TOYOTA DOMINATE DAKAR STAGE 9

Toyota has absolutely dominated Dakar Stage 9, with Giniel De Villiers leading a 1-2-3 for to Japanese manufacturer.

The South African, who sits fifth in the overall standings after losing an hour on Stage 7, won the stage by just 9 seconds over compatriot and teammate Henk Lategan.

“It looks good. We had a nice clean stage today.” said De Villiers.

“I must say that the mechanics worked really, really hard last night because we had a problem with the dampers over the last two days or so. But they did a great job and the car was just unbelievable today. Really nice to drive, so we could push nicely.”

“We had one slow puncture on the front left about fifty kilometres from the end, but it managed to hold out and now we’re very happy, very happy for the team.”

“We didn’t stop because it wasn’t necessary to stop. We’re very happy for the team and thanks to the guys for last night for their hard work.”

“We’ve had some bad luck. Unfortunately, we had an oil pipe come off and we lost one hour, but this race is very strange. We’ve had some challenges ourselves and we will see.”

“There are still three stages to go, so anything could still happen. So, we’ll keep on trying our best until then, for sure.”

“I must say, the first week was not ideal. It was very stressful and mentally very, very tiring. Definitely something I would not like to go through again, but that’s behind us now.”

“We’re looking to the future. We cannot change the past. We’re looking to the future and I’m just happy that we managed to find out what the problem was with our damper. The Hilux is really good and the BF Goodrich tyres were really nice today.”

“I don’t know why we often win at the end. It would be nice to win at the beginning as well, but we seem to do well the longer the rally goes on, so maybe the rally needs to be three weeks! We’ll try for another win, we’ll see.”

“Like I said, our car is really nice now and we’ll try to do our best tomorrow. Of course, we have to open the road, so it will be a little more difficult. You never know… We will try our best and see what happens.”

Nasser Al-Attiyah continues to hold 40 minute – Image: Supplied

Behind the South Africans, Nasser Al-Attiyah did exactly what was required to maintain his near 40 minute lead in the overall standings with just three stages left to run.

Al-Attiyah took third on the day, but more importantly, was a minute faster through the stage than his closest rival Sebastien Loeb who had to change a wheel due to a puncture.

The Frenchman in the Prodrive built BRX Hunter entry still ended the day with the fifth-fastest time through the stage.

“We did a good stage, I think. We pushed hard, from the start to the end.” said Loeb at the end of the day.

“There were no mistakes with the navigation, but one little puncture where I tried to be a bit aggressive in the stones because I need to regain some time. So we had to change the wheel, but apart from that we drove a clean stage without problems.”

With the car class field now quite spread out, mistakes and issues rather than stage wins will most likely determine the final result.

Yesterday’s stage winner Mattias Ekstrom had another solid day for Audi, with the fourth-fastest time thought the stage despite having to lead the car class through the canyons.

Overdrive Toyota’s Yazeed Al Rajhi still maintains his third place in the overall standings, 20 minutes behind Loeb and a 35-minute buffer ahead of Orlando Terranova also in a Prodrive built BRX Hunter who moved up to fourth place.

SSV

In the SSV class, Australian Molly Taylor enjoyed another good day in the rally raid.

The Can-Am driver was sixth fastest on the day to move back into the top ten in the overall standings in her debut attempt at the Dakar.

Taylor’s teammate Austin Jones continues to lead the class.

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