Henk Lategan marked himself out as a title contender at the third round of the World Rally-Raid Championship
Photography by Red Bull
Words by Stephen Brunsdon
The World Rally-Raid Championship title battle breathed new life last weekend as Dakar Rally runner-up Henk Lategan stormed to his maiden W2RC victory on home soil in the South African Safari Rally.
While the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver, and navigator Brett Cummings, used their extensive local knowledge to claim a popular victory, it was a different story for points leader Nasser Al-Attiyah, who could only finish 10th after an early penalty.
Meanwhile, Sébastien Loeb (Dacia Sandriders) and Carlos Sainz (M-Sport Ford) both bounced back from dismal Dakars in fine fashion to bag top five results.
Here’s what we learned from round three of the 2025 W2RC season:
Henk Lategan has been the revelation of the year so far, having come within touching distance of winning the Dakar Rally back in January in an epic tussle with Toyota stablemate Yazeed Al Rajhi. The big news coming into the third round of the year was that Lategan would be contesting the remainder of the W2RC – starting in South Africa – with the European-based, Overdrive Racing run arm of TGR.
A three-time South African Rally-Raid champion, Lategan started as one of the hot favorites alongside navigator Brett Cummings. The pair delivered on their promise by winning the opening stage from Sainz and Loeb, while 20-year-old local rising star Jayden Els was a stunning fourth quickest in his Red-Lined Motorsport REVO T1+.
With the Dakar-winning partnership of Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk out of action for a while after both suffering fractured vertebrae following a heavy crash in the Jordan Baja, Lategan knew this was his chance to build his own title tilt.
But it was far from plain sailing. The South African roads are not like the open sandy tracks and dunes of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi: narrow stages more akin to WRC roads meant that overtaking other cars was nigh-on impossible, while the vegetation presented other dangers to both radiators and windshields alike.
Navigation was also difficult, meaning whoever started near the front was set to lose chunks of time. Lategan lost eight minutes and dropped to fifth overall; Loeb coughed up 10 minutes and ended the first half of the marathon stage in 10th overall.
Fortunately for Lategan and Cummings, the roles reversed on stage three and the pair climbed back up the standings to third as Loeb assumed the lead. A strong fourth stage put Lategan in the lead by 39s which he maintained at the end of the shorter final test to come out on top.
“It’s been an amazing fight with everyone; the top guys were really battling it out the whole week. Everybody was on it this race. It was by no means easy. Day one, day two, day three — we had no idea we could win it, there was a massive battle going on.
“At the end of day two, the top three were separated by 30 seconds. So, to finally come out and be on top after such a long fight with so many legends is really amazing, and to do it on home soil is even better. I think it’s still sinking in but at the moment, it feels awesome.”
Lategan and Cummings’ maiden W2RC victory may have been expected given his superior local knowledge and expertise on these sorts of roads, but in beating WRC legends Loeb and Sainz, the Toyota driver has vaulted straight into the hunt for the world championship.
He lies second in the standings, just 20 points behind Al-Attiyah, ahead of the penultimate round of the year in Portugal – on similar terrain – in September.
Having been forced to withdraw from both the Dakar Rally in January and the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in February due to chassis damage, Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin were probably keener than anyone to get back racing in South Africa.
It’s not been a vintage start to Loeb’s W2RC campaign, but the nine-time World Rally champion looked right at home from the beginning in Sun City and can be forgiven for feeling a little disappointed at missing out on victory.
Whether it was the WRC-like stages or added motivation following two retirements – or a mix of both – Loeb was a different beast and took the fight to Lategan and Sainz early on, eventually moving into the overall lead at the end of stage three. He and Lurquin went into the final stage just 39s in arrears and set the exact same time as Lategan at the end of the 111km special, giving Lategan the win. A post-stage one-minute penalty dropped them to 1m39s adrift, but they were still comfortably second ahead of TGR’s Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon who finished third.
“It’s our first year with this car, so we still have some things to optimize and work on, but here it was a completely different type of stages compared to Dakar and Abu Dhabi with the dunes and sand,” Loeb said.
“It was more like WRC racing, so it was important to have good agility with the car. I was happy, the feeling of the car was good, and the fight was intense, so I am happy to finish on the podium.”
Had it not been for a 15-minute stage penalty on the second day for missing a waypoint, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger may well have come out on top when the circus returned to Sun City on Saturday. As it was, their rally was compromised from the beginning, and they were always playing catch-up thereafter.
Two stage wins proved the Dacia Sandrider’s pace on this type of road, which perhaps bodes well for the Portuguese round in September (which Al-Attiyah won last year). A reduced, but still healthy, lead at the top of the drivers’ standings will have limited the damage and minimized the frustration at a lowly 10th place finish.
“We did an amazing job all rally, we won two stages and scored some more points which is important for the championship,” reflected Al-Attiyah. “It’s also a good rally for us as a team with a lot of points in the championship for Dacia.”
Dacia Sandriders team principal Tiphanie Isnard was satisfied with the performance of her cars, and believes the experience gained in South Africa will serve the team well ahead of the title run in.
“It’s been a good rally for the Sandriders, our objective was to score points in the championship and keep the lead in the drivers’ standings,” Isnard added. “It was our first time here, completely different terrain that we faced from the beginning and to take the fight to the Toyota and Century cars which were born here, and the really fast local drivers, it was a good result, finishing second and scoring points from Nasser.
“There is still a long way to go, and we can go back to the factory with a lot more experience to build on for the remainder of the season.”
Making his first W2RC start since the Dakar, Carlos Sainz was in desperate need of seat time after crashing out on the second day in Saudi Arabia.
As demonstrated by team-mates Mattias Ekström and Mitch Guthrie in January, the M-Sport Raptor has what it takes to fight with Dacia and Toyota, and Sainz proved as much on the opening stage, finishing just over two minutes down on Lategan. Like Loeb and Lategan, he dropped time amid tricky navigation on stage two but fought back in the second half of the marathon to lie just 23s adrift of Loeb in the overall classification.
The yo-yo effect was in full force on stage four, as Sainz dropped eight minutes and five places to seventh and not even El Matador could bounce back from that kind of loss. A strong final stage initially gave Sainz the second-quickest time, but a three-minute penalty meant he and navigator Lucas Cruz could only manage fifth overall at the finish, two places ahead of Nani Roma and Alex Haro Bravo.
Words:Stephen Brunsdon
Tags: Carlos Sainz, Henk Lategan, M-Sport, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Sebastien Loeb, South Africa, W2RC, World Rally Raid Championship
Publish Date May 28, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/05/YgUdeaAi-SI202505196876-780x520.jpg May 28, 2025
Up Next
Facebook Conversations