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Wonderful weekend for the Toyota team at the Safari Rally Kenya 2023. Ogier, Rovampera and Evans in the top three overall positions in one of the most demanding rallies for the crews and for the stress to which the cars have been subjected. The Hyundai and M-Sport Ford teams are still struggling to find the square.
Toyota: Ogier immense and excellent team performance
The rider from Gap (France) also showed great talent on this occasion, where experience is really important to manage such a demanding and full of pitfalls race. And it was Sebastien Ogier himself with his co-driver Vincent Landais who won seven of the 19 scheduled timed trials and kept the overall first position from the second special stage which took place on Friday morning. A great performance which was completed by an excellent team work by the crews Rovampera-Halttunen, Evan-Scott and Katsuta-Johnston. With this result, the Toyota team takes home a large haul of points that weigh heavily in the constructors’ standings.
Hyundai: disqualification of Neuville for abusive reconnaissance
A weekend to be cancelled, however, for the Hyundai team led by Cyril Abiteboul who manages to bring home a fifth place as a best result thanks to the consistency of Sordo-Carrera. But the memory of this race but, above all, the disqualification of Neuville-Wydaeghe who were caught making illegal passages on the race track. A behavior that goes against the regulation (art.35.4.2 of the FIA Wrc 2023 Sporting Regulations) and which the marshals promptly punished with disqualification from the race. In fact, from the publication of the competition regulations until the end of the same, the crews can pass on the roads of the timed trials only for the authorized reconnaissance (two passages) or, in the case in which they have an authorization signed by the Clerk of the Course and by the Department Rally of the FIA.
M-Sport Ford: still missing to be competitive
Apart from the fact that the Sarari Rally Kenya is one of the most demanding and stressful races even for cars, the Ford Puma rally1s of the Wilson team have not yet managed to reach the level of competitiveness of the other teams involved in the world championship. In fact, Tanak and Loubet were unable to go beyond sixth and seventh position with a delay from the winner respectively of more than four minutes and even more than seven minutes. These are very heavy detachments for official pilots.
Classification of Drivers and Builders
After the seventh round of the World Rally Championship, the classifications begin to take shape more and more. As for the drivers’ standings, reigning World Champion Kalle Rovampera is firmly in first place with 140 points. Further behind, teammate Evans at 99 points followed by Ogier and Tänak at 98, Neuville at 93, Lappi at 69 and Sordo at 46.
While in the constructors’ standings, the Toyota team leads with 285 points followed by Hyundai on 237 and M-Sport Ford on 175. The next round of the WRC is from 120 to 23 July in Estonia, Ott Tänak’s homeland.