Picture: Kin Marcin
While TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings slipped to second place after Stage 9 of the 2025 Dakar Rally, fellow Toyota competitor Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk recorded the third-fastest time of the day, and moved into the overall lead of the race.
For Lategan/Cummings, who opened the stage after their win on Stage 8, a navigational error early on set them back. They lost the best part of five minutes before the 37km mark, and also suffered a puncture during this period. After that, they managed to steady the ship, finishing 16min 02sec behind the stage winners.
Lategan expressed his frustration after the stage. “A very difficult day for us. It was actually not supposed to be so bad, but we made an error right in the beginning,” he said. “We got lost and we had a puncture. I’m a little bit disappointed. This was one of our worst days of this Dakar. But it’s still a long way to go, and still a lot of race miles to go,” he added, however.
At the same time, the pair’s nearest competitors, Al Rajhi/Gottschalk, benefited from a good road position, and made up time on the GR Hilux EVO crew. By the time the dust had settled over Stage 9, it was Al Rajhi/Gottschalk who had moved into the lead of the rally – 7min 09sec clear of Lategan/Cummings, with three stages remaining in the rally.
Guy Botterill and co-driver Dennis Murphy shadowed Lategan/Cummings through much of Stage 9, carrying spare parts and tyres in case their teammates needed to make urgent repairs.
However, Botterill/Murphy hit a step-up on the route while at full throttle in sixth gear. The car rolled multiple times and was destroyed in the crash.
The crew escaped injury, but are bitterly disappointed that they won’t be able to continue supporting their teammates.
Botterill was thankful that him and his teammate were not injured in the crash. “The impact was huge. We rolled just over 500 meters, nose over back, sixth gear. I’m just devastated for the team, trying so hard. But anyway, Dennis and I walked away unharmed. Just shows you how strong and good the cars are.
“That was a big accident,” he added.
Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz lost 18min 06sec on Stage 9 of the rally, though their time loss was exacerbated by a missed waypoint, which cost them 15min in penalties. Had they not incurred this loss, they would have been among the front runners on the stage, but the penalty saw them drop to 1hr 46min 07sec behind the overall leaders, still well within the overall Top 10.
Quintero called the penalty and the disappointment “a bummer”. “I wouldn’t say it was a tough stage. It was a really, really fast stage. And mistakes come easy when you’re going fast. Some unfortunate accidents today. And yeah, a bummer day for us, to be honest. We had a good day going and then ended up hitting a waypoint backwards and jumped one.
“That gave us a 15-minute penalty, which was kind of a bummer. But all in all, we really didn’t lose that much time, considering the penalty.”
They are only 1min 19sec behind the crew ahead of them, and will be aiming to make up this deficit over the closing stages of the rally.
A similar fate befell Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon. The Brazilian driver and his Spanish co-driver missed a waypoint, and also incurred a 15min penalty. Their stage 9 time was 42min 41sec down on the stage winners, and they are in 17th place overall – 5h 12min 30sec behind the lead.
Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet, in the final GR Hilux EVO, faced setbacks of their own on Stage 9. The young driver got stuck on camel grass for nearly 10min and lost more time with a puncture later in the stage.
The pair also struggled with the tricky navigation that caught out many competitors today, and as a result they posted a time 22min 50sec down on the stage winners. They are 9h 3min 28sec behind in the overall rankings, provisionally in 33rd place.
“Yeah, we were really pushing from the start. I think we would have been one of the fastest cars up until the first 50 kilometers or so, Variawa said. “Unfortunately, we hit sort of a camel grass mound and then we were just stuck on the belly plate. It took us nearly 10 minutes or so to get out of it. And then it was just really tricky in terms of navigation for the last 50km or so. We’ll see how it goes in the dunes tomorrow.”
Stage 9 was a tough one for TGR, but the team remains positive.
Wednesday is Stage 10 of Dakar 2025, and while its distance is only 120km, the route is set to take the competitors to the edge of the Empty Quarter. A long liaison of 520km will bring the rally to the start of the stage, which is set to finish its final bivouac at Shubaytah. The rally will remain in the Empty Quarter until it reaches its conclusion on Friday, 17 January.
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