Summarize

South African Rally Raid Champions Henk Lategan and Brian Cummings have powered into the lead of Dakar 2025. The Made in SA Toyota Gazoo Hilux crew drove a tactical race to third behind local hero, Saudi Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk and Qatari 5-time Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah and Frenchman Edouard Boulanger’s Dacia Sandrider in the 1000 km two-day 48H Chrono stage to move ahead of Al Rajhi and Attiyah in the overall rankings.

Having spent the night in one of the seven no-assistance 48H Chrono overnight rest areas, those who made it there started the second half of the stage bright and early Monday morning, with the leaders facing a relatively short 250 kilometre odd dash to back to a degree of civilization at Bisha in the Saudi desert.

Al-Rajhi and Al-Attiyah led Swedes Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist’s Ford Raptor at the break on Sunday evening. Attiyah was immediately on the charge to shave valuable seconds out of his fellow Emirati’s lead through the early dunes, while Lategan and Toyota Gazoo Hilux teammates Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy loomed large behind.

Both Eriksson and Botterill however lost their way in the second sector, to see Lategan chasing Attiyah down in third, as Al Rajhi opened the gap up front. Behind them, Nani Roma and Alex Haro’s Ford Raptor ran fourth from Mathieu Serradori and Loic Minaudier in their Century CR7 and Toyota Hilux trio, Rokas Baciuska and Oriol Mena, Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz, and Toby Price and Sam Sunderland.

Lategan’s pace soon saw him into the virtual overall lead over Al Rajhi and Attiyah, while Sebastien Loeb was also on the move as he made up ten minutes in the early running. Then Roma was in trouble, stopped with a mechanical issue as he waited for Ford assistance. Up front, the lead ebbed and flowed as Attiyah and Lategan closed on Al Rajhi and Lategan extended his virtual overall advantage. The Baciuska and Yacopini Hiluxes sandwiched fifth placed Serradori’s Century ahead of Ekstrom, Price, Loeb and de Villiers.

There was drama late in the stage when the Toyotas of de Villiers and Saood Variawa collided in thick dust, but both crews were fine as they tried to repair their bakkies.

Al Rajhi duly brought it home to clinch the Chrono 48H victory from Attiyah and Lategan with Baciuska,  Serradori,  Yacopini and Ekstrom. Loeb passed Price for ninth and Benediktas Vanagas and Szymon Gospodarczyk’s Hilux picked up tenth. Overall, Lategan, Cummings and their Made in SA Hilux now lead Dakar 2025 by 2 minutes 45 from Al Rajhi with Al Attiyah third from Ekstrom. The hugely impressive Price and Sunderland follow from Loeb, who has bounced back to sixth. 

Another monster 495 km stage of dirt, gravel and sand awaits as Dakar 2025 finally packs up from Bisha, from where it has run so far, and heads to Al Henakiyah for Stage 3 on its fifth day of racing on Tuesday. Watch this space…