The world’s toughest race handed Henk Lategan and co-driver Brett Cummings yet another cruel blow yesterday when a seized rear wheel ended his Dakar Rally challenge on Stage 11.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC driver still had a realistic chance of winning the Dakar Rally for the first time going into the third last stage in Saudi Arabia on Thursday. Lategan started the day with high hopes, trailing five-time winner Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin by 12 minutes.
But like last year, when he was leading the race going into the penultimate stage only for Yazeed Al-Rajhi to relegate him to a runners-up finish, his dream of Dakar glory again evaporated in the hot desert air with the finish line in sight.
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Henk Lategan loses four hours
After grinding to a halt due to a seized rear wheel, Lategan and Cummings eventually limped home almost four hours behind the Ford Raptor of stage winners Mattias Ekstrom and Emil Bergkvist, which saw him drop down to 23rd overall and out of contention.
While Al-Attiyah finished more than 12 minutes behind Ekstrom, the Dacia Sandriders pilot did enough to hold onto the lead. He leads Ford’s Nano Roma and Alex Haro by eight minutes and 40 seconds and team-mate Sebastian Loeb and Edouard Boulanger by 18:37.
Toyota Gazoo Racing SA’s three crews had a solid day with Joao Ferreira, Saood Variawa and Guy Botterill finishing fourth, seventh and ninth respectively. Variawa and co-driver Francois Cazalet moved up to ninth overall, and is less than four minutes ahead of tenth-placed Botterill and Oriol Mena.
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Docherty on a roll
Century Racing’s Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer crossed the finish line in 16th place which saw the pair move up one place to 16th on the Dakar Rally’s overall leaderboard.
In the bikes section, Sherco’s Bradley Cox had a solid ride, finishing 8:01 behind stage winner Skyler Howes in seventh place to hold on to 11th place overall.
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Michael Docherty had another productive day in the Rally2 division, finished third and a mere five seconds off Toni Mulec’s winning time.
Friday’s penultimate stage features a 311km timed section between Al-Henakiyah and Yanbu. Stage 13 on Saturday sees the competitors take on a short 105km timed section before the grand stand finish in Yanbu.
