Toyota stays dominant as Lategan extends overall lead

Toyota driver Saood Variawa scored a first career stage win in Tuesday’s third test of the 2025 Dakar Rally, as team-mate Henk Lategan cemented his position in the overall standings.

The Japanese marque’s factory team led almost the entirety of the shortened 327km Stage 3 test between Bisha and Al Henakiyah in Saudi Arabia, though the top spot changed between several of its drivers.

Seth Quintero held the early advantage in the #204 Toyota Hilux, before Lucas Moraes moved clear at the third checkpoint at the 118km mark.

Quintero struck back with a third of the distance remaining to retake the lead, but then both he and Moraes mysteriously dropped a lot of time relative to the competition – opening the door for Dakar sophomore Variawa.

Staving off a late challenge from the X-raid Mini entry of Guerlain Chicherit, Variawa reached the finish line with a 23-second margin to become the youngest Dakar stage winner at the age of just 19.

Guillaume de Mevius and Joao Ferreira backed up the performance of Chicherit at a resurgent Mini squad, finishing third and fifth respectively.

They were separated by the American Quintero, who eventually finished 1m48s down in fourth after fighting for victory for much of the stage.

With Toyota and Mini in a class of their own, newcomer Dacia was reduced to the third-best manufacturer on Stage 3. 

Its top prospect Nasser Al-Attiyah was never really in the hunt for a top result, with the Qatari ending up 3m34s down in sixth.

The story was similar for Ford and its top challenger Mattias Ekstrom, who briefly held the lead at the second checkpoint but ultimately dropped to seventh and almost four minutes off the top spot.

Century’s Mathieu Serradori was next in eighth, while Moraes wound up ninth after dropping five minutes between checkpoints at 242km and 303km. He was followed home by Toyota team-mates Giniel de Villiers and Lategan.

While Overdrive was in the fight in the opening two stages, with Rokas Baciuska even winning the 48-hour Stage 2 that knocked reigning champion Carlos Sainz Sr out of the competition, the customer Toyota squad had a difficult outing this time.

Baciuska dropped almost 17 minutes after opening the way on the gravel terrain, while team-mates Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Toby Price also struggled to replicate the performances of their factory counterparts.

All of that means that works Toyota driver Lategan now enjoys a 7m17s lead in the overall standings despite finishing only 11th in Tuesday’s test.

Al-Attiyah and Ekstrom move up to second and third in the general classification, with Al-Rajhi dropping behind them to fourth. Moraes and Price make it four Toyota drivers in the top six.

Meanwhile, Sebastien Loeb fell outside the top 15 positions in the overall standings after a disastrous day in Dakar.

The Frenchman’s Dacia flipped over and landed upside down after just 12km and, although he lost only eight minutes in initial repairs, he had to stop again later on stage, ostensibly due to the damage sustained on his car.

His troubles cost him an hour in total, dealing a serious blow to his hopes of scoring a maiden win in Dakar.

Dakar 2025 – Results after Stage 3 (Top 10)

Photos from Dakar Rally Stage 3