[WRC] Safari Rally Kenya 2021

[dimviii]

Takamoto, welcome to the WRC podium for the first time in your career. What is the feeling to be here right now?
TK:
Very happy, let’s say. It is a special feeling after a tough weekend and very long. In beginning of the week I was not well and had food poison (ing) and was quite sick

https://www.fia.com/news/wrc-s-ogier...tely-delivered

[dimviii]

amazing imho photo

[doubled1978]

guys what about the pirelli tyres?Good or bad at Safari?

Seemed ok I think, but a lot of the roads were soft and not so hard on the tyres. I think Greece will be a lot worse for the tyres

[SubaruNorway]

This one i wanted to quote,

At World i think, 2nd one at least.

What stage were those giraffes on again on Friday?

[Jarek Z]

Taka is proof and hope for a lot of drivers, that if you are not born-ready-WRC talent, you can achieve high results with hard work. Good job Taka and team around him!

Does that mean that the constant criticism of Chris Ingram on this forum will stop now?

[the sniper]

It might not have been everyone's cup of tea, but I loved this rally. First time in a long time I've watched every minute of every stage on All Live (admittedly, on delay). Thanks must go to those who made it possible, including Mr Todt. It really shouldn't have been away so long... Hopefully this encourages the WRC to have a greater respect for the sport's heritage going forwards.

[meh]

Does that mean that the constant criticism of Chris Ingram on this forum will stop now?

Quite provocative question, to keep "the thread flowing" for few more days?

Till there is someone who thinks that Ingram is the Man and serves high(er)-level contract and opportunity, there is someone who thinks opposite. Simple as that. No chance it ends

[AnttiL]

I would say Safari gave what I expected. It was tough, unexpected and unique. It was very fast at times, and very slow at others. It wasn't the old Safari, not even like in 2002, but it's still a Safari Rally just as much as Monte is Monte in its current edition.

[meh]

I would say Safari gave what I expected. It was tough, unexpected and unique. It was very fast at times, and very slow at others. It wasn't the old Safari, not even like in 2002, but it's still a Safari Rally just as much as Monte is Monte in its current edition.

What I was afraid of before rally - it will be pure lottery of punctures and other technical failures. Friday gave scary perspective with a lot of retirements and quite some punctures. Saturday was opposite and even boring, only last-stage rain gave this lottery, but it's not Safari specific - it may rain everywhere. Also from Sunday there was not any too rough conditions related dramas anymore. Probably drivers just learned from Friday and adapted.

For me only Safari specific retirement or problem for WRC cars was Rovanperä stuck in Fesh-Fesh. It is combination of road condition and luck but this is not an example which advertise this rally from positive side. If we look stage results for lower-class, there were many cars stuck in the middle of the road and not getting stuck maybe was not even an option. From those problems hopefully everyone learned and it's more enjoyable next time.

From pure-sportic point of view - it's also not that nice, that you can achieve 6th place with 10min loss, 7th place with 30min loss and 10th place 50min loss. Only 1 WRC2 competitor and this one retired. Hopefully list of competitors will increase when COVID restrictions are lowered but travelling to Kenya will be expensive (compared to Europe events) anyway.

[mknight]

Rovanpera getting stuck was imo a combination of multiple things... organizers not used to roads getting destroyed so much and Rovanpera not used to driving trough that. Ultimately he got stuck cause he eased off from throttle (cause he couldn't see) and then digged in after flooring it again.

I would say the organizers already learned and applied the lesson on Sunday, "repairing" the last part of PS.

The low amount of entries outside of Kenya is imo a combination of COVID, dates in calendar (one week after one ERC round and one week before another, Sardinia and Estonia also quite close) as well as Rally2 entries not knowing what to expect. Guess most expect retirement lottery and therefore nobody came. I would expect more Rally2 entries next year (say 6-8 instead of 2 this year), but it will off course never be as packed as a European round.