Sebastien Ogier wins the 70th edition of the Safari Rally Kenya

Sebastien Ogier won the 70th edition of the Safari Rally Kenya on Sunday after just managing to hold off Kalle Rovanpera in a thrilling finale.

The French 8-time world champion held a narrow 13.6 second advantage over the current champion and 2023 points leader going into the final three stages of the event and saw that margin cut to under ten seconds going into the concluding 10.53-kilometre Hell's Gate route at Lake Naivasha.

Ogier, running last, could only manage the fourth-fastest time, but conceded just 2.5 seconds to his Finnish rival and his total time of 3 hours, 30 minutes 42.5 seconds was good enough to take the victory by 6.7 seconds.

Rovanpera had to settle for second place, but he tightened his grip on top spot in this season's title race - he now leads Belgium's Thierry Neuville by 37 points with seven of the thirteen events on the calendar completed.

Britain's Elfyn Evans took third place, ahead of Takamoto Katsuta of Japan and he moves up to third in the standings, just ahead of Ogier and Ott Tanak of Estonia.

It was a third victory from just five starts for Ogier and a 1-2-3-4 finish for Toyota Gazoo Racing.