It was the duo’s first career win at the ever-challenging Safari Rally. They secured the victory with a dominant performance ahead of Hyundai’s Ott Tänak and his teammate Thierry Neuville.
The 2025 edition of the Safari Rally was one of the toughest in recent memory. Rainfall made the conditions even more demanding, and parts of the route became extremely rough. To win the rally, drivers had to master constantly changing conditions with skill and precision.
Evans and Martin managed this better than anyone else.
“It was almost quite surreal by Saturday afternoon that we had this big lead of almost three minutes. On any other rally, you’d be fairly relaxed about the rest of the event with a lead like that, but with the Safari you couldn’t relax at all; it can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye,” co-driver Martin wrote in his column for DirtFish.
Along with pure skill and patience, winning Safari also requires a bit of good fortune.
“There’s no doubt, you need a bit of luck on your side to win the Safari. We’ve been fresh out of luck in Kenya in the past, but this time when we got a puncture, it was near the end of the stage and then we had the problem with the alternator belt on the final day. Again, we had time to fix this on the road section between stages,” Martin described.
Evans and Martin held on until the end and secured a magnificent win in Kenya. Without a doubt, it was one of the highlights of their careers so far. However, their celebrations were unfortunately short-lived.
“We’d won the Safari Rally. That’s a big deal. A very big deal. I’d like to say we celebrated all night, but actually we headed to the airport, had a couple of drinks with the team then got on an overnight flight back to London. I was asleep before we took off and woke up five hours later, still sitting bolt upright in my seat,” Martin wrote.
Evans and Martin have enjoyed a near-perfect start to the season. They have won two of the three rallies so far and lead the WRC drivers’ standings by a hefty 36 points over reigning champion Thierry Neuville, who sits in second place.
The World Rally Championship season will continue at the end of April with the Rally Islas Canarias.
