Having experienced a day hampered by punctures, Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa completed the second part of the marathon stage of this year’s Dakar Rally with all three of its GR Hilux IMT Evos reaching the bivouac in Hail on Thursday (8 January).
Day of mixed fortunes
Ran over 414 km, the fifth stage saw Portuguese crew João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro finish the highest of the three-car entries in seventh place, lifting them from 17th to 14th in the overall standings.
“Today the stage was super fast and very tricky for navigation. But we had no punctures today, so it was the cleanest run we’ve had so far,” Ferreira said.
“After yesterday we did all the maintenance ourselves at the Marathon bivouac, and the car was in perfect condition. We managed to close the gap a little bit, which is the most important thing.”
After a catalogue of problems on the first marathon section, Guy Botterill and Oriol Mena completed the stage ninth to lift them two places to 20th in the overall rankings.
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“The pace was right up there, but we got caught in a lot of dust and it’s very difficult to overtake when guys don’t move over,” Botterill said.
“Still, we’re happy with the performance and we didn’t have a single puncture over the two days. I think we’ve worked out the pace we need to run in the rocks.”
Having escaped the various dramas of their teammates thus far, apart from a puncture on the first marathon section, the second proved different for Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet, who battled with navigation and being stuck in the dust of the cars ahead.
Ultimately, the reigning national Rally-Raid champions finished 19th, dropping them sixth places to 12th in the final rankings.
“We were quite fast in the beginning and passed two cars ahead of us. But then we got stuck in a train with a lot of dust and later lost time in a navigation zone where many cars were struggling. It was a day to forget, but the car is in one piece and that’s the main thing,” Variawa said.
Blue Oval top three
Having dominated the third stage, the factory Ford team scored a stage 1-2, with the American pair of Mitch Guthrie/Kellon Walch taking their second stage victory ahead of teammates Nani Roma/Alex Haro.
The Blue Oval, in fact, made it a clean sweep of the top three via the privately entered Raptor of Czech former World Rally Championship (WRC) driver Martin Prokop and co-driver Viktor Chytka.
Sixth overall before the start of the stage, Lucas Moreas and Dennis Zenz finished best of the Dacia Sandriders team in fourth, followed by the third works Ford Raptor of Mattias Ekstrom and Emil Bergkvist.
Despite only finishing the stage 16th, South Africa’s Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings remain the overall leaders, helped in part by former winners Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Larquin, only finishing a single place ahead on the stage.
Overall standings
- Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings
– Toyota Hilux
– 20h 36′ 44” - Nasser Al-Attiyah/Fabian Larquin
– Dacia Sandriders
– 20h 40′ 01” - Mattias Ekstrom/Emil Bergkvist
– Ford Raptor
– 20h 42′ 22” - Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz
– Ford Raptor
– 20h 43′ 43” - Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz
– Ford Raptor
– 20h 45′ 17” - Mitch Guthrie/Kellon Walch
– Ford Raptor
– 20h 53′ 07” - Lucas Moreas/Dennis Zenz
– Dacia Sandriders
– 20h 53′ 55” - Sébastien Loeb/Edouard Boulanger
– Dacia Sandriders
– 20h 54′ 39” - Mathieu Serradori/Loïc Minaudier
– Century CR7
– 20h 56′ 24” - Martin Prokop/Viktor Chytka
– Ford Raptor
– 20h 56′ 39”
Rest day almost
With the marathon stages now over, the sixth sees the crews trek 326 km from Hail to the capital Riyadh, with no competitive running on Saturday as part of the rest day ahead of the start of competition on Sunday.
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