Stage 5; 111km, liaison 44km
Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings started the final day of the inaugural South African Safari Rally with a 39 second lead over Sebastian Loeb and Fabian Lurquin. The final outcome of the third round of the FIA W2RC came down to the final 111km in what was set to be a thrilling showdown.
While Nasser Al-Attiyah claimed the stage win from Lucas Moraes and Lategan, all eyes were on the battle for the overall win in a Toyota Gazoo Racing vs Dacia Sandriders showdown.
Lategan fired the first salvo at the 14km mark, edging his rival by four seconds but by km37, Loeb had turned his deficit into a three second lead and the overall margin shrunk to 36 seconds. Hammering his Hilux as fast as he dared go, by km 58, Lategan had a 23 second lead, pushing his virtual overall lead to 63 seconds at roughly the halfway mark.
While Loeb trimmed a second here and there, it was not enough to stop the South African pair from bagging their first W2RC victory, a result which saw Lategan scorch up the championship leaderboard from fifth to second.
Back on the stage, Al-Attiyah took his 45th W2RC stage win by 1’56 over Lucas Moraes with Lategan a slender four seconds behind his TGR teammate.
Mathieu Serradori took the fourth fastest time on the final stage with Carlos Sainz pipping his fellow exclusive “WRC champion’s club” rival Loeb by 12 seconds.
Seventh was another superb result for Gareth Woolridge in their brand new NWM Evo Plus, beating Fouche Blignaut’s #Team Hilux machine by 13 seconds. Blignaut and his brother Bertus incurred the most penalties of any competitor but still earned the Road to Dakar prize, which is a free entry into Dakar in either 2026 or 2027.
Nani Roma and Giniel de Villiers rounded out the top ten.
In the overall standings, Lategan beat Loeb – who marked his first finish of the season – by 1’39” with Moraes taking the final step of the podium. Woolridge ended fourth overall, a mighty effort from a small team who beat the factory Ford Raptors, the first of which was piloted by Carlos Sainz in fifth overall.
Seth Quintero brought his TGR Hilux home in sixth, followed by Nani Roma, Daniel Schroder, Guillaume de Mevius and Al-Attiyah.
Unstoppable since the season opener, Daniel Sanders has become the first RallyGP rider to claim three consecutive wins. After the Dakar and the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, “Chucky” has dominated the South African Safari Rally, smashing records along the way: most RallyGP wins (19) and most specials won in a single season (11). With Luciano Benavides finishing second (+8′55″), KTM secured its first one-two finish since the 2023 Dakar. Ricky Brabec’s Honda rounded out the podium (+10′00″), just ahead of teammate Adrien Van Beveren (+15′47″).
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