Dakar stage 5 glory for Quintero as Lategan holds steady

The opening week of Dakar 2025 has drawn to a close in the northern city of Hail after stage 5 of the gruelling event. For Toyota Gazoo Racing it brought mixed results, but with Henk Lategan and co-driver Brett Cummings (#211) topping the overall standings, the team has every reason to be pleased.

Stage 5 saw the crews return from the Marathon bivouac at Alula, where they had to service their own cars before taking on a 428km timed stage, leading them back to the main bivouac at Hail. With many punctures on the stage, and limited resupply at the overnight stop, the stage was a tough challenge.

However, it was TGR’s Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz (#204) who set the fastest time of the day. The GR Hilux EVO crew bested the second-placed team by a single second, and moved into the overall Top 10 as a result. They are 1hr 3min 10sec behind the leaders, with seven stages to go.

As for the overall leaders, Lategan/Cummings faced many punctures over the course of the marathon section of the rally, but brought their GR Hilux EVO home in the fourth-fastest time on stage 5. This allowed them to retain their lead, which has grown to 10min 17sec over Yazeed Al Rahji and Timo Gottschalk (#201) in their Toyota Hilux.

Saood Variawa, racing in only his second Dakar Rally, finished stage 5 in sixth place. Together with co-driver Francois Cazalet, the #218 driver has shown significant pace at times this week, becoming the youngest stage winner in the Ultimate Class when he won stage 3 of the rally. However, a major setback due to a collision on stage 2 has relegated him to 57th place in the overall ranking, with a time deficit of 8hr 22min 21sec to the lead.

Brazilian driver Lucas Moraes, together with Spanish co-driver Armand Monleon (#203), finished 4min 24sec behind Variawa/Cazalet, but were disappointed with their performance on stage 5. They struggled briefly with navigation, and also suffered a puncture on a day when spare tyres were in short supply. Despite the challenges of the day, Moraes/Monleon managed to complete the opening week in the Top 5 overall, lying  41min 55sec behind the leading crew.

There was disappointment for Guy Botterill and teammate Giniel de Villiers on stage 5, in both cases due to a shortage of spare tyres. De Villiers and co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz (#206) were first on the road, but suffered more punctures than they had tyres. They were forced to a halt near the mid-point of the stage, and had to wait for support from a fellow competitor.

Botterill, driving with Dennis Murphy (#205), stopped to assist his teammate, despite having no spare tyres himself. This forced Botterill/Murphy to wait for assistance in turn, which came from a fellow Toyota Hilux crew some minutes later. This relegated the GR Hilux EVO crew to 31st on stage 5, while De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz were classified in 48th place.

For Botterill/Murphy, the opening week brought disappointment. The 2024 Rookie of the Year crew started the rally with a solid performance on the opening stage, but things went wrong on the second day of the 48-hour Chrono when his Hilux suffered a broken rear differential. This sent him tumbling down the order, and having incurred penalties for missed waypoints at the end of stage 2, Botterill is in 90th place overall.

As for De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz (#206), the former Dakar Rally winners initially lost time with a collision at the end of stage 2, and then suffered a further setback when they ran out of spare tyres on stage 5. As a result, they are in 20th place overall, 3hr 32min 17sec behind the lead.

With the opening week of the rally concluded, the crews will enjoy a day of rest and recuperation in Hail, while the technicians prepare their cars for the second week of the Dakar Rally. This comprises seven stages, with the longest a 605km monster stage between Hail and Al Duwadimi on January 12.

From there, the route continues in a southeasterly direction, stopping off at Riyadh and Haradh, before dipping into the fearsome Empty Quarter at Shubaytah for the finale. Dakar 2025 will conclude on January 17.

Post-stage driver quotes

Henk Lategan

“The past two days have been really tough, specially the first half of the marathon. It was such a risky game with getting punctures. The first stage yesterday was full of rocks and unfortunately we got two punctures with about 80kmto go. Even so, this car has been unbelievable. It’s a seriously tough car. Still a long way to go, but so far, so good. We’re trying to keep it clean and we’ll do the same for the next week.”

Lucas Moraes 

“We got lost for 15 minutes and then we got punctured while we were lost. So a disappointing day, but first week done. Let’s see if we can put something together for next week.”

Seth Quintero

"Day 1, I ended up getting three flats, which kind of took us out and lost an hour there. And then today I said, let’s just go for it. Prior to the Dakar, the team worked with Repsol to optimise the engine for the renewable fuel we are using, and it is really paying off. The car has been amazing, and the engine has been been performing as expected.”

Giniel de Villiers

“The last two days were quite tough and today we unfortunately ran out of tyres. You can’t drive home on the brake discs, so we had to wait. Thanks to Guy, who gave us a tyre, and then we basically followed each at a snail’s pace.”

Saood Variawa

“Unfortunately we opened for the first part of the marathon. We were good until about 200km in and then we had two punctures. Today’s stage, we had managed to plug one tyre from yesterday, so we saved one and then we gave our spare to Guy, so we basically finished the stage over the last 250km with no spare tyres. It’s definitely tougher than last year. The Chrono was crazy and also the Marathon just added to it, so rest is needed.”

Guy Botterill

“Last night Dennis and I repaired I think four tyres for the team to drive on. Today was very challenging, but we did what we had to do. I’m nowhere in this race, so my job is to support the team and I think Dennis and I did a really good job to keep everything going. It was not easy.”

• This article was sponsored by Toyota.