Lategan has Dakar Rally title in his sights after regaining race lead

Henk Lategan on Wednesday took a step closer to turning his dream of winning the Dakar Rally into reality by reclaiming the overall race lead with only two stages to go in Saudi Arabia.

Michael Docherty made it an historic day for South Africa by romping to victory in the motorbike category on Stage 10.

Lategan and his navigator Brett Cummings started the first of two stages in the notoriously tough Empty Quarter trailing Yazeed Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk by more than seven minutes. The Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa pair beat the Saudi Arabian and his German co-driver by almost ten minutes to not only wipe out the deficit, but make sure they start Stage 11 with a handy 2:27 lead over the pair who races a similar South African-built GR Hilux T1+.

Dakar Rally slipping away for the rest

Mattias Ekstrom and Emil Bergkvist (Ford M-Sport Raptor) are 26:46 further back in third place followed by Nasser Al-Attiyah and Emile Boulanger (The Dacia Sandmasters) another 3:35 adrift.

Brain Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer (Century Racing CR7) finished Stage 10 only 41 seconds off the podium and 2:21 behind stage winners Nano Roma and Alex Haro (Ford M-Sport Raptor). The pair is still 10th overall.

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It was another solid outing for Lategan’s last remaining team-mate Saood Variawa and his French navigator Francois Cazalet. Variawa and Cazalet finished the day only a handful of places behind Lategan in 28th place. This means that they will start a dozen minutes behind the leader in Thursday in an excellent position to provide assistance should they need it.

Special day for Docherty

Docherty on a KTM beat Rui Goncalves by 1:20 to become only the second Rally2 rider in Dakar Rally history to win an overall bike stage, the first rider being Danilo Petrucci in 2022. He is also the first South African rider since Alfie Cox in 2003 to win a Dakar stage.

ALSO READ: Al-Attiyah and Loeb ‘jealous’ of Dakar Hilux, says Giniel de Villiers

The win saw Docherty move up to sixth place in the Rally2 standings and 15th on the overall bike time sheets.

Thursday’s timed section of 275km around Subaytah will effectively decide the race winner, as the final stage of the Dakar Rally on Friday is only a short 61km hop to the finish line into Shubaytah.