Botterill and Cummings fly the flag for Toyota Gazoo Racing on Dakar stage 9

The ninth stage of the 2024 Dakar Rally on Tuesday brought mixed results for the Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) team, as their five crews in GR IMT Hilux EVO race cars completed the 661km-long stage between Ha’il and Al-’Ula in Saudi Arabia. The stage included an opening liaison of 76km, as well as a closing liaison of 149km, and was run over mixed terrain that included sand, dunes and rocky traverses.

The fastest TGR crew on the day was rookie driver Guy Botterill, together with his experienced co-driver, Brett Cummings. The pair recorded the fifth-fastest time on the stage, relinquishing only 10min 1sec to the stage winners, after a clean run through the tough stage.

“We had a good run,” says Botterill. “Brett was fantastic on the notes. We were driving on these flat rocks and you can’t see any tracks. So, it’s very, very tough to see the road. But we pushed a bit harder today. I think we did a fantastic job, and our pace was really good. The car ran fantastic, and we are really happy.”

They remain in ninth place in the overall rankings (see below), 2hr 29min 51sec behind the leading crew. With three stages remaining in the 2024 Dakar Rally, Botterill and Cummings will be aiming to remain in the top 10, which would be a remarkable achievement for the rookie driver from Durban.

Next-fastest for TGR was Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon, who started the stage with the aim of cementing their third place in the overall rankings. While they managed to retain this position, they lost 11min 3sec to the stage winners, despite running near the front of the pack from most of the stage. Their deficit to the lead is now 1hr 12min 2sec, and they have a buffer of nearly 30min to the car behind them.

“It was a tricky, tricky job today, but hey, we’re still third overall, we can’t complain. The car is one piece and we’ll keep going,” says Moraes. 

TGR's Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy started stage 9 in fine form, all but matching the pace of the crews at the head of the field. A missed waypoint midway through the stage, however, cost them dearly. This was followed by another challenging waypoint further into the stage, where they lost more time. Their time loss on the stage was 19min 14sec, but the 15min penalty for the missed waypoint was added later, dropping them further down the order.

They were running in fifth place in the overall ranking after eight stages, but have slipped back to eighth place after their troubles on stage 9.

TGR’s second rookie driver, Saood Variawa, who is partnered with French co-driver Francois Cazalet, recorded a solid performance in stage 8 of the race, and followed up with another good performance in stage 9. Were it not for an errant water pressure sensor in their car, the pair may well have finished higher up the order. They elected to stop to check on the sensor, however, losing time in the process. In the end, they relinquished 19min 50sec to the leaders, and now find themselves in 20th place overall.

“I enjoyed the whole stage even though there were a few tricky parts,” says Variawa, “we’re looking forward to the next few days.”

The final TGR pairing of Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz are out of contention for the Dakar Rally, following a mishap earlier in the race. However, they are still pushing for good stage results to score points towards the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship, of which the Dakar Rally is the opening round.

Stage 9, however, brought a disappointing result, following navigational difficulties together with mechanical niggles that slowed their progress. They lost 20min 21sec on the stage, posting the 17th-fastest time on the day.

Three stages remain in this year’s Dakar Rally. Next up is stage 10, which starts and ends at the bivouac in Al-’Ula today. At 371km the stage promises to be another stern test over mixed terrain.

The penultimate stage will take the rally to the coast city of Yanbu, where the final stage will also take place on Friday. Follow Toyota Gazoo Racing SA on X and Facebook for live updates.

Dakar 2024: Stage 9 results

Dakar 2024: Standings after stage 9

TGR SA is sponsored by Ingco, Innovation Group Services, Toyota Financial Services, Toyota Genuine Motor Oil, Johnsson Workwear, USN, Eurol, SVR and Kinto.

This article was sponsored by Toyota.