It’s nearly time for one of the World Rally Championship’s most demanding events: Safari Rally Kenya.
Although not quite the same as the original rally, the modern Safari still pushes cars and drivers to the absolute limit, often providing some surprising results.
And this year, with a bumper Rally1 entry, there will no doubt be plenty of action and drama at every turn.
So here’s everything you need to know about Safari Rally Kenya 2023.
Entry breakdown
Total 45 crews
10 Rally1 crews
15 WRC2 crews
5 WRC3 crews
Rally1
Ten Rally1 crews will tackle the Kenyan stages – the most since Rally México back in March.
For the fifth time this year Toyota will field four cars on the rally, with championship leader Kalle Rovanperä running first on the road. Elfyn Evans is in the second works car alongside 2021 Safari Rally Kenya winner Sébastien Ogier, while Takamoto Katsuta will compete in a non-manufacturer registered Yaris this weekend.
M-Sport has three cars taking to the stages for the third time this year. Alongside regular drivers Ott Tänak and Pierre-Louis Loubet, privateer Jourdan Serderidis will make his return to the championship, having been absent since México.
As usual, Hyundai will field a three car team consisting of Thierry Neuville, Esapekka Lappi and Dani Sordo.
WRC2
Fifteen WRC2 cars will start in Kenya but only 12 of them for points, with drivers like Oliver Solberg attending just to build up experience.
Toksport will not have a presence on a WRC round for the first time this season, but Škoda will still be represented by the likes of Solberg and last year’s category winner Kajetan Kajetanowicz taking on the stages in an older Fabia Rally2 evo.
Big players such as Gus Greensmith, Yohan Rossel and Andreas Mikkelsen are missing this weekend, and so it will give others such as M-Sport’s Grégoire Munster an opportunity to fight Kajetanoqicz for the spoils along with Martin Prokop who has switched back to a Fiesta after driving a Škoda in Sardinia.
Karen Patel (Fiesta R5) and Carl Tundo (Fabia R5) ensure there’ll be plenty of local representation too.
Itinerary
Drivers face 19 stages over four days on this year’s Safari Rally Kenya, but unusually the weekend gets underway earlier than normal with the shakedown stage on Wednesday before the opening competitive test on Thursday afternoon.
Some 78 miles of driving then await the crews on Friday, with Kedong being the longest test at 19.02 miles.
That will get the field warmed up for the modern classic 19-mile Sleeping Warrior test on Saturday as crews face yet another 93.75 miles of road to cover.
Sunday is the shortest day, as per the norm in the WRC, but comprises six stages (and a midday service) before the Hell’s Gate powerstage which concludes the event.
