The seventh stage of the 2025 Dakar saw Henk Lategan’s (Toyota Gazoo Racing) lead over Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing) absolutely melt away. An error on the organisers’ part meant that they cut out a section of the stage. As a result Lategan’s lead was sliced to a slim 21 seconds from over ten minutes. He would right some of that wrong on 2025 Dakar stage 8. Stage eight was a mammoth run from Al Duwadimi to Riyadh. The cars had a 488 km timed section to contend with followed by a long liaison to the overnight stop. As a result crews had nearly 740 km to cover during the day.
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Opening the Way
By virtue of his stage win yesterday, Lucas Moraes (Toyota Gazoo Racing) led the cars away on 2025 Dakar Stage 8. But opening the road has proven to be detrimental to one’s stage time. Lategan’s teammate Saood Variawa was ready to play the team game today as the youngster paused his stage ambitions. He did so to wait for the rally leader. Running as tail-gunner meant he would be in close proximity should Lategan need quick assistance.
Still in Contention
Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia Sandrider) cannot be discounted, even if he started the day a few minutes adrift. The next few days of the rally are all about the beeeeg dunes, which is where Al-Attiyah is at his strongest. Another driver that was quick today was Guillaume de Mevius, showing that there is proper pace in the X-Raid Mini. His challenge, however, faded with mechanical issues.
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Guy Botterill, another Gazoo Racing driver, showed excellent pace through the checkpoints, regularly topping the timesheets. He passed through the stage, setting times that were quicker than that of the rally leader and teammate Lategan. For a time the top three drivers on the virtual stage rankings were South African, with Brian Baragwanath (Century Racing) joining his countrymen. Mattias Ekstrom (Ford Raptor) was keen to ruin the SA party by setting quick times and leading the stage later in the day. Al-Attiyah was also making a charge, eating into the deficit he has to the leaders.
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At the Flag
Lategan and Botterill traded times with very little to choose between the Toyota drivers. Lategan was dealt a late blow when he was handed a two minute penalty for speeding after the stage. This meant that Botterill had to finish within two minutes of his teammate to bag the 2025 Dakar stage 8 victory. But his charge was halted by a puncture late in the stage. Despite the penalty, Lategan claimed the win by 1 min 47 sec over Botterill.
Said Botterill after the stage: “It went well. Unfortunately, on the last hundred kilometres we had a tyre that was going flat, so we had to take it a bit easy and then just before we got to the dunes we had to put air in the tyre. So, we lost about a minute there, maybe a minute and a half.
“I think a win was on the cards today, it’s just unfortunate. We were trying really hard to get a win but second is good. The car felt really good and we’re looking forward to the last few days of the Dakar. South Africa is doing really well. We’ve built most of the cars and I’m not sure where Henk finished but we’re in the top three for the Dakar overall”.
Century Racing teammates Mathieu Serradori and Baragwanath were third and fourth, respectively. This is the first top three finish for a Century crew this year. Nani Roma (Ford Raptor) was classified fifth with Yazeed Al Rajhi in sixth and Al-Attiyah in 12th.
Lategan extended his overall lead today as his pursuers could not match his pace. His lead over Al Rajhi grew from a slender 21 seconds overnight to over five minutes at the end of today. Ekstrom bled time to the leaders and his closest challenger Al-Attiyah is now just six minutes behind the Swede. Mitch Guthrie is having a steady rally and still occupies fifth overall.
Standings after 2025 Dakar Stage 8
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- Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing) 42 hr 05 min 02 sec
- Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing) +05 min 41 sec
- Mattias Ekstrom (Ford M-Sport) +28 min 55 sec
- Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia Sandrider) +34 min 14 sec
- Mitch Guthrie (Ford M-Sport) +55 min 39 sec
- Mathieu Serradori (Century Racing) +58 min 24 sec
- Juan Cruz Yacopini (Overdrive Racing) +1 hr 32 min 11 sec
- Seth Quintero (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +01 hr 36 min 54 sec
- Joao Ferreira (X-Rain Mini) +02 hr 05 min 07 sec
- Brian Baragwanath (Century Racing) +02 hr 11 min 47 min
Times were correct at the time of publication, full stage results can be found here.
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