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Rovanpera wins Safari Rally in Toyota 1-2-3-4 finish

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Inch-perfect Kalle Rovanperä shows rivals the way home in Kenya

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FIA World Rally Championship

The fia world rally championship puts drivers against some of the toughest conditions on the planet., safari rally kenya is finally back after a long hiatus from the wrc calendar..

Thierry Neuville

Belgian driver thierry neuville has finished in second place in the drivers’ standings several times – now he's pushing hard to be the next wrc champion..

Kalle Rovanperä

Kalle rovanperä is the record-breaking, youngest-ever wrc world champion who's following in the tracks of his legendary finnish compatriots..

Sébastien Ogier

When sébastien ogier clinched a eighth world rally championship crown in november 2021, he joined an elite club of drivers..

Sébastien Loeb

French driver sébastien loeb's domination of the rally-driving world has earned him the nickname of le patron, or 'the boss'..

Elfyn Evans

A first win in 2017 saw elfyn evans become the first welsh driver to win rally gb on home soil, and he's continued racking up big results ever since..

Takamoto Katsuta

A product of the toyota gazoo racing wrc challenge development program, takamoto katsuta came to the wrc via karting and formula three..

Watch action from Safari Rally Kenya

Safari Rally Kenya flyby

Watch the dust fly in kenya as teams navigate the dry and dusty road conditions., ogier and veillas's saturday stage, watch sébastien ogier and co-driver benjamin veillas take on the dusty roads of kenya on saturday's stage., safari rally kenya: a truly unique challenge, discover some of the reasons safari rally kenya presents a challenge unlike any other..

Kalle Rovanperä celebrates his victory

© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool

Toyota domination

Sébastien Ogier missed out on a podium place

The Safari’s no picnic

The dusty roads provided a stern challenge in Kenya

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WRC - Rovanperä secures commanding victory at Safari Rally, Greensmith wins WRC2

2024 Safari Rally Kenya - Sunday

• World Rally Championship
• SEASON 2024
• Safari Rally Kenya

Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen became two-time winners of Safari Rally Kenya on Sunday afternoon, ending the gruelling African fixture with a 1m 37.8s victory margin having led since Friday morning.

In by far the most gruelling FIA World Rally Championship round so far this season, it was Rovanperä’s meticulous balance of both speed and maturity that ultimately secured his 12th career victory.

The Finn, along with his navigator Halttunen, built a lead of almost one minute after winning all of Friday’s rock-strewn stages around Lake Naivasha, then kept his nose clean to end Saturday two minutes clear as the chasing pack ran into mechanical troubles and tyre damage.

That buffer allowed the two-time WRC champion to drive for a finish in Sunday’s final leg, which culminated amid stunning scenery at Hell's Gate with Kenyan President William Ruto in attendance.

Takamoto Katstuta completed a Toyota GR Yaris 1-2 as the Japanese marque extended its manufacturers’ championship lead to four points over Hyundai Motorsport, while M-Sport Ford Puma hotshot Adrien Fourmaux bagged his second consecutive podium 47.3s behind.

“It’s always special to win here,” Rovanperä beamed. “Also, a legendary event for Toyota. We’ve always been so good here and that’s continuing. Like they say in Africa: the car in front is always a Toyota!*

“A big thanks to the team, everybody made a big effort to make the car work so well. I think me and Jonne did a good job, I don’t think you can have a better Safari Rally than we did. No issues, clever driving and I think it was a good effort.”

Elfyn Evans ended Friday in contention for a podium but a fraught Saturday, which saw the Welshman stop twice to carry out stage-side wheel changes, meant he finished over four minutes back from his team-mate Rovanperä in fourth overall. He remains second in the drivers’ championship behind leader Thierry Neuville, who trailed him by almost six minutes in fifth.

Neuville now heads Evans by six points but endured a troublesome week aboard his Hyundai i20 N. Fuel pressure problems on Saturday cost the Belgian several minutes and suspension damage on Sunday, inflicted by a rock on the racing line, added insult to injury. His colleagues, Esapekka Lappi and Ott Tänak fared worse.

Lappi’s problems included two broken gearboxes over the course of the week while Tänak could only climb back to eighth overall after his car sustained broken suspension on Friday.

Greensmith’s determination bears fruit with Safari WRC2 triumph

In 9th overall, Gus Greensmith, co-driven by Jonas Andersson, got his WRC2 campaign off to the perfect start after winning the championship’s premier support category by 1m 23.1 in his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 for Toksport WRT.

The odds were stacked against the Briton early in the rally. He battled flu-like symptoms through Friday’s opening leg on rough gravel roads around Lake Naivasha but charged to a commanding lead of more than three minutes after his main rival Oliver Solberg haemorrhaged time with punctures.

Solberg fought back to finish second in his similar car, winning 11 of the rally’s 19 stages, but the deficit was ultimately too large to overcome. Greensmith was able to cruise through the closing kilometres, netting a mighty sixth-place overall result in the process.

Solberg posted the fastest time in the Wolf Power Stage, extending his lead in the championship while duly collecting the FORUM8 WRC2 Most Stage Wins Award. He finished more than seven minutes clear of third-placed Fabia man Kajetan Kajetanowicz, who also took the spoils in WRC2 Challenger.

Safari debutants Nicolas Ciamin and Charles Munster placed fourth and fifth respectively, both driving Hyundai i20 N Rally2 cars. Behind them was Daniel Chwist followed by local driver Carl Tundo, winner in the WRC Masters Cup contingent. As the sole finisher, Hamza Anwar secured maximum points in WRC3.

The WRC returns to asphalt for next month's Croatia Rally which takes place from 18 - 21 April. The event is based in capital city Zagreb.

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Safari Rally 2024: World champion Rovanpera wins WRC Safari Rally

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Safari Rally Kenya 2024 form guide

Who's on top form and who desperately needs a result on Safari Rally Kenya?

Photography by Toyota, M-Sport & Hyundai

Words by James Bowen

The waiting is finally over for the world’s best drivers as the World Rally Championship roars back into life for this week’s Safari Rally Kenya.

After the icy Tarmac of Monte Carlo, and the heavy snow of Sweden, Kenya gives the crews the first chance to test their speed on a loose surface this year, as the first of the eight gravel rallies in the season.

And gravel tests don’t come much more challenging than this, with rough roads, fesh-fesh and the prospect of the sudden downpours of the East African rainy season all awaiting the drivers on this historic and unique event. And there’s guaranteed to be a different winner than last year; Sébastien Ogier hasn’t returned for the 2024 edition.

But which crews are the best placed to succeed on Kenya’s grueling stages? And who just needs to survive the Safari adventure and bank precious world championship points?

Here’s our form guide ahead of this year’s Safari Rally Kenya.

#11 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)

Last 3 WRC results : 4th-1st-13th Best Kenya result : 5th (2022)

The championship leader and his Hyundai team are riding high after a strong start to the season, in which the Belgian showed true class to win the Monte Carlo Rally, followed by salvaging a decent chunk of points after starting first on the road in Sweden.

Neuville will again be first man on the road in Kenya, but whether that is a help or a hindrance depends on how the weather will impact proceedings. A dry rally could see him struggle, but a wet event could level the playing field, although it’s fair to say nobody really knows how this week’s weather will influence the event.

After the drama of last year’s disqualification in Kenya, due to conducting illegal reconnaissance , the Hyundai star will be keen to show his speed on the Safari, an event on which a podium result has thus far eluded him, this time around.

A top-three finish would be a welcome result for Neuville and serve him well in his WRC title challenge.

#33 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)

Last 3 WRC results : 2nd-3rd-1st Best Kenya result : 2nd (2022)

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans has been the quiet achiever of 2024 thus far, having secured two podium finishes in two rallies where the feeling of his GR Yaris Rally1 hasn’t been quite to his liking.

A move back onto gravel may well help the Welshman find the speed he’s been looking for, and he’ll be encouraged by the fact that his Toyota team has dominated Safari Rally Kenya each year since its return to the WRC in 2021.

That said, Evans has appeared to be a step behind team-mates Sébastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä on previous editions of the rally. And with double world champion Rovanperä on this year’s entry list, and benefiting from strong road position, it might prove difficult to beat his Toyota rival on pace alone this time around.

Whether or not the Finn will lend Evans a hand in Kenya remains to be seen, but last year’s championship runner-up will surely be content with a third visit to the rostrum in as many events this term on the Safari.

#16 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1)

Last 3 WRC results : 3rd-5th-DNF Best Kenya result : 5th (2021)

While Esapekka Lappi may have won the event, Adrien Fourmaux was arguably the star of Rally Sweden. He finished third on the WRC’s only snow rally, sealing his first-ever WRC podium finish and putting to bed the demons of his troubled Rally1 campaign of 2022.

After that result, and moving up to third in the drivers’ standings, the Frenchman is riding a wave of momentum coming into Kenya. But despite all that positivity, the M-Sport driver isn’t getting carried away; he’s still just focused on scoring solid points at this stage of the season.

Safari Rally Kenya has been a happy hunting ground for Fourmaux in the past, taking his first-ever WRC stage win on the event in 2021 en route to a fifth-place finish, and repeating the feat in 2022 before hitting trouble. After missing last year’s edition, the Frenchman will be keen to add another solid Safari finish to his record.

Don’t be surprised if the Ford driver mixes it with the Toyotas and the Hyundais again this weekend.

#8 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)

Last 3 WRC results : 41st-4th-6th Best Kenya result : 3rd (2021)

Ott Tänak’s recent run of results doesn’t read very Ott Tänak-like at all. After suffering from engine mapping issues on the Monte, and crashing out while battling for the lead on Rally Sweden, the Estonian already finds himself in a points hole as he seeks to add a second world title to the crown he captured in 2019.

While there’s no doubt the Hyundai star has the talent to win on any given rally, Kenya hasn’t been kind to him in the past. A podium on his first Safari start is the best finish he’s achieved in three attempts, but that arguably won’t be enough to satisfy Tänak this time around.

As he himself admits, he needs a big result from Kenya, and road position could play to his advantage as he looks to bag his first win since returning to the South Korean brand at the start of the year.

Look for Tänak to be on full attack from the get-go this weekend, and if the reliability of his i20 N Rally1 holds, look for him to be right there in the fight for victory too.

#4 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)

Last 3 WRC results : 1st-4th-DNF Best Kenya result : 12th (2023)

A six-week break from WRC action is nothing for Esapekka Lappi. He waited over six years for his second career victory, which finally came last time out in Sweden; the ultimate proof that good things come to those who wait.

And the Finn will get a chance to carry that momentum into the very next WRC event, as he received the nod from Hyundai to drive the team’s third i20 N in Kenya.

Could we see a Lappi unleashed this weekend as a driver who finally has the confidence and composure to match his considerable natural ability? It’s certainly possible, and his strong road position gives him a good chance of making a great start to the event on Friday.

But this is only Lappi’s second Safari start, having missed the 2021 and 2022 editions when he wasn’t competing full-time in the series. Expecting another win might be a bit too much to ask of the now two-time World Rally winner, but a podium might not be beyond his reach. So long as ‘Mr Propshaft’ doesn’t make a return – he went through three of them on last year’s edition .

#18 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)

Last 3 WRC results : 45th-7th-5th Best Kenya result : 2nd (2021)

In stark contrast to Lappi, Takamoto Katsuta comes into Safari Rally Kenya at perhaps the lowest ebb of his rallying career.

There have been many ups and downs since the Japanese star first got behind the wheel of a top-flight WRC car in 2019, but crashing out of the battle for the win in Sweden, when he was all-but guaranteed a top-two finish, will have hit the likable Toyota driver hard.

But there’s nowhere better for Katsuta to stage a comeback than Safari Rally Kenya. He’s been hugely successful on African soil, securing two podium finishes from three starts in Kenya, including a career-best second place finish in 2021.

While the speed in his GR Yaris Rally1 may be there this weekend, Katsuta just needs some solid points to rebuild his confidence and get his season back on more solid ground.

#69 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)

Last 3 WRC results : 39th-3rd-2nd Best Kenya result : 1st (2022)

After making the first start of his part-season campaign in Sweden, the reigning champion is back for more in Kenya. And as the only Safari winner in the field, and a very strong road position (as long as the weather doesn’t change that fact), nobody would bet against him taking the trophy home to Finland after this weekend.

That said, his crash while leading last month’s Rally Sweden raised a few eyebrows; he simply pushed too hard and misread the tricky conditions, and that’s not something we often hear said of the double world champion.

It was a crash that, amazingly, means it’s now more than six months since Rovanperä won a round of the WRC. That’s a statistic that won’t sit well with a man who has stated that his only goal is to win more rallies than ever before this season.

Rovanperä will be hungry for success in Kenya, and he’ll surely be able to put his Sweden mistake behind him and fight for the victory all the way through to Sunday.

#13 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1)

Last 3 WRC results : 23th-20th-7th Best Kenya result : DNF (WRC2 2023)

Another weekend and another huge learning curve awaits Grégoire Munster this weekend as he continues to get to grips with his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1.

But strangely, he does have more Kenyan rallying experience than most of his Rally1 rivals, owing to his participation in last year’s East African Safari Classic Rally as co-driver to his mentor and backer Jourdan Serderidis.

While the week-long historic event may have given Munster a taste of Safari Rallies from years gone by, it likely won’t help him find more speed in his more modern machinery in his first Rally1 start in Kenya.

Bringing the car home to the finish without a major incident will be the Belgian driver’s goal on the Safari; something he’s failed to do in both his WRC starts so far this year.

#19 Jourdan Serderidis/Frédéric Miclotte (Ford Puma Rally1)

Last 3 WRC results : 17th-DNF-25th Best Kenya result : 7th (2022)

Greek privateer Jourdan Serderidis returns for another Rally1 outing in Kenya, despite apparently retiring from the class after last year’s Acropolis Rally Greece.

Not that we’re holding that against him of course; it’s great to have the charismatic M-Sport customer back in the field, and Serderidis has shown in the past that he’s certainly capable of bringing home a result in Kenya.

Two years ago, the 2017 WRC Trophy winner finished seventh on the rally just by driving with his head and keeping his Puma Rally1 on the road. If chaos ensues this weekend, Serderidis could find himself well inside the top 10 on this year’s Safari.

However, a strong finishing position won’t be the goal for the Greek in his comeback drive; he’ll just be looking to have fun on one of the WRC’s most spectacular events.

Assessing the World Rally Championship’s future

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Big names turn out for Safari WRC2 battle

The battle for WRC2 honours at this month’s Safari Rally Kenya (28 - 31 March) will be the most intense since the Naivasha-based event’s return to the FIA World Rally Championship.

Rally Sweden winner Oliver Solberg will start the African classic as favourite. The 22-year-old Swede has finished in the top 10 overall in Kenya for the last two seasons (driving a Hyundai i20 N Rally1 in 2022), but this will be his first time chasing points for the WRC2 crown.

Solberg runs his usual Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 for what will be his fourth Safari start (he retired a Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC from the 2021 event).

Fellow Fabia driver Gus Greensmith starts his 2024 campaign at the longest rally of the season so far (the Safari delivers 355 competitive kilometres across 19 stages). While the Englishman skipped last year’s event, he finished an impressive fourth – his best ever WRC finish – on the 2021 fixture aboard a Ford Fiesta WRC.

Nicolas Ciamin will be aiming to better the fourth place he scored on the season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo. The Hyundai i20 N Rally2 driver is making his Safari debut this time around.

Winner of the WRC2 category for the last two years, Kajto Kajetanowicz is another to make his maiden 2024 appearance on the March 28-31 rally. The Polish star understands better than anybody else in the field what it takes to win arguably the season’s toughest event.

Charles Munster (Hyundai i20 N Rally2), Diego Domínguez Jr (Citroën C3 Rally2) and Daniel Chwist (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) are among the other leading entries, along with local hero Carl Tundo in a Ford Fiesta R5. The entry list for the third round of the championship includes 14 RC2 cars.

Safari Rally: TOYOTA GAZOO Racing repeats perfect four-star finish on WRC’s toughest rally

TORONTO, Ontario – June 25, 2023 – TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team has achieved an incredible clean sweep of the top four positions on Safari Rally Kenya for the second year in succession: Sébastien Ogier winning the epic African event ahead of team-mates Kalle Rovanperä, Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta.

TGR-WRT remains unbeaten on the toughest round of the FIA World Rally Championship since it returned to the calendar in 2021, with Toyota’s all-time Safari record now extended to 11 victories – 10 of those achieved as part of the WRC.

The 1-2-3-4 finish comes 30 years to the month since Toyota first recorded such a result in Kenya with the Celica ST185, something it repeated with the GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID in 2022. It’s the first time any manufacturer has managed the feat on the same WRC round on three separate occasions, or to do it in two successive editions of a rally.

Ogier’s second Safari success in three years is also his third victory from five starts so far this season together with co-driver Vincent Landais. They led ever since the first full-length stage of the rally on Friday morning, and came into Sunday with a lead of 16.7 seconds over last year’s Safari winners, Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen.

Six stages and 74.38 competitive kilometres remained on the final day and the top two crews continued to put on an exciting battle for the victory. Rovanperä halved Ogier’s advantage in the morning’s first stage before Ogier recovered that ground in the next test, despite losing the rear wing and tailgate from his car. This was repaired in the final service ahead of the last three stages, which still provided significant challenges with soft sand and deep ruts. Ogier’s final winning margin was just 6.7 seconds: the smallest ever in Safari history, on an event usually decided by whole minutes.

Having set the third-best time in the rally-ending Power Stage to take three bonus points, Rovanperä increases his championship lead from 25 to 37 points following the mid-point event of the 13-round season.

Evans is now up to third in the standings, 41 from the lead, after he and co-driver Scott Martin made the Safari podium for the second year in a row. They also started Sunday with an advantage of 16.7s, this time over Katsuta and Aaron Johnston, and managed to extend that to 25.3s over the course of the day.

Katsuta nonetheless drove another strong Safari with the support of the TGR WRC Challenge Program, putting a roll in Wednesday’s pre-event shakedown behind him to contend for a third successive podium in Kenya and ultimately clinch his best finish of the season so far.

Following its fifth win of the year, TGR-WRT has now increased its manufacturers’ championship lead to 42 points.

Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman)

“Since the Safari Rally came back to the WRC calendar, we have completed another year of great results, achieving three consecutive wins and finishing 1-2-3-4 for two years in a row. I would like to thank all drivers and co-drivers, mechanics, engineers, and all the other team members.

Unlike other regions, “bringing the car home in one piece” is strongly required in Africa, which has the harshest environment for cars. It is really great that our four GR YARIS Rally 1 HYBRID cars made it through and showed the reliability of Toyota in such African environments. However, looking at how the rally went, it was not achieved only by the reliability of the cars. It was the result of the combined effort of crews and mechanics/engineers.

Seb, who won the rally, took risks to get to the top and sometimes drove with just one spare tyre. Kalle, Elfyn and Takamoto also pushed as hard as Seb. The crews had good competition with each other and everyone gave it their all. As a result, the cars sometimes came back to the service with significant damage, but mechanics fixed them with their reliable work and put the cars and crews back on the road.

The reliability of the cars that we were able to demonstrate on the Safari this time is the result of this kind of work from the entire team. And we must leverage this reliability not only for winning rallies but also for production cars.

I would like to ask everybody in TGR-WRT to keep working hard for further victories in the second half of the season, as well as to work on ever-better car making for our customers including the GR Yaris, the base of our Rally1 car and the GR Yaris Rally2 currently under development.

We will keep going forward and continue to make ever-better cars for the rest of the season!

P.S. to Juha Kankkunen,

Thank you very much for driving the Hilux MHEV concept. We asked you to drive a GR Yaris with a hydrogen engine last year in Rally Belgium, and this time with the Hilux MHEV in Africa.

To achieve carbon neutrality, I believe it is important to do “what we can do right now, immediately” according to the local environment. We think what we can do in Africa is to increase HEVs, so I asked Juha, one of the legendary drivers that everybody knows, to drive the car to let as many people as possible know about it.

The Safari Rally was the first WRC rally that you won. Compared to the Toyota Celica Twincam Turbo that you were driving then, the Hilux MHEV must have had far less power, but I hope you enjoyed driving it.

P.S too to CFAO team,

Thank you very much this year again for the enthusiastic support to the team. Especially for the demonstration run of the Hilux MHEV concept: we could not have done it without the huge efforts of everybody in CFAO who are familiar with matters in Africa. I hope we can keep cooperating for Toyota to become the “best car shop in town” in Africa.”

Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)

“I’m really proud of this result, of this team, and of our drivers. Coming to Kenya this year I didn’t think we could achieve a 1-2-3-4 again when the competition has been so tight recently. But I think it is not a coincidence that we have managed to do this result here two years in a row. It means we have done things right in the team to prepare for this event, that our crews have done a great job, and that all comes together to make this result possible. On this rally, you firstly need a car that is reliable and can take the punishment from these roads, and then you start to look for the performance. This philosophy that our team has had is absolutely the right approach and it shows in the results. This year we also had close competition between our drivers and there were maybe some tensions when it got tighter, but this is normal: we want drivers that have the passion to win. They can’t all win all at the same time, but I’m sure they will all see what an achievement this result is.”

Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)

“The battle with Seb got quite tight at the end, and when you miss out on the win by a small margin like this then it’s not always the best feeling for a driver. But at the end we still scored good points for the championship. I stuck to my plan for the whole weekend, driving with quite good pace but not taking huge risks. So to still finish like this is quite nice. The final day was really tough for the cars: the penultimate stage especially with a lot of deep sand and ruts. It’s good that our cars were so strong and made it through, because to have the 1-2-3-4 finish for the team again here in Kenya is amazing.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)

“It’s been quite a rally with a lot of challenges, so I think the team can be very proud to again get four cars in the top four. It shows both the speed and the strength of the GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID and I’m proud to be a part of that and of this team. Of course, from a personal perspective I can’t be totally satisfied to be third in the order at the finish, but I’m very pleased for the team and of course to be on the podium in third means we take some reasonable points for the championship as well.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)

“This was a hell of a rally and a hell of a fight. I really enjoyed it but I would have liked to have a few less incidents because it could have been a much more comfortable race: the pace was really good, the car was great to drive, I had a good feeling and it seemed that we had everything under control. But we were hit by some little things here and there, including today when we lost the tailgate and we had some overheating in the fesh-fesh sand. But I’m happy that we could bring it home. I think it’s a deserved victory and result for the whole team and we need to enjoy it.”

FINAL CLASSIFICATION, SAFARI RALLY KENYA

1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 3h30m42.5s

2 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +6.7s

3 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +2m58.5s

4 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +3m23.8s

5 Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +5m05.4s

6 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +9m14.4s

7 Pierre-Louis Loubet/Nicolas Gilsoul (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +16m15.7s

8 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +24m47.0s

9 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) +26m33.4s

10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) +27m04.0s

(Results as of 15:30 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

What's next?

Rally Estonia (July 20-23) is the first part of a double-header on fast gravel roads in the north of Europe. The stages around Tartu combine wide and narrow sections and a soft and sandy surface that can become rutted for the second pass.

About Toyota Canada Inc.

Toyota Canada Inc. (TCI) is the exclusive Canadian distributor of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. Toyota has sold over six million vehicles in Canada through a national network of 287 Toyota and Lexus dealerships. Toyota is dedicated to bringing safety, quality, dependability and reliability to the vehicles Canadians drive and the service they receive. TCI’s head office is in Toronto, with regional offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Halifax, and parts distribution centres in Clarington and Vancouver. Toyota also operates two manufacturing facilities in Canada. Having produced more than nine million vehicles, popular Canadian models built at these facilities include Toyota RAV4, Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, Lexus RX 350 and RX 450h hybrid, as well as Lexus NX 250, NX 350 and NX 350h hybrid. The company has sold more than 20 million electrified vehicles worldwide and is the number one seller of electrified vehicles in Canada.

Every effort has been made to ensure the product specifications, equipment, and content on this site are accurate based on information available at time of publishing. In some cases, certain changes in standard equipment or options may occur, which may not be reflected online. Toyota Canada reserves the rights to make these changes without notice or obligation.

The Most Exciting Special Stages Of Safari Rally Kenya 2024

• Last Updated: 1 month ago

The FIA World Rally Championship heads to one of its iconic venues – to the African region. Why iconic? Just imagine the first-ever Safari Rally Kenya debuted in 1953 and immediately became one of the most challenging events. Alongside the Acropolis, also held on gravel roads, the Safari Rally is famous for its unpredictable. As many factors interfered with the game, no one knows whether they succeeded in finishing or not. Which factors, you may say? These are different, and it depends on the specific leg. Therefore, I gathered the most spectacular, or better to say, most exciting special stages of Safari Rally Kenya 2024, where everything is possible to happen.

Sleeping Warrior

• Hell's Gate

Based in Naivasha, Safari Rally Kenya 2024 consists of 367.76 km of action, covering an overall 1267.57 km, and divided into 19 special stages. 

The WRC African’s adventure is holding on challenging terrain, including dust, sand, and gravel. So, when the weather in Kenya is sunny, rallying fast on these roads is not a good idea, as the dust reduces the visibility soon. 

However, the opposite of sunshine is even worse. The bad news is the weather forecast for African WRC round is about a downpour until Sunday. Simply put, it doubles the difficulties for the rally drivers from stage to stage.

Let’s explore the most interesting of them!

The Kasarani stage opens the Safari Rally Kenya 2024 on Thursday. Lasting for less than 5 kilometers long, it is the action-packed part. 

Kasarani is the only super special stage or the SSS, which means two drivers race each other on two parallel tracks. Therefore, you will see almost two different drivers together.

Usually, SSS takes place in specific stadiums, but it’s not Kasarani’s case. Looking like a polygon, it is an open field. Furthermore, the stage will be more dirty during Thursday’s rainy weather, as all the dust of the scene will transfer into the sticky mud. 

The thrills are guaranteed, especially to the crowds of spectators, who complete the excitement of Kasarani with warm greetings. 

Passing the Geothermal special stage is scheduled for Friday. The drivers run the scene twice: through SS3 and SS6. However, this leg is labeled Geothermal for a reason, and due to its placement, the stage is filled with ruts. 

So, with fumaroles, the route will be challenging, having too many dangers for the drivers. Full of rocks, it is a very bumpy terrain, which means each rally racer has to be accurate at each millimeter. That is what DirtFish mentioned on the previous Rally Safari. Otherwise, the punctures are guaranteed because small rocks are very sharp here. 

Furthermore, this stage includes the drivers running through the narrow gravel roads in the woodland, which has many common patterns with Rally Finland. So what can be more exciting than delving into the forest’ groves, especially when it is about wild African nature? 

Tricky, tough Geothermal is a rough Safari Rally Kenya 2024 stage that you can’t miss out on. The errors most likely will be decisive in the rush of victory in Africa. 

The Kedong stage follows the Geothermal in the loop and is also scheduled for Friday.

However, it is a very typical stage of the WRC African’s adventure, or better to say, the part of its route, and perhaps I wouldn’t include it on my list if not the last Safari Rally. 

As the round has moved earlier from its dates, the challenge meets specific weather conditions. The weather in March here is rainy, resulting in running this stage becoming an endless struggle.

Thus, in 2023, many drivers punctured tires at the Kedong because of a lot of natural debris and rocks under the layout of mud. At first sight, drivers rallying fast on straight forward but then bum! They immediately have the puncture. 

So, if previously, the gravel scattered with the rocks, the rain changes the circumstances.

Another thrill of this stage is the animals, whose minds are unpredictable for WRC participants, who are forced to slow down, as no one knows when zebras decide to cross the road. 

One of the favorites among local rally fans is the Soysambu stage. It is very spectacular for these reasons. 

It is a scene where you can see many fauna inhabitants such as giraffes, zebras, monkeys, etc. 

However, the main feature of the stage is the surface here changes with rainfall. The dusty open field becomes one huge but not deep marsh. With demanding rallying skills, each mistake here costs a rally driver the flat out.

I like Soysambu because local fans bring an original and warm atmosphere. The stage covers 30 km, launching the Saturday’s leg, and the second pass starts after the service afternoon. 

You wonder, but 30km is not the record distance because the Sleeping Warrior is no less than the iconic stage of Safari Rally Kenya. The most dangerous and exhausting scene of the event covers over 31 km!

After passing the leg, drivers gladly claim: ‘I survived!’ Sleeping Warrior is famous for its mix of terrains, changing from gravel and dust to rocks, while many sections are slippery. 

The drivers pass the Sleeping Warrior twice on Saturday. So, if the first run they’re partly successful; however, no one can do it without problems, then the second run is a matter of fortune. 

What’s the problem with driving for 31 km, you may say? Well, the case is it is at the African terrain. The current WRC cars are sensitive to changing conditions soon, especially without service support to improve their settings.

So, as a result, participants come with all types of technical problems, damaging suspension, car parts, and punctures. 

Therefore, Sleeping Warrior is always a turning point and decisive stage of Rally Safari, and the 2024 edition is no exception. So, the battle for victory takes its peak on Saturday.

The last time, Toyota driver Elfyn Evans described the scene perfectly. He couldn’t control the action; not everything was in his hands, as he said: ‘The car drove me.’ 

Oserian is a ‘roller coaster’ part of the Safari Rally. Full of ups and downs, the scene includes a mix of open areas and roads through the forest.

Passing Oserian requires drivers to turn the steering wheel more actively, causing high demands for additional physical and endurance.

What’s more, the roads on the stage are bumpy, slippery, and very narrow, causing each wrong move to cost drivers time, even if it is a short distance of more than 18 km. Moreover, additional loads for suspension are guaranteed.

So, the Oserian will be a stunning gravel ride for 18 km that drivers pass twice on Sunday. 

Hell’s Gate

Hell’s Gate is the most spectacular stage of Safari Rally 2024. The second pass through the scene forms the Wolf Power Stage with additional scores to the drivers’ standings – a worthy reason to pass the stage without errors, but it won’t be easy.

Narrow and dusty, these gravel roads are very tricky. The case is that the drivers always have felt the urge to go a few tens faster during all 10 kilometers of the Hell’s Gate stage. However, it is a mental trap of this section. 

First, because it is very narrow, and even a tiny error can make the game over. The Hell’s Gate doesn’t have as many turns as Oserian, but many trees on the route are placed near the road. 

The second one is gravel sand, as the dust climbing out of the car immediately reduces the visibility. Furthermore, the weather forecast promises the sun on Sunday.

So, yes, the stage is as fast as slippery. 

The third thrill of the scene are animals. So, less than at Soysambu, but still meeting with any one of them on the route will be a stroke of bad luck due to the lack of visibility. Therefore, keeping the mind cold to slow down the speed is crucial for the drivers. 

Rally Safari takes a special place in the FIA World Rally Championship , and Africa’s rally adventure 2024 is no exception. A tough challenge sets in top alongside Greece’s round at the top of the most difficult rallies. 

So, among the special stages of Safari Rally Kenya 2024, there are a few that are most exciting for spectators as well as for the drivers. Two for each day of competitions, except Thursday. 

Thus, I highly recommend you pay attention to the following. 

Super special stage Kasarani, which kicks the event on Thursday as SSS1. 

Geothermal (SS3, SS6) and Kedong (SS4, SS7) add the tension to Friday’s leg. 

Soysambu (SS8, SS11) and Sleeping Warrior (SS10, SS13), you cannot miss out on Saturday because those provide the most terrific racing challenge of the event. The iconic Sleeping Warrior most likely decides the winners and losers.  

On Sunday, get ready to see the epic rallying racing at Oserian (SS15, SS16) and Hell’s Gate (SS18, SS19), which forms the final Wolff Power Stage. 

As you see, it is for a reason that Safari Rally is worthy of being the WRC’s crown jewel.

• The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile  (March 22, 2024)’ WRC – Africa Awaits As Th Competition Goes on Safari In Kenya ‘ https://www.fia.com/news/wrc-africa-awaits-competition-goes-safari-kenya  
• DirtFish on YouTube  (June 24, 2022) ‘ Safari Rally Kenya 2022 – SS3/6 Geothermal Stage Preview ‘ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo-OjIT-j3Q
• AccuWeather (2024)  Nairobi City Weather https://www.accuweather.com/en/ke/nairobi/224758/weather-forecast/224758  
• FIA World Rally Championship  (March 26, 2024) ‘ Live Stream Schedule – Safari Rally Kenya’    https://www.wrc.com/a/news/w27549_LIVE-STREAM-SCHEDULE—Safari-Rally-Kenya

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The 10 Best Rally Cars Ever Built, Ranked By Wins

R allying is one of the oldest motorsports on Earth, even though its premiere event -- the World Rally Championship -- was only officially launched in 1973. In its fifty years of existence, the series has played host to multiple generations of rally cars from the iconic but deadly Group B cars of the '80s to the hybrid Rally1 machines of today. Over the decades, there have been countless cars entered into the championship, but a few have stood out from the rest as exceptionally successful.

We've compiled a list of the top 10 most successful rally cars of all time, ranked by the number of WRC events they've won. It's worth noting that iconic rally cars like the Lancia Delta, Mitsubishi Lancer, and Subaru Impreza are all absent -– each of the three went through multiple distinct generations during their time in the WRC, and we've counted each generation separately. On their own, none of the separate generations make the top 10 for event wins, which might make some of the cars that do all the more surprising. Here are the 10 best rally cars ever made, ranked by their lifetime wins.

Read more: The Most Reliable Honda Models Ever Built, Ranked

Hyundai I20 Coupe WRC – 17 Wins

After a largely unsuccessful stint in the World Rally Championship at the turn of the century, Hyundai re-entered the series in 2014. Its most successful car to date has been the i20 Coupe WRC, which was introduced in 2017 after regulation changes meant its previous-gen i20 was no longer eligible. It was only four rallies into the 2017 season that the car gained its first win at the hands of Thierry Neuville. The team managed three more event wins that season, each with Neuville at the wheel. That earned the Belgian driver second place in the drivers' championship, beaten only by the almost unstoppable Sébastien Ogier.

The 2018 and 2019 seasons saw a similar story unfold as Neuville won three and four events respectively in the i20 Coupe WRC, finishing second in the overall drivers' standings both years. However, 2019 was a better year for the team overall, with Hyundai managing to fend off Toyota to win its first manufacturers' title. A shortened season due to the Covid pandemic in 2020 didn't dent the i20 Coupe WRC's competitiveness, with three further event wins helping the team defend its manufacturers' title.

The car's last season in 2021 saw three more event wins added to the tally, two by Neuville and one by Ott Tänak. For the 2022 season, new Rally1 regulations came into force, marking the end of the WRC car era.

Lancia Stratos HF – 17 Wins

The Lancia Stratos HF had a remarkably long run in the World Rally Championship, proving itself to be competitive even years after the factory team stopped supporting it. It was first homologated in 1974 and won three events that year, the first of those with Sandro Munari. The Italian driver had already proved the Stratos had pace, winning the non-Championship Firestone Rally the previous year. The 1975 and 1976 seasons proved even more successful, with the car taking four wins each year.

By 1977, however, Fiat's factory team had pivoted to using the freshly developed 131 Abarth for most events, entering the Stratos at only a handful of events and winning just one. By 1978, the Stratos had been demoted to official use in the European Championship, with the Fiat taking the role of the primary WRC contender. However, the Sanremo Rally was included in both championships, and it was there that the Lancia took its sole WRC win that season.

From 1979 onwards, privateers continued racing the Stratos in WRC events, racking up a remarkable three wins that year and another in 1981. By that time, the emergence of Group B cars meant the Stratos no longer had the pace to reach the podium, and after the 1982 season, the car was retired.

Ford Escort RS 1800 MkII – 17 Wins

The MkI Escort had proven one of the most successful rally cars of its era, taking a string of wins across rallies from the late '60s onwards. However, it was the arrival of the MkII that really cemented the Escort's place in the rallying hall of fame. The MkII's first WRC win came at the Lombard RAC Rally in 1975, where it led an all-Escort podium. The following year saw just one more win added to the tally, but it was 1977 when the car really shone. It claimed four wins that year, beating its chief rival, the Fiat 131 Abarth.

Three of those victories were thanks to Björn Waldegård, who took the drivers' title that year. In 1978, Waldegård was unable to repeat the feat, handing both the drivers' and manufacturers' titles to Fiat. The Escort took just two event wins that year, but the following year proved to be a return to form. The Escort proved consistently competitive throughout 1979, taking the top spot five times thanks to both Waldegård and his teammate Hannu Mikkola. Waldegård came out on top at the end of the year, taking the drivers' title and beating Mikkola by a single championship point.

The 1980 season saw only one further victory, but 1981's three event wins saw Ari Vatanen take the drivers' title in the Escort. By 1982, however, the RWD Ford had been outclassed by the AWD Group B cars.

Fiat 131 Abarth – 18 Wins

The most successful car of its era by wins -- beating fellow greats like the MkII Escort and Stratos -- is the Fiat 131 Abarth. It took its first world championship event win in 1976 at the Rally of the 1000 Lakes with local star Markku Alén at the wheel. The 1977 season proved a breakthrough one for the car, with five event wins, and 1978 added another five to the tally. In both years, those successes saw Fiat take top honors in the manufacturers' title race.

The 1979 season saw mixed fortunes for the car and only one further event win, as it was unable to match the pace of the Escort MkII. However, the team pulled things back on track for 1980, taking another five wins as the Ford team struggled to match the Fiat's pace. German driver Walter Röhrl gave the car its first and only drivers' title that season as it reclaimed the manufacturers' crown.

The following year, however, the rapid development of the AWD Group B cars meant that the previously warring pair of the 131 Abarth and MkII Escort were faced with increasingly superior newcomers. Both respective teams turned their efforts to developing their Group B successors, but the 131 Abarth managed one final win at the Rally de Portugal before it was eventually phased out.

Peugeot 206 WRC – 24 Wins

Although it would end up dominating the WRC during the first years of the 2000s, the 206 WRC was far from a winner at first. It debuted in 1999 but suffered persistent reliability problems during its first season, only managing a single podium finish. The team made extensive changes to the car for 2000, only to face embarrassment at the first event of the year as none of the three cars entered even finished the race. However, fortunes quickly turned, and a stellar drive by Finnish driver Marcus Grönholm saw the 206 WRC achieve its first event win just a few weeks later in Sweden.

Grönholm and his teammate Gilles Panizzi ended up taking six wins across the 2000 season, giving Peugeot its first manufacturers' title since the '80s and the Finn his first drivers' title. Another six wins for the car followed in 2001, with Peugeot retaining the manufacturers' title but losing the drivers' crown to Subaru's Richard Burns.

Peugeot responded by hiring Burns to drive the 206 WRC for the 2002 season, although ultimately, it was Grönholm who delivered the marque its second drivers' and third consecutive manufacturers' title. The team racked up a commendable eight wins that season, but after scoring a further four wins in 2003, the aging 206 WRC was replaced with the new-for-2004 307 WRC.

Toyota Yaris WRC – 26 Wins

The most recent car to make the top 10 is the Toyota Yaris WRC. Toyota has a long history in rallying and won multiple world titles in the '90s, but pulled out of the competition after 1999 to focus its efforts on Formula 1. It returned to the sport for the 2017 season, with the Yaris WRC reaching the top step of the podium on only its second-ever outing. Jari-Matti Latvala, who is today the Toyota team principal, was the driver responsible for the win, but it would prove to be his only win of the season. Fellow Finn Esapekka Lappi gave the Yaris its second win later that year in Finland.

The 2018 season saw the team properly find its footing, taking five wins, four of those with Ott Tänak. It was enough to hand Toyota the manufacturers' title, with Tänak ultimately finishing third in the drivers' standings that year. The following year, a seemingly unstoppable Tänak won six rallies, dethroning reigning champion Sébastien Ogier and winning the drivers' title.

Ogier signed with Toyota for 2020 and reclaimed the drivers' crown. Alongside his teammate Elfyn Evans, the pair added four more victories to the car's ever-growing trophy cabinet. The 2021 season was the car's most successful, adding nine event wins to the total. Toyota took both the manufacturers' and drivers' titles thanks to Ogier, who announced his retirement from full-time competition at the end of the season.

Citroën DS3 WRC – 26 Wins

One of three Citroën rally cars to make the list thanks to the talents of Frenchmen named Sébastien, the DS3 WRC was introduced in 2011 as the replacement for the C4 WRC. The nine-time WRC champion Sébastien Loeb was instrumental in its development, and it was Loeb who took the car to its first win on its second-ever outing. Loeb and his teammate Sébastien Ogier would record 10 wins in total across the 2011 season, with another 10 racked up in 2012.

These two seasons saw an increasingly tense battle for dominance between Loeb and Ogier, but it was Loeb who would emerge victorious, taking the drivers' title for both years and bringing his total to a record-breaking nine titles in a row. Citroën also retained the manufacturers' crown. Loeb announced that he was retiring from full-time racing after 2012, while Ogier left for VW.

Despite only contesting a partial season with the car, Loeb added another two event wins for the DS3 WRC in 2013, with Dani Sordo clinching a third in Germany. The departure of Sordo and Loeb left Citroën winless for 2014, while 2015 saw only one event win in Argentina thanks to Kris Meeke. The 2016 season was the final one for the DS3 WRC, with Meeke racking up two further wins in Portugal and Finland.

Citroën Xsara WRC – 32 Wins

The Citroën Xsara WRC is quite unusual among ultra-successful rally cars in that it took several seasons to really show its pace. It debuted in 2001 and took its first and only win of the season at the Tour de Corse with driver Jesús Puras. In 2002, another single win was achieved thanks to then-rising star Sébastien Loeb, and in 2003, Loeb and teammate Carlos Sainz topped the event standings another four times.

Loeb finished second in the championship driver standings that year, but the following year, claimed his first overall drivers' title. He and Sainz together took seven victories in the Xsara WRC across the season. The 2005 calendar saw Loeb deliver an even more dominant performance, taking 10 event wins and the team's third consecutive manufacturers' title. A further win by François Duval took the Xsara WRC's total up to 11 in the space of just 12 months.

Loeb again delivered the goods in 2006, handing Citroën eight more event wins plus the drivers' crown. The Xsara WRC was replaced after 2006 with the Citroën C4 WRC, which would rack up even more trophies than its predecessor.

Citroën C4 WRC – 36 Wins

The most successful Citroën rally car -- and the second most successful of all time -- the C4 WRC's success can be put down to one man: Sébastien Loeb. It debuted for the 2007 season and Loeb immediately proved its pace by winning the season-opening Rally Monte-Carlo. He followed it up with seven more wins across the year, continuing his string of drivers' titles in the process. In 2008, Loeb racked up a further 11 wins with the car, which was even more impressive considering that there were only 15 events in the whole season, and took seven more in 2009.

The C4 WRC's final season was 2010 as it was eventually replaced by the DS3 WRC. In 2009, Loeb had only retained his drivers' title by a single championship point, only just beating Mikko Hirvonen, but 2010 saw Loeb deliver a much more decisive victory. He beat second place Jari-Matti Latvala by over 100 points, racking up 10 event wins in the process.

Volkswagen Polo WRC – 43 Wins

Sébastien Ogier's move from Citroën to Volkswagen for the 2013 season proved to be an extremely wise one. Emboldened by a generous team budget –- thought to be around 100 million euros per season –- Volkswagen and Ogier delivered a partnership so dominant that the Polo WRC remains the most successful rally car ever. That's despite the car only competing in four seasons. Ogier, with assistance from his teammate Jari-Matti Latvala, won ten events in the 2013 season, taking the drivers' and manufacturers' title.

In 2014 and 2015, the pair continued to dominate, with Ogier taking first and Latvala second in the overall drivers' standings both years. In each year, the Polo WRC took 12 wins, easily handing Volkswagen further consecutive manufacturers' trophies. Volkswagen's final season in 2016 saw Ogier take the top spot again, taking six event wins while Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen added three more wins to the total.

That made the team's last-minute withdrawal announcement even more shocking, but the financial crisis caused by the Dieselgate scandal meant Volkswagen had little choice . With such a dominant car, it's possible that the Polo WRC could have racked up even more wins had Volkswagen remained in the series, but even with its unceremonious exit, it remains the most successful rally car to date.

How We Determined Our Rankings

As mentioned above, our rankings of the top 10 rally cars are determined solely by the number of wins each car has achieved in the World Rally Championship. While this is an excellent measure of how successful these vehicles have been in elite real-world competition, it does leave certain iconic models out, as those cars went through distinct generations while racking up their own impressive totals. 

To read more about some of those cars -- including the Subaru Impreza, the Lancia Delta, and the Mitsubishi Lancer -- we encourage you to explore our previous coverage of the most iconic rally cars ever made .

Read the original article on SlashGear .

Watch CBS News

Who are Trump's potential VP picks? Here are some candidates who are still in the running

By Fin Gómez , Olivia Rinaldi

Updated on: April 30, 2024 / 12:27 PM EDT / CBS News

Former President Donald Trump has been fielding questions about who's on the shortlist to be his vice president and the qualities he's looking for in a running mate, even though the Republican National Convention is still months away. Sources close to the Trump campaign say Trump is likely to make the announcement closer to the convention, similar to 2016, when he announced days before the convention that then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence would be his running mate. 

But the search is underway, according to Trump advisers, and some of the names that are coming up most consistently have been on his list for months: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

However, the former president may be starting to winnow his list. 

Sources say South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — whom Trump once said he was considering for the job — has fallen off the list of top contenders. 

Noem has recently been beset by controversy after excerpts from her new book, "No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward," revealed that she shot and killed her 14-month old dog Cricket after the dog allegedly failed at pheasant hunting training. 

Noem defended herself in a post on X, pointing to a South Dakota law that states dogs showing aggressive behavior can be put down. "Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did," Noem wrote. 

The Trump campaign has not publicly commented on the story. A Trump adviser with knowledge of the vice president vetting process said Noem has been a "good surrogate." 

Noem was one of the first governors to endorse Trump, announcing she was backing him at a rally last September, and she campaigned for him several times in Iowa before the January caucuses. Noem told Newsmax in September that she would consider the vice presidential slot "in a heartbeat." She also has close ties to MAGA world and with former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. 

Also slipping down on the list is former Trump administration official and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders. Sources tell CBS News that her stock has dropped because Trump remembers that she "took so long" in endorsing her former boss during the primary. She officially endorsed Trump during a campaign rally in Hialeah, Florida, in November 2023 – a year after he launched his third bid for the White House. 

Sanders, 41, is the youngest governor in the country and is seen as a rising star in the party who can speak to suburban women. Last year, she delivered the Republican response to President Biden's State of the Union address. 

But Sanders has also dismissed the idea of serving as vice president. When asked by "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan if she'd say yes to joining the Trump ticket, Gov. Sanders said , "I am honored to serve as governor, and I hope I get to do it for the next seven years." 

Sen. Scott is one of the top names mentioned by sources close to the former president as a top contender for vice president. 

The South Carolina GOP senator has dodged questions about whether he'd run with Trump. But he was quick to endorse Trump after dropping his own bid just before the New Hampshire primary, a blow to fellow South Carolinian and former Gov. Nikki Haley, who had originally appointed him to the vacant U.S. Senate seat he still occupies. 

Trump has praised Scott as a "man of faith, courage and conviction, a man who fought for those opportunities zones like nobody would ever fight and school choice and also taking care of the historically Black colleges." 

Scott,the highest-ranking Black Republican in the GOP, could help Trump court Black voters, traditionally a key Democratic voting bloc. 

Scott told " CBS Mornings " in January that he would never ask for a cabinet position from Trump, but declined to answer whether he wants to serve as Trump's vice president. 

"The one thing I want to do is make sure we win in 2024," he told anchor Gayle King. "I don't think about this from a personal perspective." 

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — another former 2024 presidential candidate — is also seen as a potential VP pick by the Trump campaign. Burgum was the first of the former 2024 presidential candidates to officially endorse Trump, joining him for a rally in Indianola, Iowa, on Jan. 14, the eve of the Iowa caucuses, to announce his support. 

The Trump team likes Burgum, who refrained from saying anything negative about the former president during his own presidential candidacy. 

"Everybody loves Burgum," one top Trump adviser said about the North Dakota governor, but added that Trump was the one who would ultimately choose. "We could learn about it in a Truth Social post," the adviser said.

Burgum is seen as a solid conservative with credentials that could be a good fit for various cabinet positions. Trump has referred to him as"one of the best governors in our country."

As governor, Burgum signed into law a six-week abortion ban and legislation to restrict transgender rights. He's also a fiscal hawk who has cut state spending while enacting the largest tax cut in North Dakota history. He's led North Dakota since 2016 and announced in January that he would not seek a third term as governor. 

Rubio, the senior senator from Florida and ex-2016 presidential rival to Trump, is also under consideration. The son of two Cuban immigrants, he is seen as someone who could help the campaign appeal to Latino voters. 

Rubio endorsed Trump the day before the Iowa caucuses in a post on X, and has noted he worked with Trump on the expanded Child Tax Credit and sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba during his presidency. 

Former HUD Secretary Ben Carson, a renowned neurosurgeon and former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, was one of the longest-serving cabinet secretaries during Trump's administration. He is also allegedly still on the VP short list — Carson remained loyal to the former president after Jan. 6, when several cabinet secretaries resigned in protest, citing the attack on the Capitol . 

Carson is viewed as a safe choice for vice president since he is well-liked by conservatives and Christians. In response to whether he and Trump have had discussions about serving as vice president, Carson said, "I don't want to speak about private conversations." 

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik is one of Trump's fiercest defenders. As the No. 4 House Republican, she was one of the first members of Congress to endorse Trump when he announced his third bid for the White House. 

Thirty-nine year-old Stefanik is almost half Trump's age. She is seen as someone who would carry the torch for the MAGA movement the 77-year-old former president began and has fought for Trump on numerous occasions as a key member of his impeachment defense team in 2019. 

In January, she echoed Trump's characterization of jailed Jan. 6 defendants as "hostages," and she's filed multiple ethics complaints against judges in cases involving the former president. Stefanik was one of 147 Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 election results.

Sources have said Trump sees Stefanik as a potential running mate. When asked whether she would serve as his vice president, Stefanik told NBC News' "Meet the Press" that she would be "honored to serve in any capacity in a Trump administration."  

• Donald Trump

Fin Gómez is the Political Director for CBS News. Fin oversees the day-to-day political coverage for CBS News. He has covered five presidential political cycles and multiple presidential campaigns. He was formerly a member of the CBS White House unit.

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You know it when you see it: here are some movies that got sex scenes right.

Linda Holmes

It is a happy coincidence that our "What makes a good sex scene?" episode came out in the same week as Challengers, a film about a romance triangle in the tennis world starring Josh O'Connor, Zendaya and (not pictured) Mike Faist. Niko Tavernise/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures hide caption

It is a happy coincidence that our "What makes a good sex scene?" episode came out in the same week as Challengers, a film about a romance triangle in the tennis world starring Josh O'Connor, Zendaya and (not pictured) Mike Faist.

What makes a good sex scene? It can be easier spot bad sex, but Aisha Harris, Christina Tucker, Ronald Young, Jr. and I tried to focus on the good this week on Pop Culture Happy Hour. You can listen to our full conversation here. (We didn't originally plan for this episode to run the same week as our episode about Challengers , which is out in theaters now, but it's a happy coincidence, since that film has gotten a lot of attention — probably too much, relative to its other merits — for the sex scenes involving its three leads. It's really very good .)

Movie Reviews

Watch a tense romantic triangle play out on the tennis court in 'challengers'.

It's often very obvious when a sex scene is bad, just like when a sex scene in a book is bad. It can get so uncomfortable to watch that you have to leave the room (and not in a way that feels true to the story). One of my personal tells for a bad sex scene is when all I can think about is how hard the actors are trying to persuade me that the characters are having a good time. For example, there has been much good discussion in recent years about Showgirls being a more interesting and competent project than it originally got credit for, but in that one pool scene (if you know it, you know it), all I can see is the effort.

Lauren Bacall And The 'Sex? What Sex?' Kind Of Movie Sex

It's not always as clear which scenes are good . That's partly because they serve so many different functions, all of which look different, and all of which can be effective. Furthermore, you don't want to confuse whether a sex scene is used well in a film with whether it's hot to you personally, despite the fact that there is overlap between those considerations.

In the 'Last Dance,' Magic Mike leaves his thong-and-dance routine behind

Here's what I mean: When Aisha talks about the sequence near the beginning of Magic Mike's Last Dance , it's not irrelevant that the scene is, to her (and to me), hot. But it also makes sense in the context of the film and the franchise, partly because of the way it sets up the power dynamic between Mike (Channing Tatum) and Max (Salma Hayek Pinault). Mike is older now, he knows more, and the way he approaches a lap dance is actually different than in earlier movies.

And not all good sex scenes are hot in the same ways. The one I mentioned in the episode, from the romantic drama Love & Basketball , is sexy, yes. But it's also a scene between young adults (the talented basketball players Monica and Quincy, played by Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps), and as such, it incorporates a tentativeness that's not present in Magic Mike's Last Dance , to say the least. As Ronald pointed out during our discussion, that sex scene is quite different from one that takes place later in Monica and Quincy's relationship, when they're older and know each other better. That certainly feels true to real life, but it's not always reflected in Hollywood films, where I would tentatively estimate that 90% of on-screen sex is more idealized and thus less intimate than real-life sex, in part because it isn't allowed to change over the course of a relationship.

Movie Interviews

'like it or not, we live in oppenheimer's world,' says director christopher nolan.

Even further from the hotness of the lap dance scene is Ronald's pick: the imagination of Kitty Oppenheimer (Emily Blunt) running wild in Oppenheimer. While her husband (Cillian Murphy) is being interrogated, she pictures him having sex with his mistress, Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh). It goes by quickly enough that it might seem like a Christopher Nolan flourish for flourish's sake, but it serves the purpose of letting you feel her pain over her husband's affair. Her relationship with Robert doesn't look especially romantic in the film, let alone sexually charged; she finds herself consumed by the idea that he was having hot sex with this other woman, and she locks eyes with her vision of a naked Tatlock and finds herself tormented. It's not really the intent of the scene to titillate the audience, just to give specificity to the shape of Kitty's preoccupation with the affair.

What makes a good sex scene?

Christina raised another really important point, which is that sex scenes also collide with viewers at very specific moments. Her example from Bound , and the scenes between Violet (Jennifer Tilly) and Corky (Gina Gershon), touches on (among other things) her own history. It's an underappreciated aspect of the sex-in-movies discourse: representation matters in these scenes as much as anywhere else. I always wish I saw more sex scenes in movies that featured a broader variety of body types; it's still really rare to see ones that feature anybody who is even average sized. This is one of the reasons I'm curious about the upcoming season of Bridgerton , which places its focus on the gorgeous and curvaceous Penelope (Nicola Coughlan).

Looking for 'nomance': Study finds teens want less sex in their TV and movies

Good sex scenes are like any other kind of good filmmaking, honestly: it comes down to execution with purpose and care, done relative to whatever the function of the scene might be.

Whether that's spiciness or conflict or relationship growth or (as in the case of Bound ) setting up a steamy neo-noir story that wouldn't be the same if it weren't hot as heck, form follows function, ideally.

This piece also appeared in NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter so you don't miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations about what's making us happy.

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