World Rally champion Thierry Neuville is eyeing a dominant performance at the Safari Rally starting Thursday to Sunday in Naivasha as he aims to defend his title.
The Safari Rally is the third stop in the 2025 WRC calendar after Monaco and Sweden. Neuville clinched his maiden WRC title last year with 242 points, fending off Britain’s Elfyn Evans (210) and Estonia’s Ott Tanak (200).
The triumph saw him become the first Belgian to win the World Rally Championship, capping a journey that included five runner-up finishes in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
In an exclusive interview at Hyundai’s headquarters at Caetano Centre on Mombasa Road, Neuville made his intentions clear.
“My target for the Safari Rally season this year is to win,” Neuville said. Currently fourth in the WRC standings with 29 points, Neuville is chasing Toyota’s Evans (61), Sebastien Ogier (33) and Kalle Rovanpera (31).
However, Neuville acknowledged the Safari Rally’s punishing terrain, recalling past heartbreaks where mechanical issues derailed his runs.
“Looking back to the previous years, we have been in the lead until Sunday, then the car develops some issues. We had an issue with the damper in the first year, and twice we had fuel pump issues,” he said.
Last year, Neuville finished fifth with 19 points, with Rovanpera claiming victory with 20 points. He failed to finish in 2023, was fifth in 2022 on 10 points and had a DNF in 2021 due to a damper issue. This year, the Hyundai ace is taking extra precautions, determined to stay clear of reliability setbacks.
“Hopefully, we will not have any problems this year even though our approach will be the same as the other years. We are taking good care of the car. We hope we will not have any major issues.”
“We had some weak points and have just been trying to work on those points. We hope for a strong performance this weekend,” he said.
After four years of heartbreak, Neuville believes this might be the year he is crowned champion at the iconic Hell’s Gate National Park.
“If we can do that, we will be very happy. After four years of struggle, I believe this is our year of success.” With Toyota leading the manufacturers’ standings at 120 points and Hyundai trailing at 72, Neuville knows the importance of delivering a big result.
“I believe that we need to perform this weekend. We need to be strong. The target is to outperform Toyota, but this is a rally we know they have been so strong in the past,” he said.
“They made a very strong start of the season, and we need to get close on the championship; we need to outperform Elfyn this weekend.”
In Monte-Carlo (Monaco), Ogier led the standings with 33 points, followed by Evans (26), with Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux third (20).
In Sweden, Evans claimed overall victory with 35 points, with Takamoto Katsuta (25) and Neuville (20) completing the podium. The Belgian hailed Hyundai’s decision to bring in French driver Fourmaux from M-Sport Ford, citing his rapid progress last season.
“The team decided to fake a full-time driver, and someone like Adrian, who made a good progression last year, is very important. Adrian was a good move. He brought a lot of value to the team,” he observed.
He highlighted the need to have more drivers to rival Toyota. “Having three experienced and strong drivers is positive for the whole championship. We have seen Toyota with four cars in Monte-Carlo and five in Sweden, so hopefully, we can add one more car. This is very important in the fight for the championship,” he said.
