ELFYN Evans and co-driver Scott Martin ran as high as second at Safari Rally Kenya before sustaining punctures on three separate occasions through Saturday’s rough and rocky stages that left the podium places out of their reach.

But they still gave their all to score as many points as possible on Sunday, where they were third-fastest over the day and fifth in the Power Stage to finish fourth.

His Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Kalle Rovanperä won the legendary event to seal the team’s fourth win in a row at the demanding African rally with Takamoto Katsuta securing a one-two finish on the demanding African event.

M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux finished third.

Dinas Mawddwy’s Evans said: “It’s not been an easy weekend for us.

“At least we could reach the end of the rally which is a positive thing, but we wanted more from this weekend.

“Today we had good speed at points but there were just a few little issues so we didn’t get as many points as we’d like.

“The first loop was not easy: the opening stage was extremely rough and we were probably too conservative there compared to the others.

“In the Power Stage we gave it a go but already in the first half it was very difficult.”

TGR continues its unbeaten run on the toughest round of the FIA World Rally Championship since its return to the calendar in 2021, while also extending the all-time Safari record set by Toyota to 12 victories.

The result once more demonstrated the strength and reliability of the GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid, which for this event featured an updated suspension package as well as a distinctive snorkel system: a modern take on an iconic feature of Safari-specification cars of the past.

It is the second time that Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen have won the event after their 2022 success.

Their victory was built on a phenomenal performance on the first full day of the rally on Friday, where they were fastest in all six stages to open up a lead of almost one minute.

This enabled Rovanperä to take caution where required on the longest and toughest day on Saturday – where he still won the rally’s longest stage by nearly 25 seconds as most of his competitors hit trouble.

With his lead up above two minutes, Rovanperä could take a safety-first approach through much of the final day’s six stages and 74.38 competitive kilometres, ultimately sealing victory by 1m37.8s.

With its one-two finish, TGR-WRT took the maximum manufacturers’ points from the overall classification plus an extra 11 bonus points on Sunday and moves into a four-point lead in the championship. Evans took a total of 16 points from his weekend to keep him second in the drivers’ standings, six from the lead.