Rovanpera has ones again proved to be the master of the field after he extended his winning to 4 World Rally Championship (WRC) events after bagging the Safari Rally title. He completed a brutal gravel stages (363.44km) to take his fourth win from six events this year. He led Elfyn Evans by 52.8 seconds. Takamoto Katsuta came in third by 1 minute 42.7 seconds, and Sebastien Ogier was fourth by 2 minutes 10.3 seconds. They are all from Toyota leading to the car-maker scoring 1-2-3-4 in WRC since the 1993 Safari Rally, won by Juha Kankkunen. The Safari Rally proved to be the toughest event of the season so far as only 12 WRC Rally1 cars completed the full rally distance. 

Rovanpera’s only blemish arrived on Thursday’s opening Super Special stage in Nairobi when he almost rolled his GR Yaris, picking up a puncture. Evans closed to within 15 seconds of leader Rovanpera on Saturday emerging as a genuine rally contender. Rovanpera, however, outclassed him when he produced a master class when torrential rain transformed the dry gravel and sand into a mud bath. Evans was then hampered with issues of visibility as his windscreen washer developed issues making Rovanpera to lead Saturday with 40.3 seconds. The Finland international then took control of the rally and was able to back off to preserve his GR Yaris to move into a 65-point championship lead. 

Katsuta produced a solid drive throughout but it was far from a trouble-free run after briefly losing a provisional podium spot in the rain on Saturday afternoon. The Japanese driver, however, was able to recover the position when Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville flooded his engine before crashing into a tree. This marked Katsuta’s first podium ever since finishing at second place in the last year's event. Ogier had emerged as the early rally leader on Thursday and led to stage 3 but was forced to settle for the fourth position as his GR Yaris suffered a power loss from dust in the airbox. The Frenchman was a dealt a major blow when suffered a puncture on Friday’s last stage, costing him two minutes which he was unable to recover.