Colin McRae has won his 25th World Championship Rally to stand alone as the driver with the most individual victories to his name.

The Scot, who has won the world title only once, came out on top yet again at the Safari Rally in Kenya on Sunday.

I could have gone quicker but that would have meant taking risks Colin McRae

McRae finished the third and final day ahead of Finland's Harri Rovanpera, in a Peugeot, and Citroen driver Thomas Radstrom of Sweden during a testing event where just 13 cars out of 48 finished.

"We had a big enough lead to ensure that we could win provided we kept out of trouble," said McRae, who secured his third win in the event following victories in 1997 and 1999.

"The roads were rough and we had to be careful a lot of the time.

"But we had a steady approach since the start of the rally and driving carefully and looking after the car worked for us.

"I could have gone quicker but that would have meant taking risks and I didn't want to do that.

"Harri obviously eased off a little and we just did the same times as him from there."

A month after winning in Greece, his first success for a year, McRae managed to gain his 25th career victory, one ahead of Spain's Carlos Sainz and Tommi Makinen of Finland.

The Scot has led the Safari Rally since the opening stage of day two after Finn Tommi Makinen suffered suspension problems.

The win is McRae's second in succession in this year's championship.

It has been a masterful demonstration of maturity from the man once famed more for his accidents than his triumphs.

Final positions after 11 special stages:

1 Colin McRae (Gbr) Ford - seven hours 17 minutes 27.2 seconds
2 Harri Rovanpera (Fin) Peugeot at 3:50.9
3 Thomas Radstrom (Swe) Citroen at 19:20.3
4 Markko Martin (Est) Ford at 24:55.8
5 Sebastien Loeb (Fra) Citroen at 26:13.8
6 Gilles Panizzi (Fra) Peugeot at 37:11.8
7 Roman Kresta (Cze) Skoda at 49:58.0
8 Juha Kankkunen (Fin) Hyundai at 1:10:28.0
9 Alister McRae (Gbr) Mitsubishi at 1:15:18.3
10 Karamjit Singh (Mal) Proton at 2:25:12.1

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