last time. I took it careful.."
Stopped, changed a puncture
"We had a big issue with the car and had to use road mode. I must say Aaron did a super job this stage, I followed what he said and thanks to him."
Engine electronics issues
"No info. We're gonna keep fighting, we won't stop there and we're gonna give our very best."
Fuel System problem
"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."
"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."
"The bonnet is okay? The car was almost dead! Good stage. Second pass is drying so it's easier."
Puncture, front left
"Yeah was dry, so nothing as much as expected."
Broken windscreen on drivers' side, driving slowly due to limited visibility
SS12
"It was ok, yeah. Spent the morning just trying to protect the l lead as much as we could. Seeing how bad Oliver's morning was yesterday, we thought if we've got such a big lead we need to protect, then we can step it up this afternoon now we know where the bad sections are."
"I'm just trying to be extra careful. It feels, even at a slow pace, that there are more bumps than you would expect."
"Everything fine, thank you."
Puncture
"Yeah, just very very careful through the stage. Everything is fine. Just wanted to make sure we get through the stage."
Stopped, mechanical
"It's more fesh fesh. We drove better but the road is destroyed."
Driving slow
"It's a bit more slippery, but we have less power than in the morning".
SS11
"Tricky. Quite soft now, the most of fesh-fesh we've had so far, tricky for the car. Big holes in corners that can break your car. All good!"
"All okay, clean run."
"For us it's okay, we need to work a bit."
"I have nothing to say. Absolutely nothing to say."
"We have done some changes, but for the rain. There is none now, but let's see later. Scared about not having enough protection, but i'm happy. Made the car softer."
Stopped multiple times in the stage. Main fuel pump failed, they switched to the backup pump. Attempting to finish the stage in EV mode.
"We made some good changes to the setup and we had to change the turbo. This time the car is going well, so it's perfect."
"I think my window is falling open and we have some issues.."
Dust in the car
"[Snorkel] I mean it wasn't useful in this stage, not really important to have it. We can do the fesh-fesh without the snorkel."
SS10
"One of the most amazing stages i've done in my life. We were very lucky, we hit a big rock with the front and then the left side. But we are here, that's the main point. The name is good for it!"
"I had to do the second part [recce] of the stage fully at night and the organizers didn't let us go in the morning."
Stopped at 20km, continued
Driving slow
"For sure. In one way, you push a little bit because you never know what happens in the front, but then I have a second place that I have to take care of for the championship."
"Perfect! No puncture, so perfect! Just to survive and keep our position. This is my first rally this season so it's important to have a good entry."
Stopped at 8km, continued moving
"Not great. What made it worse was the roughness and the windscreen washers pointing in the wrong direction."
"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 not pushing hard when I could."
Lost hybrid at the start
"12 kilometers in.. I don't know how. I tried to be smooth and slow."
Puncture, rear right
"Yeah puncture.. I hit a big rock, it was a big mistake. Very lottery, rocks everywhere."
Puncture, front right and rear right
"That's a hell of a stage. I had a clean run through, but the muddy places at the beginning were really crazy. Just before the finish line we drove over a stone and we bent something."
"I was slow in that stage, I have no confidence. Rocks everywhere, grip very changeable.. just wanted to get through, which we did."
"Most difficult stage of my life. We had a lot of moments - we stalled, we had a stone in the middle.. maximum adrenaline!"
Puncture, rear right
"Very very tough, very demanding and lots of surprises with the mud. Got a puncture in the end, but we drove to the finish."
"Puncture, puncture.. I think generally it was fairly fine, just some sections were with big puddles and mud. Generally the grip is quite high."
Puncture, rear right
Slowed for animals at 8 km
Hit a zebra at 8km. Slight damage to the right front and windscreen.
SS9
"Not great. The pacenotes were not good in the first one specially. During a braking zone in the last stage we had a big impact and my steering is now bent."
"It's so rough in there, so easy to get a puncture and he already had a puncture. I just want to keep my tyres clean for the next one, it's long and someone is gonna get a puncture."
"I like this one. Many rocks on the straight road and you have to be slower than usual. Nice stage, we try to be smart. It's important here."
"Not great. I have more energy, but it's still the same. We had a puncture in the first stage. Just gotta drink more water."
Retired for the day. Broken suspension.
"Quite cautious approach. Today we have a lot of stones and rough places. We will try to have normal pace, don't want to be too slow and not take too many risks."
"Not playing it safe. It's a lottery here with cuts. There were places on the recce where people just went straight through, I don't know how we can compete with that."
"Just focusing and avoiding punctures, it can come down to a small rock. It's annoying, but just following my strategy. Next stage? Horrible."
"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."
"It's a shame about our teammate. We are doing a quite good loop, pushing in the open. Trying to keep the car in one piece."
"Easy. Compared to the previous one."
"Big thumbs up, it's all flat so, it was easy. We already had an issue at the last stage, but before the start it just stopped so we went without. Quite an eventful day so far.. we have done lots of things not just one, so busy busy."
"The organizers are not doing a good job. They promised us that nothing will change, but they changed the cuts after the recce."
Intercom issues, Järveoja using hand signals
Repairing on the road section. Not starting in correct order.
SS8
Puncture
"Not easy for sure. I tried to be a bit careful, there's so many rocks. Not easy to find the limit. I had a bit of dust and lost a few seconds in the dust."
"Seemed to have a rear left puncture, didn't feel like it at first and then sure enough it was. It was too long to drive it out.."
"I have a bigger problem with my eyes, I don't know.. I really hate this fesh-fesh.. I can't open my eyes. Blind rally! It's not easy!"
"Was a good stage. I'm happy with my stage, always tried to keep it in the middle of the road."
"I don't know about [Munster]. I had a clean stage and I really slowed down at the rocky part."
Stopped at 12.7km. Changing a puncture, continuing.
"We had some mistake on the back [on road section] so we had to work a bit. We also lost power after fesh-fesh and had to slow."
Stopped, continuing very slowly. Rear left suspension broken.
"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."
"Pretty good. Grip was fine, for sure some powder on the top but generally really nice."
Front left tyre off the rim
Bonnet loose on the right side. Stopped for about a minute to close it.
SS7
damaged radiator
"Today makes zero sense. In here, I hit every rock possible, and no puncture. It's a small joke.. unbelievable. Still a long way to go, we have to keep pushing. I thought today was gonna be nice!"
"That was.. very exciting. Very exciting! If you don't have a puncture, it's so fun! I'm shaking.. but okay! That's why we are here!"
"I think now I found a good balance. When it was cleaner then we could show better pace. Didn't want to take too many risks."
"I have to be happy with that! The conditions are very rough, it's going deeper with every car. I would have loved to go even faster."
"Losing time in the soft section and I also missed a junction. But we're happy to be here, tomorrow will be more tricky. Just doing my strategy of not doing crazy things."
"For us, this morning we lost a lot of time and i'm happy to be closer to him. I can't do anything in this type of stage. Found a way to get the car better in these conditions."
"Touched maybe something with both sides. Disappointed all in all. Performance should have been a bit better. Need to be better tomorrow."
Slight rear right damage (bodywork)
"Happy with my stage, but it's cleaning a lot. I was even waving to Martijn that I had no traction. The puncture cost us time, but we got through. A difficult day for Hyundai."
SS6
"Concentration is not at its best. [Energy levels?] 1%."
"The stage was good. Enjoyable, less stones than this morning but I was still cautious. Stage is nice!"
"It's okay. Rocks everywhere, so a bit about luck when it comes to the tyres. At the moment I had a little bit of luck! For sure the target is the championship so I need to be clever, there's a chance for a podium. Gus is doing a good job and he is pushing, tyres will be a gamble."
"Tänak touched something? Not a good drive from me, but okay. No problem."
"This one is the cleanest so i'm trying to drive my normal pace if I was not taking so much margin. I just want to finish this one."
"It was tricky hearing Ott going out now my teammate is the closest. Didn't want to do anything crazy."
"Everything going how we expect. Anything can happen to all of us. It's very difficult to drive because a lot of things happening in the car."
"We have done some adjustments for the second loop, I have more confidence in the car. I am trying to watch the rocks."
Stopped at 3.2km. He hits a rock in the middle of the road and his car is thrown into a bank on the outside.
"We had a Huge moment in there! Flat right or something, we almost hit the ditch on two wheels. Luckily we saved it. It was very close. We expected a little rain."
SS5
Puncture
"Not feeling well. Keeping a good, sensible pace."
"Lot of grip in the stage and difficult to make the car turn. The section where Lappi is, is very rough."
"Not really [flat out]. Afraid of punctures everywhere I go! Quite frustrating, but that's life. It's a very long rally, we gotta keep pushing."
"Better. I like it, I improved a lot and the car is also a lot more stable."
"Bit better, we changed some things, but we stalled two times in the stage. In this stage the changes were too good."
"Slightly better. Luckily we found something small to do with the car. Still not happy with this stage, would like the gap to be bigger."
"It was very very difficult, very rough. Also lots of different things in the car. In the next stage we will have to be more careful. We will find out what we can do."
"We did some changes [to the chassis] in the service, but the road conditions are much easier than in the morning. Every downhill had a compression and I struggled with keeping it in the line."
"[Lappi out] That is a shame. Big shame. For us; a difficult stage once again. Thierry's car took so much work that they couldn't work on our car. Let's see if we can work on it ourselves."
Stopped 9km in. Broken transmission.
"It was better than in the morning at least. (Hard tyres?) Maybe, maybe not?"
"It felt good. Thanks to the guys, they fixed it quite well. From col to the downhill there's lots of cleaning. At the same time I tried not to overheat the tyre as well."
SS4
"The sand got into the air filter so that's why we lost so much time. Our mistake. At the beginning, maybe 4-5km."
"It's going okay. On these last two be backed off to make it back to service. Just driving around rocks!"
"Now we know what's Safari and it's not even raining yet. The grip is changing all the time, the car is doing what it wants to do. We are hitting the floor of the car. We are still here."
"What the hell can you do? Crazy high pressures. You take it easy in the rocky section and you still get a slow puncture. Without WRC tyres it's no fun. From now on it's flat out."
Puncture
Mechanical issues. Driving slow.
"I like it aswell. New notes so it's good. We have another puncture for the last 9kms. But it's okay, we had fun."
Stopped on the junction to the last straight. Changing a puncture.
"Gentle with the car. I drive like it's a Rally2. It's a very long rally. I saw that Thierry had a puncture and I had a very close call with the front tyres. Struggling a bit with the front."
"This stage has been really nice every year. For sure I want to commit and even with the new notes. There are very heavy things in this long stage."
"In this one I was a bit too careful. Not trying to go fast and keep like this, but still improve. We will see at the end of the weekend. That jump is not too comfortable with the tree."
"All good, no problems. Quite a steady stage. Everything good. Not really satisifed with the damping we have, kicked me out of the line."
"I tried to have a clean run. Very very dangerous in places, some places we were really on the nose. The car is running okay so no drama for us."
"I had a really clean stage to be fair. We slowed down the car, I was quite careful with the rocks in some places. We have to do a lot of changes."
"Tricky. The vision is very difficult, it's so high speed. Okay, for sure it can be a lot better. Disappointed with the morning as a whole. We need to figure out what to change and do this afternoon."
"It was okay. Better than I thought. Lucky we had the mask. We were expecting more dust on the windscreen. We were very unlucky with the puncture, we also lost the hybrid."
Wearing masks & goggles to avoid possible dust issues as the puncture ripped off a lot of parts off the car.
SS3
Double puncture
"Everything is fine. For the safari rally, it's perfect. Many rocks in the middle of the road so you have to follow the incorrect line."
"I had a message that Oliver had a puncture and no risk in there."
Puncture about 1km into the stage, changed
"Completely different from the previous one. Much more flat and more loose stones on the road. Had to take it easy. Still discovering everything."
"I don't know, it was in the beginning on the straight. Can't say anything.. there's rocks everywhere! It's Africa! In an R5 it's not easy with these tyres."
"I like it! Fast! I can go faster, but first time I go so fast so.. it's okay."
"A lot of cleaning, but it's quite good from behind. Never seen such big rocks always on the line, had to drive around them. I heard Thierry had a puncture, didn't want to do the same."
Puncture about 1km into the stage, changed mid stage
"This one was not so bad. On the fast corners it's not easy on this rally, the setup is not optimal for this stage and with two spares it's a bit sketchy sometimes."
"Quite messy in places, easy to get punctures. Impossible to avoid big rocks in some places. All good."
"A couple of mistakes, but was okay, nothing special. A couple of times I was not breaking enough for the regen and missed the boost on the uphill. Lots of places to improve for the second pass."
"Done some changes to the car, the first one was really difficult to drive. It's going in a good direction, felt comfortable in this stage. Want to do my drive and we'll see. The car was jumping too much on the rear, so we changed quite a lot."
"Not easy still to be honest, struggling with the balance quite a lot. Very very loose. We tried."
WRC TV replay shows Neuville hitting a bank on the outside of a corner, knocking the rear right wheel off the rim
"I don't know where, but very early into the stage. Car was showing me two punctures.. I don't know if it's true but rear left felt still okay."
Puncture, rear left right
SS2
"It's really tricky. The downhill section is zero grip. Managed to get through and do a bit better later."
"It is fun, i'm not sure about my reactions any more. Nice wake up call."
"Tricky, but I know this stage. I was really slow, maybe too slow. Plan is to be careful."
"The car is working very well, no complaints there. Just sweating like a pig. Gonna be a long day. I have a perfect engineer from Škoda and he makes it easier for me."
"We're just taking slowly, we can't match (Solberg's) speed. Taking it easy and saving the car. Some sections are already rough with stones."
"Not perfect to be honest. Playing it safe. The car was not nice to drive, so many bumps and the car is very high, it gets very stiff. It's okay."
"It's already hot! Very technical and quite intensive. It's okay."
"Really rough, difficult to have an idea how fast you can go. The car is not turning in. Always waiting for the car to turn in and it never happens. The goal is to finish and get through."
Close call with Zebras
Left rear off the rim
"I don't want to say really bad words, but it was horrible. Understeering so much. I don't understand how we can do any time in the stage. It's horrible. We shouldn't have struggled."
"It's a tricky stage, but second will be more. I had a careful drive but it was okay. Long way to go. Today is not a big push."
"One (spare wheel) is enough! I mean, was an okay stage, but massive understeer. I don't know if we can make it better but times could be better if the car was better for me."
"Generally low grip, somehow really struggling. Only front wheel drive, very hard at the moment, car is not working at all."
"It was much slippier than I expected. Just struggling to read the lines. But its only the first stage of the rally"
"Not a good feeling, really struggling with the balance. Not what we expected after shakedown."
Left rear slow puncture
"I was struggling with a lot of understeer, and on the downhill there was massive cleaning. It's very difficult."
SS1
Off road
Off road
"It's going to be a challenging event. Fingers crossed we get through without any problems. I feel good in the car, but there's a long way to go"
"It's clearly a tough [rally]. The first thing in my mind is to get through without trouble."
"The fight with EP continues! Let's see, it will be an interesting weekend. We will do our best"
"It's quite a challenge here, we'll try to keep it steady and see what happens."
Rolled
Spin
Off road
Spin