TOYOTA GAZOO Racing W2RC holds on to Dakar Rally lead in Stage 5

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing W2RC (TGR W2RC) retained its lead of the Dakar Rally despite a demanding Stage 5 to conclude a gruelling back-to-back marathon.

The crews began the second part of the marathon after spending Wednesday night in tents alongside their vehicles. The 371 km competitive section en route to the city of Ha’il initially ran on fast sandy tracks before rockier sections. The route was especially demanding in terms of navigation, with difficult-to-see tracks increasing the risk of missing a waypoint.

Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings led overall after their stage victory on Wednesday. As a result, they had the added difficulty of being first on the road on Stage 5, meaning they encountered a more treacherous surface and increased navigational challenge.

Despite that, the #202 DKR GR Hilux crew managed to preserve their overall lead. Although they finished 16th – 12 minutes behind the stage winners – Lategan and Cummings minimised the time loss to their nearest competitors in the overall standings. They now lead by more than three minutes from Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin (Dacia Sandriders) with eight stages remaining and the advantage of a later starting position on Friday.

Toby Price and Armand Monleón were also among the first cars on the stage. They made a cautious start before increasing the pace, but suffered a puncture in the second part and lost further time driving in dust from other competitors. They finished 25th, moving the #204 DKR GR Hilux up to 15th overall, with a top-10 finish still in their sights.

Seth Quintero and Andrew Short started the stage slightly later and earned a top-10 finish. After losing time earlier in the rally with punctures, they are now 21st overall in the #203 DKR GR Hilux.

Stage 5 was won by Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch, who led a Ford Racing one-two from Nani Roma and Alex Haro. Martin Prokop and Viktor Chytka completed the podium for Orlen Jipocar Team.

Friday’s Stage 6 is the longest of this year’s Dakar Rally at 920 km. The field heads south-east over sand dunes to the Saudi capital Riyadh and includes 331 km of competitive action, before a rest day on Saturday.

Quotes:

Henk Lategan: “We had a good push on the first day of the marathon stage. We started in the dust and stayed there for a lot of the day, but it was still a really nice stage. We had a couple of moments looking for waypoints but nothing too serious. Finally, we had a day without punctures so we really got going and could push all the way to the end. Camping in the tent was not very comfortable and the ration packs for food weren’t great, but it was fun to spend some time with the guys around the campfire. Today we had the massive job of opening the stage and we were at the front pretty much all the way. That was very difficult, but Brett did a great job. The car is going well and is showing some true Hilux reliability to make it through a tough marathon like that when we were really pushing. We’ve had a good couple of days to bounce back after a tough start to the rally.”

Seth Quintero: “The marathon stage went well for us. We made sure we were there in case anything happened to our team-mates on Stage 4. We gave a wheel to Yazeed (Al-Rajhi) and then kept going along at the same pace as Henk to be sure that, if he needed a wheel, we were there to help. We had a good start position on Stage 5 and made up some time. Then we caught Toby and drove with him all the way to the finish. We are a little behind in the overall standings, but we are still very much in the race. We’ve got to continue like this and go for it tomorrow.”

Toby Price: “We had a decent day on Stage 4, and it felt like we found a rhythm. We didn’t get any flat tyres either, so I was happy with that. After the overnight camp I left feeling really good. We started Stage 5 at what we thought was a reasonable pace, but we realised that it wasn’t so quick. So, I started to pick up the pace and then we made a bit of a navigation error just over halfway through. We were having a good run despite that until I hit a rock and got a puncture. After that we had a tough afternoon in the dust. But the car is in great shape and we’re ready for another day.”

Dakar Rally – Provisional Stage 5 result*

Dakar Rally – Provisional standings after Stage 5*

*Correct at 8pm local time, prior to official publication of results