Toyota edges out Ford and Dacia as Lategan wins Prologue

January 3, 2025

in Racing

Reading Time: 3 mins read

Manufacturing unit Toyota driver Henk Lategan beat Ford rival Mattias Ekstrom to take victory in Prologue initially of the 2025 Dakar Rally.

The forty seventh version of the world’s largest cross-country rally kicked off with a brief 29km particular in Bisha in south west area of Saudi Arabia, with a complete of 64 vehicles lining up within the Final class.

Whereas all eyes have been on Ford and Dacia as they made their full-fledged debuts in Dakar, incumbent Toyota stole the limelight by scoring a slim win with its confirmed Hilux T1+.

Representing the South African division of Toyota Gazoo Racing, Lategan accomplished the prologue in 15m28.06s on his return to Dakar after a one-year hiatus, beating the Ford Raptor of former DTM and World Rallycross champion Mattias Ekstrom by simply 1.3s.

Each drivers eclipsed the early benchmark set by Dacia newcomer Nasser Al-Attiyah, who was first to take the beginning line and set a time of 15m48.4s within the lead Sandrider.

Debutant Rokas Baciuska put in a strong effort in a buyer Toyota entered by Overdrive, ending fourth and only a second adrift of Al-Attiyah after a take a look at that featured a mixture of filth monitor, gravel and sand.

Brian Baragwanath rounded off the highest 5 for Century Racing, whereas nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb got here house in sixth for Dacia.

Lucas Moraes and Saood Variawa have been labeled seventh and ninth respectively for Toyota, sandwiching the Ford of two-time Dakar winner Nani Roma.

#231 Overdrive Racing Toyota: Toby Value, Sam Sunderland

Picture by: Crimson Bull Content material Pool

Guerlain Chicherit took tenth place on his change to X-Raid Mini, ending up 42s down on the time set by pacesetter Lategan.

Making his debut on 4 wheels, ex-KTM star Toby Value recorded the Eleventh-fastest time with a late effort on his Overdrive Toyota, ending simply two seconds behind Chicherit.

Seth Quintero and Man Botterill may solely handle fifteenth and seventeenth respectively aboard their manufacturing unit Toyotas, separated by the last-remaining Dacia of Cristina Gutierrez.

Defending Dakar champion Carlos Sainz additionally made a low-key begin to the 2025 occasion, wounding up twenty fourth on his debut for Ford.

The highest 10 drivers in Prologue will be capable of select their beginning positions for the primary full stage, which can even happen in Bisha and canopy a timed distance of 412km.

Not like within the bikes class, instances from Prologue is not going to be added to the respective tallies of drivers in vehicles. Nonetheless, ending positions exterior the highest 10 will nonetheless be utilised for figuring out the beginning order for Saturday’s particular.