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SA duo remain in lead after ‘tough two days’ in Dakar Rally

You are currently viewing SA duo remain in lead after ‘tough two days’ in Dakar Rally
epa11813442 Henk Lategan of South Africa and Brett Cummings of South Africa compete with their Toyota Hilux for Imt Evo Toyota Gazoo Racing during the fourth stage of the 2025 Dakar Rally, from Al Henakiyah to Alula, Saudi Arabia, 08 January 2025. EPA/Gerard Laurenssen

The opening week of Dakar 2025 has drawn to a close in the northern city of Hail, following Stage 5 of the gruelling event. For TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, the opening week brought mixed results, but with Henk Lategan and co-driver Brett Cummings topping the overall standings, the team has every reason to be pleased.

Stage 5 saw the crews return from the Marathon bivouac at Alula, where they had to service their own cars before taking on a 428km timed stage, leading them back to the main bivouac at Hail. With a multitude of punctures on Stage 4, and limited resupply at the overnight stop, today’s stage was a tough challenge.

However, it was TGR’s Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz who set the fastest time of the day. The GR Hilux EVO crew bested the 2nd-placed team by a single second, and moved into the overall Top 10 as a result. They are now 1hr 3min 10sec behind the leaders, with seven stages to go.

As for the overall leaders, Lategan/Cummings faced multiple punctures over the course of the Marathon section of the rally, but brought their GR Hilux EVO home in the 4th-fastest time on Stage 5. This allowed them to retain their lead, which has grown to 10min 17sec over Yazeed Al Rahji and Timo Gottschalk (#201) in their Toyota Hilux.

Saood Variawa, racing in only his second Dakar Rally, finished Stage 5 in 6th place today.

Together with co-driver Francois Cazalet, the #218 driver has shown significant pace at times this week, becoming the youngest stage winner in the Ultimate Class when he won Stage 3 of the rally. However, a major setback due to a collision on Stage 2 has relegated him to 57th place in the overall ranking, with a time deficit of 8hr 22min 21sec to the lead.

Brazilian driver Lucas Moraes, together with Spanish co-driver Armand Monleon, finished just 4min 24sec behind Variawa/Cazalet today, but were disappointed with their performance on Stage 5.

They struggled briefly with navigation, and also suffered a puncture on a day where spare tyres were in short supply. Despite the challenges of the day, Moraes/Monleon managed to complete the opening week in the Top 5 overall, lying just 41min 55sec behind the leading crew.

There was disappointment for both Guy Botterill and teammate Giniel de Villiers on Stage 5, in both cases due to a shortage of spare tyres. De Villiers and co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz were first on the road, but suffered more punctures than they had tyres. They were forced to a halt near the mid-point of the stage, and had to wait for support from a fellow competitor.

Botterill, driving with Dennis Murphy, stopped to assist his teammate, despite having no spare tyres himself. This forced Botterill/Murphy to wait for assistance in turn, which eventually came from a fellow Toyota Hilux crew some minutes later. This relegated the GR Hilux EVO crew to 31st on Stage 5, while De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz were classified in 48th place.

For Botterill/Murphy, the opening week brought disappointment. The 2024 Rookie of the Year crew started the rally with a solid performance on the opening stage, but things went wrong on the second day of the 48h Chrono when his Hilux suffered a broken rear differential. This sent him tumbling down the order, and having incurred penalties for missed waypoints at the end of Stage 2, Botterill is now in 90th place overall.

As for De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz, the former Dakar Rally winners initially lost time with a collision at the end of Stage 2, and then suffered a further setback when they ran out of spare tyres today. As a result, they are in 20th place overall, some 3hr 32min 17sec behind the lead.

With the opening week of the rally concluded, the crews will now enjoy a day of rest and recuperation in Hail, while the technicians prepare their cars for the second week of the Dakar Rally. This comprises seven stages, with the longest of these a 605km monster stage between Hail and Al Duwadimi on Sunday, 12 January.
From there, the route continues in a southeasterly direction, stopping off at Riyadh and Haradh, before dipping into the fearsome Empty Quarter at Shubaytah for the finale. Dakar 2025 will conclude on Friday, 17 January.

QUOTES:
Henk Lategan: “The past two days have been really tough, especially the first half of the marathon. It was such a risky game with getting punctures. The first stage yesterday was just full of rocks and unfortunately, we got two punctures with about 80 kilometres to go. Even so, this car has been unbelievable. It’s a seriously tough car. Still a long way to go, but so far, so good. We’re just trying to keep it clean and we’ll do the same for the next week.”

Giniel de Villiers: “The last two days were quite tough and today we unfortunately ran out of tyres. You can’t drive home on the brake discs, so we had to wait. Thanks to Guy, who gave us a tyre, and then we basically followed each at a snail’s pace.”