And in the end, Sébastien Ogier wins. The French veteran won the Kenya rally on Sunday, resisting the comeback of the young Finnish Kalle Rovanperä, defending champion who escaped at the head of the world championship (WRC).
A true duel of generations. Which turned to the advantage of the oldest. The 39-year-old Frenchman, eight-time champion between 2013 and 2021, finishes these grueling 355 km with only 6.7 seconds ahead of the 22-year-old Finn, who in 2022 became the youngest champion in history. Ogier wins for the second time in Kenya after 2021, the year of the return to the calendar of this historic event. Even intermittent showman in the WRC (he missed Sweden and Portugal), Ogier is already on his third victory in 2023 after Monte-Carlo and Mexico. The 58th of a monumental career.
On a still uncompromising ground, whether rocky, sandy or muddy, the two Toyotas went blow for blow. Between Thursday and Sunday, Ogier won seven specials, Rovanperä six (out of a total of 19). The other competitors did not keep up the pace: the Briton Elfyn Evans and the Japanese Takamoto Katsuta certainly offered Toyota a quadruple as in 2022 but finished some three minutes behind. Already leader of the championship before arriving in the savannah, Rovanperä takes off in front of the sandy pursuers: the Nordic (139 pts) is now 37 points ahead of the Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), 8th in Kenya at 24 minutes, and 41 on Evans.
Neuville, who had not finished the day on Friday after breaking a suspension, saved his place as runner-up by winning the Power stage on Sunday and his five bonus points. Also handicapped by mechanical problems, the Estonian Ott Tänak (M-Sport Ford) finished 6th at more than nine minutes and lost two places overall, now fifth. Even if the general classification is not his primary objective, Ogier is tied for fourth with Tänak (97 pts) and five points behind Neuville (102). Yet another snub for these full-time pilots against the intermittent veteran.
Ogier however did not have an easy weekend and could, as in 2022, have lost everything due to a puncture on Saturday. But he held on. Even on Sunday, after having “slightly hung on a tree” and lost the tailgate and rear wing, the Frenchman, gaping trunk, resisted. If Rovanperä repeated at will on Saturday that he was above all aiming for the general classification and not at all costs for the stage victory, the Finn did everything to win. He pushed hard on Sunday morning and preserved the suspense until he came back to 9.2 seconds before the final special. During this one, he still took time. But not enough to impose itself, as in 2022, on Maasai land. A round reputed to be the most difficult of the season, both for its very sharp rockery and for the very changeable weather, which offered its dose of rain on Saturday to the competitors.
