There was unbridled joy for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s Lucas Moraes and co-driver Armand Monleon on Stage 7 of the 2025 Dakar Rally. The #203 GR Hilux EVO crew posted a time of 4h 01min 49sec on the 419km stage, which started and finished near the town of Al Duwadimi. This put them 7min 41sec clear of the next-fastest crew, and gave the TGR driver reason for celebration after the disappointment of Stage 6, where he lost significant time.
Seth Quintero and co-driver Dennis Zenz (#204) finished Stage 7 11min 38sec behind there teammates, which was good enough for 5th place on the day. The American driver suffered two punctures on the stage, but even so he is in 8th place in the overall standings, just 1h 28min 32sec off the lead.
That lead still belongs to Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings in the #211 GR Hilux EVO. The pair drove a near perfect stage today, even finding a very tricky waypoint mid-stage, giving them a clear lead over their competitors. Unfortunately, the organisers decided to delete the section of the route where this waypoint was located due to an error in the roadbook, negating Lategan/Cumming’s advantage.
They were further disadvantaged by having taken over the duty of opening the route, since their fellow competitors were lost at the time. This task cost the TGR crew more time on the stage, and as a result their overall lead was cut from 7min 16sec after Stage 6 to just 21sec after Stage 7. Despite the disappointment of losing a hard-earned buffer due to a technicality, the crew have secured a good starting position for Stage 8, and will continue to fight for victory.
Lategan/Cummings were supported throughout most of the stage by teammates Guy Botterill his co-driver Dennis Murphy (#205). The pair started ahead of Lategan/Cummings, but waited for their teammates to come past at a decontrol early in the stage. This allowed them to shadow the race leaders, in case support was needed. Consequently, Botterill/Murphy finished the stage in 35th place, losing 32min 28sec on the day. They are well down the order in the overall rankings, however, and have taken on the role of water carriers for the leading car.
Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet (#218) had an excellent stage today, finishing in 8th place, just 13min 13sec behind the stage winners. The pair have shown exceptional pace at times, winning one stage outright. However, they are 8h 26min 16sec behind in the overall classification, leaving them out of touch with the leading group.
Giniel de Villiers was forced to retire from the 2025 Dakar Rally after Stage 6, when his co-driver, Dirk von Zitzewitz, developed severe neck pain mid-stage. The pain worsened as the stage wore on, forcing De Villiers to slow his pace. Von Zitzewitz was examined by medical staff after the stage, and they found the German veteran unfit to continue with the race. This was a disappointing end to the pair’s 14th Dakar together, and brings a premature end to De Villiers’ final race with TOYOTA GAZOO Racing.
The rally will head to the Saudi capital city of Riyadh tomorrow, via Stage 8 of the 2025 event. The stage features a road section of 72km between the bivouac at Al Duwadimi and the start, as well as a liaison of 178km linking the end of the stage to the bivouac in Riyadh. In between lie 488km of fast dirt tracks, with some sand and dunes also in the mix.
QUOTES:
Henk Lategan: “Early on, we got a puncture, and we had to stop and change that. But then after that, we were going well. There was one area where everybody was getting lost. Brett and I also got lost for quite a few minutes, but then we decided to go all the way back. We went really far back and then followed the road book again and managed to find the way and find the waypoint first. So, we overtook all of the cars that started in front of us in the stage, and we were opening the stage for most of the way. And now, I’m not sure what’s happening, but it looks like they [the organisers] took out a piece of the stage. If that’s going to be the case, we’re going to lose out. We did a good job in finding the waypoint first, and now it looks like they’re basically applying a penalty to the people that managed to find the waypoint, because then after that, we had to open. So, it will be really unfair, but let’s see. Maybe they’ll fix it.”
Giniel de Villiers: “It’s unfortunate but obviously the most important thing that is that Dirk is okay. I spoke to him this morning again and they did some other checks on him, and he has a stable fracture of the C6 vertebra. It’s one of those things that happened and it’s really unfortunate, but Dirk’s health is the number one priority here. This was our 14th Dakar together, and we’ve had some great times together with many highlights and many disappointments. We know this race inside out and you’ve got to take the good with the bad.”
