Another Toyota ace, Elfyn Evans (United Kingdom) is equally breathing fire as he takes the 2025 Safari head on.
Hopeful to put Toyota at bay is Hyundai who are parading a ferocious threesome consisting of reigning world champion Thierry Neuville (Belgium), 2019 world winner Ott Tanak (Estonia) and promising speed merchant Adrien Fourmaux ( France) who are ready to attack, destroy and dismantle history in the unforgiving Naivasha landscape on their i20 N Rally 1 machines.
"We have done our homework well, we believe we will break the jinx that has derailed our effort to clinch the Safari in the last four years," Neuville told Standard Sports.
Neuville has been quite unlucky in the Safari, failing to make it to the podium four times in a row, despite his early promising starts in the contest every year.
Even last season, the soft-spoken Belgium had a torrid outing in Kenya despite going ahead to bag his first world title.
Neuville had problems with his mechanical gremlins- from his damper to driveshaft and fuel pumps, that saw him retire in the Kenyan leg last year.
Locally, inspired Kenyan boy Hamza Anwar will go for the jugular in the WRC3 category which he is also defending. He is the second Kenyan to triumph in the category after Maxine Wahome in 2022.
Multiple national rally champion Carl Tundo will be the other Kenyan to watch as he seeks to defend his Master's trophy in the WRC where he is also aiming to gather points in the African Rally Championship and the Kenyan National Rally Championship (KNRC) categories.
It will be Tundo's 24th appearance in the Safari Rally and he is still counting. All-lady crew of Pauline Shegu/Linet Ayuko will challenge the status quo as they take on men head on in the WRC category.