Rovanperä escapes the dust clouds to win gruelling Safari Rally – gallery

Fesh-fesh – it goes everywhere. Clawing, blinding plumes of sand which create huge dust clouds and gets inside the engine, the radiators, and your eyes if it seeps through a crack in the windows.

The sand almost defines the most gruelling, relentless WRC event of the year, the Safari Rally Kenya, which claimed more prisoners than any other this year – only half of the WRC1 field finished as six cars crossed the line.

Just looking at the end result though, you might not have guessed it was so tough for one team: Toyota took a historic 1-2-3-4 result, its first since 1993, when Juha Kankkunen led a top-four lockout for the Japanese firm.

Young Kalle Rovanperä strengthened his grip on this year’s WRC title, taking his fourth win in six events.

“This was the hardest rally I have ever done,” Kalle Rovanperä

“I have to say, this was the hardest rally I have ever done,” the 21-year-old Finn said.

“Of course it is quite important because it is a special event. If you manage to win it, it is quite nice and for Toyota it has been an important race.

“I think it is the toughest because of how much you have to concentrate and manage the car to keep it moving over the fesh-fesh sand, there are so many situations where normally you don’t need to take care.

“Normally all you have to worry about is driving fast, but here you have to manage to get through.”

At one point it looked as though Elfyn Evans might challenge Rovanperä, getting the gap down to 15sec on Saturday, but the Finn increased his lead once more to win by 52.8sec over the Welshman.

Takamoto Katsuta took the second podium of his career – the previous one coming in Kenya last year – whilst WRC legend Sébastien Ogier came home fourth. The Frenchman had been leading on Thursday before a power loss caused by sand in his airbox, but still recovered to score decent points.