McRae, Pirelli and Ford conquer Africa.

Colin McRae became the most successful rally driver in WRC history by winning the Safari Rally for the third time, leading home just eleven finishers from the 48 cars that began the event on Friday.

McRae's 25th win lifted him clear of a tie with Carlos Sainz and Tommi Makinen, and was also Pirelli's 125th WRC event win. The Kenyan success marked McRae's second win in succession this season, and Pirelli's third rally win in a row. The Italian tyre company led from start to finish in Africa, with Makinen dominating the opening day before succumbing to mechanical failure on the second, to let McRae into the lead.

Pirelli's XR tyre was used exclusively throughout the event, once again without the EMI anti-deflation system except on Friday's opening stage, and the tyres demonstrated a high resistance to wear and showing consistent performance.

"I'm delighted with this result," said Pirelli competition director Paul Hembery, "It again showed the performance of our tyres in the most extreme conditions of the WRC and the championship is still wide open. I'm especially pleased that we also dominated the Production Car category on an event such as this."

In Group N, Karamjit Singh's Proton snatched a famous victory on the Malaysian's Safari debut. Singh now leads the Production Car World Championship after the unfortunate Toshi Arai was forced out of second place with mechanical failure on the penultimate stage and early leader Marcos Ligato likewise on the last.