Toyota first and second at the Dakar Rally

The 2025 Dakar Rally brought victory for Toyota and second place overall for Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings. The works GR Hilux EVO crew, car No211, led the race for nine stages, but eventually lost out to Yazeed Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk in their Toyota Hilux by just 3min 57sec after two weeks of racing across Saudi Arabia. 
 

For Saudi driver Al Rajhi it was a dream come true to win on home soil. The man from Riyadh now also leads the 2025 World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), the event having been the opening round of the series. He is on 70 points, with his nearest rival, Lategan, on 55 points. Toyota leads the manufacturer standings after the opening round, with a 34 points buffer to the team in second place. 
 
Lategan/Cummings made no secret of their title aspirations when they won the rally’s Prologue, before taking the overall lead on Stage 2. They held on to that position for eight straight stages, before briefly relinquishing it to Al Rajhi for a single stage. The South African duo immediately regained the lead, but this put them at a disadvantage in terms of road position for what was the penultimate and deciding stage. The final result gave Toyota a coveted one-two finish on the world’s toughest rally-raid event. 
 
Californian Seth Quintero and his German co-driver Dennis Zenz (No204) drove a steady race and overcame various challenges to bring their GR Hilux EVO home in ninth place, 2h 20min 4sec behind the winners. Were it not for a serious issue with tyres on Stage 4, the young American may well have finished much higher up the order. Nonetheless, he leaves the Dakar Rally with a top 10 finish, two stage wins and 28 points towards the W2RC. 
 
Lucas Moraes and co-driver Armand Monleon (No203) began their Dakar campaign in fine form, pushing for the lead in the early stages. However, a technical problem with one of the dampers on their car cost the pair significant time during Stage 6 and put them on the back foot from that point forward. A time penalty dropped them down the order and out of contention, but the Brazilian driver and his Spanish co-driver continued to fight for stage wins. 
 
Their tenacity was rewarded when they won both Stage 7 and the closing stage of the event. With two stage wins to their credit, they are on 18 points in the W2RC standings, and recorded a 15^th place overall on the Dakar Rally. 
 
The final finisher for TGR was young South African, Saood Variawa, and his French co-driver Francois Cazalet. Variawa became the youngest stage winner in the Ultimate Class when he won Stage 3, but a collision in Stage 2 and a technical issue later in the event, cost him dearly. He was classified in 29^th place. Even so, he garnered 13 points towards his W2RC campaign and will be looking to improve on this on Round 2 of the championship. 
 
Two TGR crews were unable to complete the 2025 Dakar Rally. The first to retire was the veteran duo of Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz, who had to stop racing after Stage 6, when von Zitzewitz developed extreme neck pain min-stage. He was medically examined after the stage, and deemed unfit to continue, bringing a first Dakar retirement for De Villiers in a career that has spanned 22 starts. 
 
The second retirement was Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy, who had driven a steady race up until a crash on Stage 9 put an end to their rally. 
 
Overall, Toyota won all but four stages of the 12-stage event, as well as the Prologue in Bisha. Toyota also occupied four spots in the overall Top 10 at the finish, including first and second place. This was a power performance by the brand, underscoring the quality, durability and reliability for which the Toyota Hilux is famous. The team will continue to improve on the car, however, as part of Toyota’s ethos of creating ever-better cars not only for motorsport, but also for its customers. 

 
Team quotes 

Henk Lategan: “It was a bittersweet race for us, to come all of this way, do two weeks of racing over thousands of kilometres, late nights, early mornings.. And then to miss out by four minutes! But to get onto the podium is fantastic. It’s our first podium and it’s a great achievement. It’s amazing what the team’s done and what we were able to achieve in this race. We’ll keep pushing this year, we’ll improve the car, we’ll improve ourselves, we’ll gain more experience, and we’ll come back stronger next year.” 
 
Seth Quintero: “I finally feel like I belong, which is the nice thing. After a year of winning here and there, but not being too consistent, to have this super-consistent race is fantastic. Some things that were out of the team’s hands and out of my hands cost us. The whole Toyota team did an amazing job the entire two weeks. We put in a lot of work the past couple of months, and it paid off. Repsol joined the team this year and it was massive for us. Renewable fuel is the way of the future, and it’s going to allow us to keep racing forever.” 
 
Lucas Moraes: “We live and learn. We never lose, we always learn. That’s what we always say. Of course, the overall result was not the one we wanted, but we’re just happy to finish, especially with the stage win. We won the last stage when everybody was pushing, so it proves that we have the speed and how good the car is. I hope we can come back stronger next year.” 
 
Saood Variawa: “Looking back, last year was our first year. This year was a lot tougher and I think the first week they [the organisers] wanted to break us. But the car was amazing and I’m really happy to finish my second Dakar on my second attempt.” 
 
Andrea Carlucci, TGR Team Principal: “I think it was a wonderful race, first of all, probably the best ever Dakar I’ve seen since we are here in Saudi. Of course, for Toyota it’s just an amazing result, P1, P2, many podiums, many first, second, third positions. The car proves to be the winner in a way. A lot of honour, I would also say, to the contenders. They made it very good; it was a race until the very end. This is the spirit of motorsports. We couldn’t ask for more than this.” 
 
Dakar Rally 2025 – Final Standings 

 
World Rally-Raid Results after Round 1 of 5  

 
World Rally-Raid Results after Round 1 of 5  

ENDS