Dakar 2025: Lategan takes prologue victory

The South African driver and navigator duo of Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings brought their Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux home first on the 2025 Dakar Rally’s prologue in and around the town of Bisha in southwest Saudi Arabia.

Friday’s prologue consisted of just 79 km, and only 29 km of that timed on technical sandy terrain. Although the times on the prologue do not count toward the overall classifications, the mental advantage of finishing ahead of former champions should put Lategan and Cummings in good stead ahead of the pack for Saturday’s first stage.

Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings were fastest on the 2025 Dakar Rally prologue.

“Usually, I struggle to get going on the short stages. I need about twenty kilometres to warm up, but we knew this was quite important for the road position on the first stage, so we pushed a little bit. The terrain was really tricky. The pace is so high, it’s such high speeds and there were a lot of really narrow spots where if you get it right you can go through really quickly but if you get it wrong it can go really wrong,” Lategan said after the prologue.

Fellow South Africans Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer from Century Racing, and Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates Saood Variawa and Frenchman Francois Cazalet managed respectable finishes in 6th and 10th overall.

There were many eyes on the new Dacia Sandriders team, which consists of five-time Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah, WRC legend and perennial Dakar contender Sébastien Loeb, and 2024 T3 category champion Cristina Gutiérrez. The Dacia Sandrider is a T1+ prototype powered by a twin-turbocharged V6. Al-Attiyah would finish the prologue 20 seconds behind Lategan, third overall. Loeb and Gutiérrez were 7th and 16th respectively.

The M-Sport Ford Raptor in action before this year’s Dakar.

Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergvist set a solid pace in their M-Sport Ford Raptor early, with the Swedes managing to finish the prologue just one second behind Lategan and Cummings. Defending champions Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz are new additions to the M-Sport team, and managed to finish 25th fastest, 1 minute 14 seconds behind Lategan.

Saturday’s first special stage is where The Dakar really begins, where the competitors will face a 413 km special and 499 km in total before returning to the Bisha bivouac.

The post Dakar 2025: Lategan takes prologue victory appeared first on CAR Magazine.


The Car Guide

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Topical tips on buying used – Chapter 1

Image
Buying a used car can be harrowing, whether privately or from a dealer. Here are some tips, as well as some things to watch out for. Beware of low mileages, especially on smaller or cheaper cars. It is always possible that the odometer has been turned back. Some things to bear in mind are:- diesels are often bought because they the driver needs to undertake long trips without consuming vast amounts of fuel. This could be a sales rep, or someone travelling large distances to work, lots of lengthy trip for family holidays, etc. So, usually higher mileages than normal. An expensive or luxury car may not see much time on the road, but very seldom a “workhorse”. This makes the executive cars likely to have a lot more life left than the overworked and abused hatchback. These also spend most of their life in a home garage or undercover parking lot at work. Related: Someone paid more for a mint BMW 325iS Evo 2 than a used M4 A vehicle without any service history is a serious disadvantage...
Read more

Top 10 Best-Selling Automotive Brands Locally – April 2024

Image
Following eight consecutive months of sales decline, the milestone of celebrating a century of vehicle production locally saw a welcomed increase in the motor industry for April 2024. Have a look at the data below, which sees Toyota drop in sales but retain the top spot, with Suzuki moving into second and Nissan dropping to the bottom of the list without the NP200 rolling off of the production line. Image: Toyota Looking for your next new or used Porsche? Find it here with CARmag! South Africa is marking 2024 as a significant year for its automotive industry, celebrating 100 years of car manufacturing. Mikel Mabasa, CEO of naamsa , the country’s automotive business council, commented, “As the sun rises on a century of automotive innovation, South Africa proudly commemorates a century of automobile manufacturing excellence. This milestone reflects a journey of resilience, ingenuity, and passion that has shaped the nation’s automotive legacy.” Details on how the industry will commem...
Read more

Could this teased Lancia sports car be a reborn Stratos?

Image
Lancia recently teased a coupe-looking model, waiting to be unveiled in their Multiverse. Could this then, signify the return of a historic moniker like the Stratos to the struggling automaker? Image: Lancia #MakeLanciaGreatAgain – a social media phrase that has been making the rounds for the better part of a decade. World Rally Championship titles, Formula 1 single-seat winners and some other gems in between. The Italian automaker litters dates in history and motorsport, with some truly revolutionary ideas and models that aided their bid to become one of the most successful motorsport manufacturers of all time. But that is all in the past. Lancia now contends sole markets with a platform-shared model but there have been ambitious plans under Stellantis ownership to kick-start the automaker and make them great again… words that delight so many enthusiasts and aficionados. Related: Automobili Amos debut Martini Racing Livery Lancia Delta and Safarista What better way to do this th...
Read more