Lategan/Cummings take Dakar lead for TGR after Stage 2

• Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings take over lead of Dakar 2025
• Yazeed Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk in second overall for Toyota
• Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon in 8th overall
• Disappointment for several TGR crews as 48h Chrono takes its toll

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s Henk Lategan and co-driver Brett Cummings not only survived the 967km-long 48h Chrono Stage of Dakar 2025, but they also posted the fourth-fastest time. They trailed the stage winners, Rokas Baciuska and co-driver Oriol Mena in their privately entered Toyota Hilux by just 6min 59sec at the end of the rally’s longest stage. This put the works GR Hilux EVO crew at the head of the overall standings, where they now find themselves 4min 45sec clear of Yazeed Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk (Toyota Hilux), who are in second place.

The 48h Chrono, now in its second year as part of the Dakar Rally, served as Stage 2 of the event, and saw competitors start from the bivouac near the Southwestern town of Bisha on Sunday, 5 January. From here, the crews raced along a route comprising dunes, sandy tracks and rocky traverses until 5pm local time, at which point racing was suspended, and the crews had to overnight in whichever one of six mini bivouacs was nearest to them. Then, at sunrise this morning, racing resumed from each of the mini bivouacs, with cars setting off at one-minute intervals. Depending on where the crews overnighted, they had approximately 350km to race before the end of the stage, with a short liaison back to Bisha.

Lucas Moraes and co-driver Armand Monleon were the second-fastest TGR crew on Stage 2, completing the massive stage in 11h 23min 01sec – just 28min 50sec behind the stage winners. This was another solid performance by the Brazilian, who was classified in 12th place on the stage. As a result, they move up into 8th place overall, some 20min 57sec behind Lategan/Cummings.

While Lategan and Moraes both recorded exceptional results on Stage 2 of the rally, their teammates all suffered setbacks for various reasons. Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz, in the #204 GR Hilux EVO, opened the stage following their stage win on the opening test. They initially managed to hold off the charging pack, but just 200km into the 965km stage, their electronic navigational equipment gave up the ghost, forcing the pair to drop back. This cost them significant time, but even so the Californian lost only 51min 58sec to the stage winners, and is now in 13th place overall. With a deficit of 40min 47sec to Lategan/Cummings, the TGR driver will be looking to steady the ship over the coming days.

Giniel de Villiers and German co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz (#206) drove a steady stage, moving up in the rankings throughout. However, an unfortunate incident just 40km from the finish saw them having a head-on crash with teammates Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet (#218). In what can only be described as a most unfortunate accident, the cars collided in thick dust while looking for the correct route.

For De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz, this is a serious blow, as they were up into 8th place in the virtual overall rankings shortly before the crash. After salvaging parts from Variawa’s car, the veteran duo managed to complete the stage, but lost 2hr 20min 10sec in the process. This drops them down to 36th overall, with a deficit of 2hr 19min 25sec.

Variawa and Cazalet faced a massive job making running repairs to their damaged car. The pair completed the stage 8hr 4min 5sec behind the leaders, sending them tumbling down the order. The young driver, in only his second Dakar Rally, will be looking to gain experience over the coming days, in addition to posting fast stage times and supporting his teammates.

The final TGR entry of Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy struggled with navigation during the second part of the stage. This initially cost them 30min, but then they suffered a rear differential problem, which dropped them further down the standings. With only front-wheel drive, they were unable to cross the dunes, and had to skip a number of waypoints as a result. This cost them not only time, but also incurred penalties, and when the times were tallied after Stage 2, they had dropped down to 133rd place, more than 28hr behind the lead. This is a bitter blow to last year’s Rookie of the Year, who had hopes of improving on his 6th place from the 2024 rally.

The 48h Chrono proved to be every bit as tough as expected. But TGR is delighted to top the overall standings after this brutal stage, with a second Toyota Hilux just minutes further back. Stage 3 is next and will take the crews from the bivouac at Bisha to the town of Al Henakiyah via a 495km stage. There are also liaisons totaling 352km, bringing the total distance for the day to 847km.

QUOTES:

Henk Lategan: 

“An unbelievable stage. So tough. I mean today I was enjoying it a bit more than yesterday. There were 200 kilometres of dunes in one section and I had to stop to get sick outside the car, so we lost some time in the dunes. It was super difficult getting through, but the road position helped a lot. We could catch up to the guys in front and then start driving with the top guys today. This morning was very tricky again because they started us in one minute dust caps. So, straight off the start line you’re in the dust and it was quite high speed so we had to play a bit clever.”

Lucas Moraes: 

“Yeah, yesterday was really tough in terms of timing because we lost a bunch; but in terms of experience, myself and Armand opened for 100km in the dunes, which was a great experience. Of course, I made some mistakes. I’m still learning, but today we managed to hammer down and put on a good show. I think we didn’t we didn’t lose any time today, which was important.”

Seth Quintero: 

“The thing is that they [the two days of the 48h Chrono] weren’t tough. They weren’t that bad. I didn’t feel myself fading or get tired at all. Just unfortunately had a little bit of an issue with the ERTF at about kilometer 200 of 966, while I was opening. We had no trip repeater the rest of the way home. So yeah, super frustrating to have your race dictated by an electrical road book, but I guess everybody might have that issue at some point. I just got unlucky that it was on the longest stage of the rally. But it’s only day two. We got 5,000 more kilometres to go. So yeah, we’ll just keep on pushing.”

Giniel de Villiers: 

“It was all going very well until 40km from the end. Then there were quite a few cars together, about 11 of us, and we all were sort of in a ‘dust train’. And then unfortunately, some of the front guys lost the route. The navigation was quite tricky. And I think Saood and Francois also struggled. They came back to find the right way, and we just had a head-on collision in the dust. So that’s really, really unfortunate. We managed to fix the car, took some parts of Saood’s car because his car is a little bit more damaged than mine.”

Guy Botterill: 

“Yeah that was a tough day. Yesterday we had a really good run. I really enjoyed yesterday. We had a really good pace and we were trying our utmost to not make any mistakes and just keep it clean and stay in the top bunch. Today, we started pretty well, but then we started hearing a noise from the car. It just got worse and worse and I could feel the vibration through the gear lever. Then, through some dune crossings, it just made a noise and the rear diff exploded or broke. We only had front-wheel drive as a result, and you can’t cross the dunes with front-wheel drive. So, very difficult, very disappointing. But that’s motor racing and we’ll try again tomorrow.”

Dakar Rally 2025 – Stage 2B Results

Dakar Rally 2025 – Standings after Stage 2B