• Day of rest and recuperation for drivers and co-drivers
• Significant preventative and scheduled maintenance in preparation for final week
• All three TGR crews in the Top 5 after Week 1

• 2nd on Stage 8 for Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel
• 4th on Stage 8 for Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings
• All three TGR crews in the Top 5 after Week 1

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing completed the opening week of the 2023 Dakar Rally in a strong position, with all three GR DKR Hilux T1+ cars in the Top 5. Stage 8 of the event, which brought the crews to Riyadh for the Rest Day, saw defending champions Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel record the second-fastest time, trailing the stage winners by just 2min 11sec. This leaves the TGR crew with a 1hr 3min 46sec advantage at the head of the field, with six stages remaining in the race.

The second fastest TGR crew on the day was Henk Lategan and co-driver Brett Cummings, who trailed the stage winners home by just 4min 53sec, over the 346km-long stage, which featured very rocky terrain. The pair recorded a clean run on the stage, with the GR Hilux running faultlessly. They remain in second place in the overall standings, placing two of the three TGR crews in first and second place after eight stages.

Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy had a solid day on Stage 7, going fourth-fastest. But Stage 8 bit back, with two punctures early in the stage. The South African Rally-Raid champions were forced into survival mode, driving 240km with no spare tyres, as cars in the T1+ class are only allowed to carry two spares. The crew relinquished 29min 44sec to the stage winners, dropping down to fifth place in the overall standings as a result.

The privately entered Hilux T1+ of Brazilian Lucas Moraes and his German co-driver, Timo Gottschalk, is still in third place in the overall rankings, making it a one-two-three for Toyota at the Rest Day – a remarkable achievement.

Stage 8 was the second part of a ‘mini marathon’ section, with the crews sleeping in a makeshift bivouac near Al Duwadimi after Stage 7. The return stage to Riyadh was a stern test, with many competitors reporting problems over the extremely rocky terrain.

The Rest Day is up next, and offers a day of rest and recuperation for the drivers and co-drivers, while the technical crews strip and rebuild the race cars in preparation for the final assault on the 2023 Dakar Rally. The event will feature six more stages, before concluding in the city of Dammam on 15 January, 2023.

• 4th on stage for Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy
• 6th on stage for Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings
• 14th on stage for Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel
• All three TGR crews maintain their positions in overall standings

It was a day of consolidation for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing at the 2023 Dakar Rally, as all three crews held steady in their positions in the overall rankings after Stage 7 of the 14-stage event. Fastest of the TGR crews on the stage near the town of Al Duwadimi was Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy, who brought the GR DKR Hilux T1+ home in the fourth-fastest time. The stage was won by Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz, in a privately entered Toyota Hilux T1+.

This was a significant improvement over their result from Stage 6, where they were plagued by multiple issues. In contrast, they reported a clean run on Stage 7, with their progress only hampered by the multitude of slower crews they had to pass, due to their 26th place starting position on the day. In the end, their deficit to the stage winner was only 11min 21sec, cementing their fourth position in the overall rankings.

The Dakar organisers were forced to adjust the order and length of the two stages near Al Duwadimi due to local flooding in the area, but even so, Stage 7 was a stern test of 333km. For Henk Lategan and co-driver Brett Cummings, it was an opportunity to consolidate their own position in the overall standings. They remain in second place, having finished the stage as the 6th-fastest crew on the day, after suffering a puncture early in the stage.

Stage 7 of Dakar 2023 also saw race leaders, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel, hold onto their lead at the top of the overall standings. The defending champions did not take any chances during the stage, settling for the 14th position on the day. They relinquished 19min 12sec to the winners of the stage, but remain more than an hour ahead of the chasing pack, with half of this year’s stages behind them.

The end of Stage 7 featured a novel ‘remote service’, where the service crews for each team were allowed to work on the cars for a maximum of two hours, at a location some 240km to the north of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. This was necessitated by the change in the stages and schedule, with the race crews sleeping out near Al Duwadimi, before returning to the bivouac at Riyadh to reunite with the technical crews for the rest day.

Stage 8 follows next and features a liaison of 95km from the makeshift bivouac near Al Duwadimi, followed by a special stage of 346km. This will be followed by a long liaison of 383km, bringing the crews back to the bivouac at Riyadh for the rest day. Six stages will follow the rest day, with the second week of the rally moving into the so-called Empty Quarter in the south-eastern part of Saudi Arabia. The event is scheduled to finish on January 15th, in the coastal city of Dammam.

• Stage win for Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel
• 3rd on stage for Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings
• 26th on stage for Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy
• Nasser/Mathieu extend overall lead to more than 1 hour

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel increased their overall lead in the 2023 Dakar Rally to more than an hour, after winning the sixth stage of the gruelling race despite starting as the first car on the road. The Qatari driver and his French co-driver are now 1hr 6min 50sec clear of their nearest rivals – teammates Henk Lategan and co-driver Brett Cummings.

Stage 6 of this year’s Dakar will long be remembered as a turning point in the race. Two of the Top 4 crews crashed heavily mid-stage, with one of them forced to withdraw due to an injury to the co-driver. The second crew managed to continue after assistance from their service truck, but tumbled well down the order. Unfortunately, Toyota Hilux privateer, Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz, also lost significant time due to a mechanical problem.

With these three crews effectively removed from the equation, Nasser and Mathieu made the most of the opportunity to hammer home their advantage in the overall standings. Their time over the shortened sixth stage was 3hr 13min 12sec, putting them 3min 29sec clear of the car behind them, and 8min 52sec ahead of Henk and Brett, who completed the stage in third place. Both GR DKR Hilux T1+ crews reported largely clean runs, with their cars performing extremely well in the rough conditions. The only exception was a power steering problem for Nasser, within 10km of the finish. In a spirit of camaraderie, Henk and Brett also stopped briefly with Yazeed and Dirk, to assist them with a spare part, but this did not cost the TGR crew a significant amount of time.

Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy had a challenging outing on Stage 6. The pair lost 36min 41sec over the 357km-long stage, though they ran much higher up the order for the bulk of the stage. A broken rear damper initially cost them time, but then they also damaged the front differential over a jump in the dunes. They were forced to switch to two-wheel-drive, but then a power steering problem added to their woes 40km from the finish. Even so, they managed to complete the day’s timed section and safely reached the new bivouac at Riyadh, 297km from the end of the stage.

Despite Yazeed’s demise, four Toyota Hilux remain in the Top 5 of the rally, with Nasser and Henk at the sharp end of the field. Lucas Moraes and co-driver Timo Gottschalk are in third place, in their privately entered Toyota Hilux T1+, with Giniel and Brett in fourth. This is Moraes’ first Dakar Rally, and the Brazilian youngster has shown impressive pace and maturity.

Dakar 2023’s route has been changed significantly due to adverse weather conditions and localised flooding near Al Duwadimi. As such, the caravan has skipped ahead to the Saudi capital of Riyadh, where it will remain until after the rest day. The competitors, however, will take on a modified Stage 7 next, which will see them cover a liaison of 288km back towards Al Duwadimi, before covering a stage of 333km. A liaison of 240km will bring them to a makeshift service park, where a two-hour service will be allowed, before parking the cars in a parc ferme at Al Dawadimi in preparation for Stage 8.

The race still has eight tough stages to go, with the modified versions of Stages 7 and 8 to come before the Rest Day. The second week of Dakar 2023 will take the caravan into the southern part of Saudi Arabia, as well as the so-called Empty Quarter, before swinging back towards the north, for the finish in Dammam on January 15th.

• Stage win for Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel
• 6th on stage for Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings
• 8th on stage for Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy
• Nasser/Mathieu extend overall lead

Another tough day marked Stage 5 of the 2023 Dakar Rally, which saw TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel record their second stage win of the 45th edition of the race. The pair completed the 374km special stage in 4hr 13min 23sec, placing them 1min 57sec ahead of the second-placed crew. This result has cemented their position at the top of the overall standings, as they are now 22min 36sec ahead of their nearest competitors.

Nasser and Mathieu will also be campaigning their GR DKR Hilux T1+ in the FIA’s World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) this year, in defence of the title they won last year. As such, their performance at Dakar 2023 has a direct influence on that championship too, as the Dakar Rally is Round 1 of the 2023 season. At present, Nasser and Mathieu have earned 12 points towards the W2RC at the race thus far, leaving them three points behind their nearest rivals in the W2RC standings.

Stage 5 was a tough one for TGR’s two remaining crews. Henk Lategan and co-driver Brett Cummings posted the 6th-fastest time today, some 12min 33sec adrift of the time posted by Nasser and Mathieu. The pair described the terrain on the stage as “punishing” on both the car and the body, and they found the going tough for most of the day. They lost time when a tyre bead slipped off the rim after a hard landing into a rut early in the stage, and almost suffered a similar fate much later in the day. Luckily the tyre re-seated itself on the second hard landing, and the crew managed to complete the stage without a second tyre change. They remain in 5th place overall, 57min 58sec behind the lead.

Giniel de Villiers and co-driver Dennis Murphy also had a challenging day. The harshness of the terrain played havoc with their bodies, but they still posted the 8th-fastest time on the day, 19min 44sec behind the winners. They have retained their 7th position in the general classification, with a 1hr 7min 57sec deficit to the leaders.

Stage 6 of this year’s Dakar Rally was meant to see the bivouac shift from the city of Ha’il to Al Duwadimi, but flooding in the Al Duwadimi area has forced the organisers to reroute the Dakar caravan to the Saudi capital of Riyadh instead. Stage 6 will be shortened by 100 km, and as such the competitors will have to complete a post-stage liaison of 300 km.

The organisers will determine the stages to follow based on the conditions at the time, but the rest day of the 2023 Dakar is schedule for January 9th, in a bivouac near the Saudi capital of Riyadh. The event will draw to a close on January 15th, in the Eastern city of Dammam.