By Timothy Ongaya
Ott Tanak stormed to a commanding lead on the opening day of the 2025 Safari Rally Kenya, with a blistering performance that saw him pull ahead by 24.4 seconds in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1.
The Estonian’s fast pace on Friday morning left his rivals in the dust, as he dominated the opening loop of longer, more traditional Kenyan gravel stages.
The rally had started on Thursday with short curtain-raiser stages, where Tanak had edged ahead by 2.4 seconds. But on Friday, he turned up the heat, delivering three consecutive fastest times in the opening stages.
His relentless pace quickly established a gap, leaving his closest rival, championship leader Elfyn Evans, in his wake. Evans, driving for Toyota GAZOO Racing, managed to hold onto second place, but he found himself trailing Tanak by a significant margin.
In third place was another Toyota driver, Kalle Rovanpera, who had won the Safari Rally twice in the past. However, his hopes of a strong performance took a hit after a costly spin on Stage 4, leaving him 47.1 seconds behind the leader.
Despite Tanak’s impressive start, the day was a nightmare for his teammate, Thierry Neuville. The Belgian driver struggled with multiple issues and ended the morning session more than 1 minute 40 seconds off the lead. Neuville’s troubles began before the first stage, when a gearbox change caused a one-minute penalty for a delayed departure. Things only got worse from there, on Stage 5, he suffered a jump start penalty and had to contend with a tyre failure. As a result, Neuville’s hopes of challenging for a podium seemed slim.
Further down the leaderboard, M-Sport Ford’s Josh McErlean made the most of his rivals’ troubles. The young Irishman climbed to fifth overall, just 8.8 seconds behind Neuville, showing impressive speed and consistency. His teammate, G Munster, however, faced a more challenging day. A series of mechanical failures including a broken rear suspension arm, transmission problems, and tyre damage dropped him outside the top 10.
Meanwhile, Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari also struggled with tyre issues. Despite these setbacks, Katsuta managed to finish the morning loop in seventh place, while Pajari ended up 11th overall. Both drivers were unable to challenge for the top spots but kept fighting through the tough conditions.
In the WRC2 category, Oliver Solberg emerged as the leader, sitting sixth overall despite the fierce competition. He was ahead of rivals like Kajetan Kajetanowicz, Gus Greensmith, and Jan Solans, who rounded out the top 10 behind Katsuta.
Reflecting on his strong performance, Tanak said, “It’s been a smooth morning, actually. Everything has been working fine. We just lost a bit of the front bumper in a compression on the first stage, but after that, the last two stages were tricky on the high-speed sections.” He added that the challenging conditions, with muddy and slippery patches and loose stones, had made the rally even more difficult. “It’s a rally where you can’t really do any strategies. We just need to take it stage by stage and keep it clean.”