 Safari Rally Kenya 2002 review. Story by Andrew Frampton.
Colin McRae became the first driver to record 25 World Rally Championship victories with a measured drive on the toughest of all the events in the 2002 calendar, the Safari Rally of Kenya. The searing heat and thick choking dust were made worst by recent rainstorms that had destroyed many of the roads. On occasions the leading cars dropped to a snail's pace in an effort to keep their machines in the rally, while many chose to use alternative routes to avoid the worst areas, preferring to use the grass alongside the road to the rocky paths that formed the basis of the route. McRae hit the front following the retirement of Subaru's Tommi Makinen early on the second leg, the Finn having dominated the first day, with the Ford driver holding off the distant threat of Harri Rovanpera's Peugeot to record victory by nearly three minutes.
Makinen is one of the few drivers to perform consistently well on the Safari Rally, and the Finn began the event in the best possible way, with fastest time over the opening stage. Despite limited loose-surface mileage, Tomas Radstrom was second fastest on his first visit to the Kenyan event, albeit 21 seconds behind the Subaru driver. Ford were tipped by many to perform well in Kenya, with a robust and reliable car, and their trio of drivers started well over the opening stage, with Markko Martin 3rd, Carlos Sainz 5th and Colin McRae seventh fastest. Things got better for the Scot on the second stage, setting the fastest time and moving into second overall, thus reducing Makinen's lead to just over one minute at the halfway stage of the first leg.
Others had not been so lucky, most notably Marcus Gronholm, who gained the unfortunate honour of being the first retirement of the rally - the championship leader's event ending less than ten miles into the opening stage when he lost power. Hyundai were also in trouble, with two cars out of the event after less than an hour of competitive driving. The Belgian Freddy Loix was the first to depart, when his clutch broke during the first stage, leaving him stranded, while Armin Schwarz retired on the road section to the second stage when his alternator broke.
Having gone fourth fastest through the second stage, Makinen's lead stood at just over a minute, while Skoda's Kenneth Eriksson was up into third, ahead of Sainz, Harri Rovanpera (Peugeot) and the second Skoda of Toni Gardemeister. Makinen extended his advantage with fastest time through SS3, over a minute quicker than his nearest challenger - Peugeot's asphalt specialist Gilles Panizzi. The Finn should have been heading for a comfortable overnight lead, but reduced his pace on the day's final stage too much, dropping over two minutes to McRae, who set the fastest time through the stage. His final stage run had reduced the gap to just 16.1 seconds, and left the lead battle nicely poised for the event's second leg. Sainz ended the day in third position, albeit nearly three minutes off the leader's pace. Rovanpera was consistently the quickest of the Peugeots and held fourth spot overnight, around 45 seconds shy of Sainz, but over two minutes ahead of Eriksson, who had dropped to fifth after breaking a driveshaft on the day's final stage. Martin was sixth, while Radstrom had dropped back to seventh position, but was lucky to still be in the event after being forced to drive for 25 miles with just three wheels. His team-mate Sebastien Loeb was also going well, holding ninth position having set the third fastest time on the second stage.
Splitting the pair was the world champion Richard Burns, who was over fifteen minutes off the lead having cruised through the opening day - the Englishman hoping to make up places as other fell by the wayside. Francois Delecour was one of those who ended the first leg early after his Mitsubishi's engine expired on the third stage. He was joined on the retirement list by Gardemeister, who lost a wheel, and Petter Solberg, who as usual, suffered a variety of problems before his engine failed. Gardemeister's team-mate Roman Kresta was tenth overnight ahead of the remaining works cars of Juha Kankkunen (Hyundai), Gilles Panizzi (Peugeot) and Alister McRae (Mitsubishi).
Makinen began the first stage of the second leg looking to reopen the gap to McRae, but within minutes of the start of the stage the Finn was slowed with rear damper problems. The cost was around eight minutes and saw Makinen drop down to sixth position. Loeb was fastest through the stage, proving that Citroen had the pace to match their reliability, while McRae was only fifth fastest having been caught in Makinen's dust. To no great objection from the drivers, the sixth stage was cancelled when the extent of the cloud cover over the route was deemed too dangerous to fly the spotter helicopters, with the cars regrouping for the seventh stage.
McRae was more successful through SS7, setting the second fastest time behind the rejuvenated Burns. Makinen lost even more time when he suffered a puncture, with the Finn finally forced out of the event after damaging his suspension on the next stage. Stage victory went to Panizzi - the Frenchman recording his first stage win on a loose-surface event, on the hardest event of the year. Loeb and Rovanpera were second and third fastest respectively, with McRae back in sixth position. However, the stage also saw the demise of Sainz. Third fastest time through the leg's final stage confirmed Rovanpera in second position overnight, two and a half minutes behind McRae, but a massive eleven minutes ahead of third placed Radstrom, meaning the final leg would be contested between the Scot and the Finn.
Loeb, who had only failed to make the top two on the leg's second stage, had moved into fourth position, just over three minutes behind his team-mate. Martin made the most of the retirements to move into fifth position, ahead of Panizzi, who had moved up from thirteenth at the end of the previous day. Kresta held seventh position, with Kankkunen and Alister McRae completing the top nine, and the remaining works drivers.
Although a two and a half minute margin may have looked unbeatable on a European WRC event, the Safari rally is uniquely punishing, with something as simple as a tyre change taking up to three minutes. McRae knew that he still had to push to be assured of victory, with Rovanpera going faster over three of the four stages on the previous day. However, a superb run from the Scot through the first test of the day, SS10, over which he was 44 seconds faster than Rovanpera, left the Finn hoping for a retirement to have a chance to snatch victory. Having set his first ever fastest-stage time on a loose-surface event on the previous day, Panizzi promptly took his second on SS11, an amazing one and a half minutes ahead of Martin. McRae was third fastest, extending his lead over Rovanpera by another thirty seconds to nearly four minutes.
All the Scot had to do was to keep running through the final stage, and although he was over four minutes slower than stage-victor Loeb, he was only one minute behind Rovanpera, and had secured victory by 2 minutes and 50 seconds. Rovanpera was content with second position, with Radstrom completing the podium for Citroen. The main excitement of the final leg was the battle between Loeb and Martin for fourth position, which the former had held by four and a half minutes at the end of the previous day. Although he had been fastest through the opening stage, Loeb dropped seven minutes to Martin on the day's second run, falling behind the Estonian. Although the Citroen driver was fastest over the final stage, Martin was just less than a minute slower, and retained the position by 20 seconds. Panizzi came home fifth, adding a point to his total to keep him in touch with the championship leaders, while Kresta finished seventh to give Skoda some joy on an event on which they were aiming for a podium finish. Kankkunen and Alister McRae brought their cars home in eighth and ninth positions respectively, with the three surviving Group N cars completing the twelve finishers.
McRae's victory moves him to within seven points of Gronholm's championship lead, but with the next round to be held in Finland, the chance of reducing that deficit further on the Peugeot driver's home event is limited.
Safari Rally Result:
1. Colin McRae/Nicky Grist (Ford Focus)
2. Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (Peugeot 206) +2m50.9s
3. Thomas Radstrom/Denis Giraudet (Citroen Xsara) +18m38.6s
4. Markko Martin/Michael Park (Ford Focus) +21m28.0s
5. Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroen Xsara) +21m48.1s
6. Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi (Peugeot 206) +34m41.0s
7. Roman Kresta/Jan Tomanek (Skoda Octavia) +54m38.1s
8. Juha Kankkunen/Juha Repo (Hyundai Accent) +1h11m31.5s
9. Alister McRae/David Senior (Mitsubishi Lancer) +1h17m13.2s
10. Karamjit Singh/Allen Oh (Proton Persona) +2h29m27.2s
Driver's Championship Standings:
1. Marcus Gronholm 37pts
2. Colin McRae 30pts
3. Carlos Sainz 23pts
4. Gilles Panizzi 21pts
5. Richard Burns 19pts
6. Harri Rovanpera 18pts
Constructor's Championship Standings:
1. Peugeot 83pts
2. Ford 69pts
3. Subaru 35pts
4. Skoda 8pts
5. Mitsubishi 7pts
6. Hyundai 6pts
2002 WRC season calendar
17/01 - 20/01 - 70E Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo
- Monte Carlo stage map by JR
- Monte Carlo preview by AF
- Monte Carlo review by AF
- Monte Carlo stage-by-stage times by JR
31/01 - 03/02 - Uddeholm Swedish Rally
- Sweden stage map by JR
- Sweden preview by AF
- Sweden review by AF
- Sweden stage-by-stage times by JR
- Audio downloads from Sweden by Ralliart
07/03 - 10/03 - Tour De Corse - Rallye De France
- Corsica stage map by JR
- Corsica preview by AF
- Corsica review by AF
- Corsica stage-by-stage times by JR
- Audio downloads from Corsica by Ralliart
21/03 - 24/03 - Rallye Catalunya - Rallye De Espaņa
- Catalunya stage map by JR
- Catalunya preview by AF
- Catalunya review by AF
- Catalunya stage-by-stage times by JR
- Audio downloads from Catalunya by Ralliart
18/04 - 21/04 - Cyprus Rally
- Cyprus stage map by JR
- Cyprus preview by AF
- Cyprus review by AF
- Cyprus stage-by-stage times by JR
16/05 - 19/05 - Rally Argentina
- Argentina stage map by JR
- Argentina preview by AF
- Argentina review by AF
- Argentina stage-by-stage times by JR
13/06 - 16/06 - Acropolis Rally
- Acropolis stage map by JR
- Acropolis preview by AF
- Acropolis review by AF
- Acropolis stage-by-stage times by JR
11/07 - 14/07 - Safari Rally Kenya
- Safari stage map by JR
- Safari preview by AF
- Safari review by AF
- Safari stage-by-stage times by JR
08/08 - 11/08 - Neste Rally Finland
- Finland stage map by JR
- Finland review by SS
- Finland stage-by-stage times by JR
22/08 - 25/08 - Int.Adac Rallye Deutschland
- Deutschland stage map by JR
- Deutschland review by AF
- Deutschland stage-by-stage times by JR
19/09 - 22/09 - Rallye Sanremo - Rallye D'Italia
- Sanremo stage map by JR
- Sanremo review by SS
- Sanremo stage-by-stage times by JR
03/10 - 06/10 - Propecia Rally Of New Zealand
- New Zealand stage map by JR
- New Zealand review by SS
- New Zealand stage-by-stage times by JR
31/10 - 03/11 - Telstra Rally Australia
14/11 - 17/11 - Network Q Rally Of Great Britain
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