Toyota immediately returns to winning ways with the Brazilian, now out of the fight for victory. Lategan’s lead in the overall was erased by Al-Rajhi, now at 21 seconds
After a small interlude by Mini in the sixth stage, Toyota’s dominance at the 2025 Dakar is reconfirmed, with the success of the Brazilian Lucas Moraes of the official team. Having dropped out of the fight for victory yesterday due to a technical problem, Moraes dominated the seventh stage, a 419 km timed loop around Al-Duwadimi. Taking advantage of a favorable starting position, he was able to follow the tracks left by the others to gain ground, giving a 7’41” gap to Mattias Ekström and 9’28” y Mitch Guthrieboth on Ford. In general, the leader Henk Lategan loses ground to his pursuers: the home idol Yazeed Al-Rajhi he is just 21 seconds behind, but Ekström at 10’25” and Al-Attiyah at 21’57” are still perfectly in the fight.
Everything open
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The treacherous special stage number seven, held near Al-Duwadimi, put the riders who started first in difficulty, as they did not have the tracks of the motorbikes at their disposal: the routes were in fact different. An error in the roadbook at km 158 it also led to the neutralization of a small stretch of special road, where the cars that opened the road got lost. Moraes made perfect use of his 26th starting position: “We were lucky to have all the tracks available, having started so far back. We had nothing to loseso we pushed a lot.” Double podium for Ford in today’s special, with a good performance from Ekström and Guthrie who are third and fifth in the general, with a small gap from the top. Henk Lategan he is the one who lost the most, seeing himself joined by Al-Rajhi, but Ford’s Swede and Nasser Al-Attiyah are close and ready to take advantage of any problems.
Dakar cars: the ranking of stage 7
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- Lucas Moraes-Armand Monleon (Bra-Spa/Toyota) 4h 01’49”
- Mattias Ekström-Emil Bergkvist (Sve/Ford) at 7’41”
- Mitchell Guthrie-Kellon Walch (USA/Ford) at 9’28”
- Nasser Al-Attiyah-Edouard Boulanger (Qat-Fra/Dacia) at 11’15”
- Seth Quintero-Dennis Zenz (USA-Ger/Toyota) at 11’38”
- Cristina Gutierrez-Pablo Moreno (Spa/Dacia) at 12’00”
- Yazeed Al-Rajhi-Timo Gottschalck (Sau-Ger/Toyota) at 12’48”
- Saood Variawa-Fançois Cazalet (Saf-Fra/Toyota) at 13’13”
- Juan Cruz Yacopini-Daniel Oliveras (Arg-Spa/Toyota) at 16’00”
- Marcelo Tiglia Gastaldi-Michael Metge (Bra-Fra/Century) at 16’28”
Dakar cars: the general classification
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- Henk Lategan-Brett Cummings (Saf-Toyota) 37h 13’08”
- Yazeed Al-Rajhi-Timo Gottschalck (Sau-Ger/Toyota) at 21″
- Mattias Ekström-Emil Bergkvist (Sve/Ford) at 10’25”
- Nasser Al-Attiyah-Edouard Boulanger (Qat-Fra/Dacia) at 21’57”
- Mitchell Guthrie-Kellon Walch (USA/Ford) at 40’01”
- Mathieu Serradori-Loic Minaudier (Fra/Century) at 54’20”
- Juan Cruz Yacopini-Daniel Oliveras (Arg-Spa/Toyota) at 1h 13’05”
- Seth Quintero-Dennis Zenz (USA-Ger/Toyota) at 1h 28’32”
- João Ferreira-Filipe Palmeiro (Por/Mini) at 1h 58’25”
- Brian Baragwanath-Leonard Cremer (Saf/Century) at 2h 07’38”
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