Power performance by TGR crews on penultimate Stage in Abu Dhabi
- 2nd on Stage 4 for Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon
- 4th on Stage 4 for Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz
- TGR in 2nd and 3rd overall
Stage 4 of the 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Round 2 of this year's World Rally-Raid Championship (SARRC) proved a pivotal one for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR), with two of its crews now occupying podium positions in the overall standings. The 300km-long stage between the Marathon encampment and the main bivouac at Mezeer'ah saw Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon in the #203 GR Hilux EVO post the 2nd-fastest time, just 2min 29sec behind the stage winners.
At the same time, teammates Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz (#204) went 4th-fastest today, relinquishing only 3min 52sec to the stage winners. This result has seen Moraes/Monleon cement their second position overall, with a deficit of only 41sec to the lead; while Quintero/Zenz have moved into 3rd place. As things stand with one stage to go, Moraes has scored 12 points towards the W2RC, while Seth has increased his tally by 7 points.
Further back, Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet (#218) posted the 10th-fastest time in Stage 4. The South African driver, together with his French navigator, found the going tough in the massive dunes they encountered today. The pair were forced to skirt around some of the bigger dunes of Stage 4, losing time as a result.
Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy were 11th on Stage 4, losing 16min 43sec to the winners. This despite also struggling with the big and treacherous dunes that peppered today's stage. They now find themselves in 9th place in the overall standings, 33min 7sec adrift of the lead, with just the final stage to go.
Stage 5 of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge will take the rally from the bivouac at Mezeer'ah to the capital of Abu Dhabi, via a stage of 167km. While the stage may be short, there could well be a sting in the tail of this rally.
QUOTES:
Lucas Moraes (#203):
"Well, we finished the marathon stage, which was really important to us. To be honest, it was kind of hard to find the rhythm in the first part of the stage. I was trying to push, but the speed wasn't there and then finally we got stuck about one minute into the speed zone. The rest of the stage was better, and I managed to find a great pace, catching up some time and reclaiming about 8 seconds from Nasser. Now we are 41 seconds from the lead, so a big day tomorrow."
Seth Quintero (#204):
"We started off okay, but had a weird situation to deal with, where one of the camera guys left a GoPro mount in my car and it got stuck under my throttle pedal for about 15km. I had to wait to get to the transfer zone to fix it. Then, we were making up time on the leaders, but unfortunately we had a downed bike in front of us and with no alarm, we had to dodge him at the last second. We ended up getting stuck for a bit, so ended up P4. But we moved up into 3rd in the overall so that's good."
Saood Variawa (#218):
"Today was not smooth sailing... The first two big dunes on the route, we couldn't actually cross them. So, we made a loop and tried again, so we lost a lot of time today just on dunes that we couldn't cross. I think we didn't have the pace carrying speed up the dunes. Nonetheless, it was a decent day driving-wise. We managed to open a lot of tracks and drive with speed while opening the tracks which was good. It's all experience that we're gaining so super happy with that"
Guy Botterill (#211):
"We struggled a bit today, we got stuck a few times in the dunes, really big dunes. Being 10th on the road, it had churned the dunes up a lot, so they were even softer. We were also crossing them at 12 o'clock, so very tricky. We're here to gain experience, and we're learning a lot."
Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2025 – Stage 4 Results
| 1 | #213 | E. Goczal / O. Mena | (Overdrive Racing) | 2hour 52min 23sec |
| 2 | #203 | L. Moraes / A. Monleon | (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing) | +02:29 |
| 3 | #200 | N. Al-Attiyah / E. Boulanger | (The Dacia Sandriders) | +02:37 |
| 4 | #204 | S. Quintero / D. Zenz | (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing) | +03:52 |
| 5 | #228 | M. Guthrie / K. Walch | (Ford M-Sport) | +08:19 |
| 6 | #240 | J. Ferreira / F. Palmeiro | (X-Raid Mini JCW) | +09:07 |
| 7 | #205 | J. Yacopini / D. Oliveras | (Overdrive Racing) | +09:17 |
| 8 | #201 | Y. Al Rajhi / T. Gottschalk | (Overdrive Racing) | +10:49 |
| 9 | #309 | Y. Seaidan / M. Metge | (BBR Motorsport) | +11:21 |
| 10 | #218 | S. Variawa / F. Cazalet | (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing) | +11:54 |
| 11 | #211 | G. Botterill / D. Murphy | (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing) | +16:43 |
Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2025 – Standings after Stage 4
| 1 | #200 | N. Al-Attiyah / E. Boulanger | (The Dacia Sandriders) | 12hour 22min 30sec |
| 2 | #203 | L. Moraes / A. Monleon | (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing) | +00:41 |
| 3 | #204 | S. Quintero / D. Zenz | (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing) | +07:22 |
| 4 | #213 | E. Goczal / O. Mena | (Overdrive Racing) | +09:06 |
| 5 | #240 | J. Ferreira / F. Palmeiro | (X-Raid Mini JCW) | +13:46 |
| 6 | #201 | Y. Al Rajhi / T. Gottschalk | (Overdrive Racing) | +23:20 |
| 7 | #205 | J. Yacopini / D. Oliveras | (Overdrive Racing) | +24:51 |
| 8 | #228 | M. Guthrie / K. Walch | (Ford M-Sport) | +25:34 |
| 9 | #211 | G. Botterill / D. Murphy | (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing) | +33:07 |
| 10 | #222 | G. de Mevius / X. Panseri | (X-Raid Mini JCW) | +40:14 |
| 31 | #218 | S. Variawa / F. Cazalet | (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing) | +19:56:34 |
Timings were correct at the time of publication; full stage results can be found at abudhabidesertchallenge.com.
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