TOYOTA GAZOO Racing W2RC (TGR W2RC) earned a podium finish on Stage 6 – the longest of this year’s Dakar Rally – after battling through the Saudi sand to stay in contention for overall victory.
Crews travelled 915 km from Hail to the capital Riyadh, including 326 km of timed action. After the treacherous rocky terrain of earlier days, Stage 6 took place entirely on sand dunes, which brought its own challenges in terms of navigation and dust.
Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings held the overall lead at the start and established a competitive pace in the early stages. However, time lost in the difficult dune terrain left them 12th in the #202 DKR GR Hilux, although they are firmly in the hunt for victory, sitting second overall. They trail Stage 6 winners Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin (Dacia Sandriders) by just over six minutes with nearly 2,500 km still to run.
Seth Quintero and Andrew Short were among the front-runners throughout Stage 6 and held second place at the midway point. Despite losing time due to a missed waypoint, the #203 DKR GR Hilux finished third, only 21 seconds behind second-placed Sebastian Loeb and Edouard Boulanger (Dacia Sandriders). They are now 19th in the overall standings and still recovering from time lost to punctures earlier in the rally.
Toby Price and Armand Monleón showed strong pace to challenge for a podium throughout, but narrowly missed out on the top three, finishing fourth in their #204 DKR GR Hilux. They are 15th overall and still within reach of the top 10.
After more than 2,000 km over seven days so far, crews benefit from a rest day on Saturday. Battle resumes on Sunday, with the 876 km Stage 7. It features 462 km of competitive action and takes the rally to Wadi ad-Dawasir.
Henk Lategan: “It was a tricky day for us. The first part started okay, and we were running at Nasser’s pace, but we made a couple of mistakes in terms of our line through the dunes. So, it could have been a bit better. But we have a nice road position for when we resume on Sunday and there are some difficult stages coming up, so things can still change. To be close to the lead at this stage is pretty good considering how our rally started. We’ve pulled ourselves back into it and now we’ll give it our best shot in the second week.”
Seth Quintero: “It was a good day for us. We started out front and finished out front. We could push nicely at the beginning. At one stage we had to turn around for a waypoint and that cost us a minute, which was unfortunate. From there, we kept up a good pace, passed a couple of other cars, and had a fun battle. We charged really hard. It’s impressive what the DKR GR Hilux can take because we pushed it very hard today. We drove over 900 km in total today, so I am definitely tired and ready for a rest day.”
Toby Price: “The stage today went well. There was just so much sand and, starting where we did, it was brutal. It’s been a crazy first week, but we are still in the race. Last year we made it to this point and only did one more stage, so the goal is to get past that and keep getting experience. Next week will be as challenging as the first week, I’m sure, but I feel good physically and the car is going well, so we are happy.”
Source: Toyota Gazoo Racing
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