Rwandan driver Giancarlo Davite has admitted that his performance at the 2025 Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally exceeded his expectations.
Davite and his co-driver Sandrine Isheja Butera, who were driving Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, climbed to the top of the national rankings after they finished in second place at the FIA African Rally Championship (ARC)-sanctioned rally in Bugesera, just behind winner Samman Vohra.
"The level of our performance was good. The results were frankly not what we expected when you look at overall performance because of the cars coming from Kenya and Uganda which are superior than ours. We wanted to win this rally to at least win the national rankings,” Davite said.
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Sunday’s performance saw Davite emerge winner of the rally on the national level. He is now ahead of Ugandan Joshua Mwanguzi who now occupies second place.
Davite doesn’t all the credits for the performance and instead hailed co-driver for assisting him towards good results.
"What we did today was a great achievement. We are really glad and very happy. Sandrine (Isheja) did a good job following all the notes and did great job which she has improved a lot,” he spoke of Isheja.
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"I am happy for the win and we have posted good results and the car is in great shape. We had a good performance,” he noted.
Davite, 62, is one of Rwanda’s most decorated drivers having won the Gorilla Rally twice outright in 2013 and 2018.
His challenging for the race had not been as serious as lately, mainly due to mechanical problems. He returned to the best rankings after working with Sandrine Isheja as his co-driver.
With the Mt Gorilla Rally victory, Kenya’s Vohra chalked-up his maiden international win in the 2025 edition of the FIA African Rally Championship (ARC).
The victory earned him 35 points which pushed his car to third place overall on ARC rankings with 71 points after three rounds. He is now 15 points behind Ugandan Yasin Naser who keeps his top spot with 86 points despite finishing fourth in Rwanda.
Nikhil Sachania follows in second place with 77 points while Patel’s failure to finish the rally in Rwanda left the three drivers now locked in contention for the ARC title with two rounds remaining including one in Burundi in August and the decisive one Tanzania in September.