Juha Kankkunen, the team s most experienced driver and a three-time Safari winner, drove a confident and level-headed rally from start to finish. His brief was to get to the finish so the team could gain experience and collect as much information and data as possible for the design of the car for future Safari rallies as well as other gravel events.

Team Principal David Whitehead commented on the team s performance, "I am delighted for Juha, the entire team and of course for Hyundai, to get this result on our first outing in Africa. Right from the very first competitive section we ve had constant challenges but the technicians in particular have met every one. Juha was without doubt the best possible driver to have in the car when the going became so difficult. We have learned everything we wanted to before we came - there is nothing like experience."

News from our Rivals
The final leg saw the retirement of Toshihiro Arai (Subaru) in a Group N production car, but all remaining manufacturer-entered cars managed to hold their ground. Many problems were still encountered - Alister McRae (Mitsubishi) lost over 10 minutes on CS11 with rear damper problems and Citroen young-gun Sebastien Loeb lost over 8 minutes for the same reason. Despite tackling the first section of the day without pace notes, which were inadvertently left in service, Markko Martin worked his way back to fourth position after the electrical troubles at end-of-day service on leg 2 which cost him 11m30s in penalties.

Next Round
The ninth round of the 2002 FIA World Rally Championship returns to Europe for the last of a string of mid-season gravel events, Rally Finland running from 9-11 August.