Takamoto Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston are World Rally Championship event winners – the Toyota pair victorious at Safari Rally Kenya 2026 by 27.4 seconds.
Adrien Fourmaux finished second to record Hyundai’s first podium of the season, with Sami Pajari repeating his Rally Sweden result in third place.
Katsuta remains third in the world championship standings, but he’s closed the gap on Oliver Solberg and series leader Elfyn Evans, both of whom retired on Saturday.
Evans holds an eight-point advantage over Solberg who won Super Sunday and was fastest on the power stage. Katsuta is three points further back with Fourmaux 19 points off the top.
Katsuta’s Safari got off to a bad start when in the downpour of SS1 Camp Moran, his intercom failed – leaving him without the crucial pacenotes from co-driver Johnston. A double-puncture on Friday dropped him down to seventh overnight before his fightback began.
Choosing a cautious approach and displaying sensible pace on the rugged Saturday morning loop, Katsuta climbed to fourth before his three Toyota team-mates all hit trouble.
Evans, who had been third, picked up two punctures on SS12 which weakened his rear-right suspension. On SS13, it gave up completley leaving the Welshman stranded and into retirement for the first time since 2024.
Solberg led from Ogier, but both GR Yaris Rally1s stopped on the road section back to service with alternator problems, and in Solberg’s case a transmission problem too. Suddenly, Katsuta was into the lead.
From there, he withstood all the pressure to convert his advantage into a maiden WRC win, becoming just the second Japanese driver to do so after the late Kenjiro Shinozuka despite not winning any of the rally’s 20 stages.
An emotional Katsuta couldn’t even stand next to his car for the end-of-stage interview, instead sitting back down again on the rollcage.
“I don’t know what to say. We have so many difficult times, Aaron has worked very hard with me and the team was always believing in me, even when I was failing all the time. Thanks to the whole team, finally we are here because of them and Aaron.
“My family is always a big support for me, this means so much. So many things happened but we are here. Thank you also to Ott [Tänak] who has been contacting me and helping me, even waking up earlier than me every morning. Akio-san, finally we are here so thank you!”
Hyundai battled overheating issues for the first half of the weekend but Fourmaux survived to take his second Safari Rally Kenya podium after finishing third in 2024 for M-Sport.
