Mini ends Toyota’s winning streak, Lategan’s lead chopped

Guillaume de Mevius led a 1-2 finish for X-raid Mini on Stage 6 of Dakar Rally, as Henk Lategan’s lead in the overall standings was slashed to seven minutes.

As Dakar resumed after a rest day in Ha’il, competitors faced a 605km test en route to Al Duwadimi, but with a special 171km transfer section in the middle during which they were not timed.

Toyota driver Guy Botterill established himself as the early leader with his factory Hilux, extending his lead to 1m26s over X-raid Mini driver de Mevius as they entered the transfer section.

The South African appeared to be heading for a maiden stage win in Dakar until he suddenly lost five minutes heading to the third-last checkpoint, slipping from first to fifth in the order.

The biggest beneficiary of that drop was de Mevius, who had been closely following Botterill during the entire stage. Navigating the final 100km stretch with ease, de Mevius picked up his second career stage win in Dakar with a margin of 1m34s over team-mate Joao Ferreira.

Portuguese driver Ferreira was as much as five minutes down on the frontrunners in the opening phases of the stage, but made rapid gains as the day progressed, overhauling Overdrive Toyota’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi in the last 28km to secure the runner-up spot.

Dacia’s star driver Nasser Al-Attiyah also trailed Al-Rajhi at the penultimate checkpoint, but a rapid final dash propelled him to third place at the end of the stage, just 2m01s down on winner de Mevius.

Al-Rajhi, who had borrowed a spare wheel from Saood Variawa during the transfer section, eventually slipped to fifth place in the final order, behind the factory Toyota of long-time stage leader Botterill.

They were followed by two more drivers from the Toyota contingent, Overdrive’s Rokas Bociuska and factory racer Lategan.

Ford was unable to put up a fight to the faster Toyota and Mini entries on Saturday, as Mattias Ekstrom ended up 8m9s off the pace in eighth and team-mate Nani Roma finished further back in 10th. They were separated by the customer MP Sports Raptor of Martin Prokop.

Two frontrunners dropped out of contention on Saturday. Toyota’s Lucas Moraes, who had been sitting fifth in the overall rankings, who lost an hour and a half with mechanical problems after stopping just 17km into the stage.

X-raid’s top gun Guerlain Chicherit, meanwhile, was forced to retire from the stage altogether after rolling over his new petrol-powered Mini at the 16km mark.

#211 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota: Henk Lategan, Brett Cummings

Photo by: TOYOTA GAZOO Racing

In the overall standings, Lategan continued to hold his grip on the top spot, but his lead has been slashed by around three minutes to 7m16s with six stages remaining.

Ekstrom sits 22m adrift in third place, while Al-Attiyah – who lost victory on Stage 5 due to a penalty for a missing wheel – is now trailing Lategan by 30m25s.

Moraes’ troubles promoted Ford’s Mitch Guthrie Jr to fifth place, while Mathieu Serradori is up to sixth in the Century CR7.