- Toyota believes Hyundai will bounce back and challenge for the 2026 World Rally Championship ahead of the Safari Rally Kenya 2026.
- Safari Rally will be held in Naivasha, Kenya, from March 12–15, serving as the third round of the 2026 WRC season.
- Although Hyundai did not have the strongest start in the opening two rounds, Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala expects the team to recover.
Reigning Constructors’ champions Toyota has tipped Hyundai to bounce back and challenge them this season in the title fight.
After defeating Hyundai last year, Toyota has continued its supremacy in the championship in 2026, recording back-to-back podium lockouts in the opening two rounds of the season in Monte Carlo and Sweden.
While, as much as Hyundai kicked off the two legs in what was not their finest start, Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala is expecting them to bounce back strong in the third round of the World Rally Championship set for Kenya, the Safari Rally 2026.
This year’s Safari Rally will be held in Naivasha, Kenya, from March 12-15 and is the third leg of the 2026 WRC.
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Toyota will once again be regarded as the favourite to continue its 100% winning start to the year in Naivasha this week, leading a stacked entry list of over 46, where the brand remains unbeaten since the rally rejoined the championship in 2021.
Toyota tips Hyundai to bounce back ahead of WRC Safari Rally Kenya
Hyundai’s performance in the opening two rounds this year has come as a surprise to Toyota, but team principal Latvala fully expects the Korean marque to react and push his team during the season.
Howveer, the question remains whether they can close the gap on terrain where Toyota has felt at home for the last five years.
Asked by Motorsport if he expected Hyundai to make a comeback in Kenya this weekend, Latvala said:
“I was expecting they would be closer, but in Monte and Sweden they have been struggling, so I’m expecting that they will come back and be at a very close level to us. But ‘can they catch up by Kenya’ is a question mark,” the team principal stated.
Latvala notes that Kenya has not been a strong hunting ground for Hyundai, but he believes that in the remaining rounds before the championship decider, they can still push for it.
“Kenya hasn’t been a strong event for them in the past and it is not an event that is necessarily for them, but afterwards there are events where they feel more at home, let’s say it this way. Time is running quickly in the championship and if you want to be in the game you need to react quickly,” he stated.
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He states Kenya is not an area where you need to perform exceptionally well.
“But Kenya is an event where you don’t necessarily need the raw performance; you just need to have the reliability and the drivers to be sensible, and that also can bring good results.”
Hyundai achieved its finest display yet in Kenya last year when it recorded a double podium result with Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville finishing second and third respectively behind Toyota’s Elfyn Evans.
Toyota will field five cars to Hyundai’s three in Kenya, with championship leader Evans joined by Monte Carlo winner Oliver Solberg and full-time regulars Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari.
The line-up is completed by reigning champion Sebastien Ogier, who continues his partial programme after sitting out Rally Sweden last month. Ogier last contested the event in 2023 when he took his second Safari win, alongside a triumph in 2021.