DAKAR 2023: Victory on second stage as TGR bounces back

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing is set to take on the 2023 Dakar Rally with a three-car team. The reigning masters, Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel, will return to lead the way together with newly crowned South African Rally-Raid Champion Giniel de Villiers and co-driver Dennis Murphy, as well as Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings.

Dakar 2023 started on 31 December, 2022 on the North Western coast of Saudi Arabia, before traveling inland towards the city of Ha’il. From there, the route continues in a South-easterly direction, bisecting the feared Empty Quarter, before finally swinging northwards towards the finish at Dammam, on 15 January, 2023.

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an hour ago

Victory on second stage as TGR bounces back

- 1st place on Stage 2 for Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel 
- 6th place on Stage 2 for Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy 
- Nasser and Mathieu move into 2nd overall 
- Giniel and Dennis move up to 5th overall 
- Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings move into 10th overall 

Stage 2 of Dakar 2023 saw TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) bounce back after a tough opening stage, with Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel winning the stage by 14sec over Toyota Hilux privateer Erik van Loon. The TGR crew moved into 2nd place as a result, trailing the leader by just 2min 12sec. 

The stage was punctuated by many sharp rocks, which played havoc with many competitors in the field. Nasser and Mathieu showed their experience, however, by adjusting their pace to match the rough terrain. They suffered only one puncture, and drove a well-controlled stage to record their first stage win of Dakar 2023. 

At the same time, teammates Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy posted the 6th-fastest time of the day, trailing the winners by 13min 12sec after suffering two punctures. The Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+ crew were forced to slow their pace for the final 200 km of the 430km-long stage, as they had no spare tyres left. Despite this, they reached the finish near the town of Alula safely, and have moved up to 5th place in the overall classification. 

The final TGR pairing of Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings had a second tough day on the Dakar. They suffered two punctures early on, and another in the latter part of the stage. This left them limping towards the finish as they are allowed only two spare wheels, until they were assisted by another Toyota privateer, Lucas Moraes. With a new tyre fitted, the crew managed to reach the end, losing 32min 12sec on the day. Despite their time loss, many other crews suffered even worse fates, and as a result the TGR crew are in 10th place overall after the opening two stages. 

Stage 2 of this year’s Dakar will long be remembered for the way in which it influenced the rally. Many of the top crews fell foul to the extremely rough terrain, and the entire field will be looking forward to the sandier stages to come. Next up is Stage 3, which takes the rally from Alula to the spectacular vistas around Hail. The route comprises 223km of liaison leading from the bivouac at Alula to the start of a 447km-long special stage and joining the stage to the bivouac at Hail. 

Dakar 2023 consists of 14 stages and is scheduled to conclude in the city of Dammam on January 15th. 

QUOTES: 
Glyn Hall, TGR Dakar Team Principal: “What a great feeling! Nasser and Mathieu did a fantastic job today, over some of the toughest terrain we’ve seen on the Dakar in years. At the same time, Giniel and Dennis kept cool despite their two early punctures to bring the car home in 6th place – a stunning result for them. Henk and Brett unfortunately had one too many punctures, and lost time as a result. Even so, they’re into the Top 10 and only 15 minutes from third, so overall a really good day for us.” 

Nasser Al-Attiyah: “Today was another tough day on the Dakar, and I’m sure a lot of competitors will have problems to deal with. There were plenty of rocks and some tricky navigation, but I’m really happy that we managed to win the stage today.” 

Giniel de Villiers: “This was not a great stage for us, unfortunately. We had a puncture quite early on, and since we carry only two spares, I had to take it a little easier over the many rocky sections. We also had to turn around quite a few times, to hunt for waypoints. But that’s how it is, and we’ll have to try again tomorrow.” 

Henk Lategan: “We had a decent start, but I think we were going a bit too quickly across the rocks. We had two punctures really early on, maybe within 30km of the start. Then we knew we had to switch to survival mode, nursing the car towards the finish. But another puncture 60km from the finish cost us a mass of time.”

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a day ago (Jan 1, 2023)

Challenging opening stage

- 6th place on opening stage for Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel
- All three GR DKR Hilux T1+ cars ran faultlessly

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) started the defence of its Dakar crown on Sunday, 1 January 2023, with a challenging stage set to the South of the rally’s so-called Sea Camp, the biggest bivouac in the 45-year history of the race. Stage 1 saw defending champions Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel hold onto a two-minute deficit for the bulk of the stage, before finally setting the 6th-fastest time in their updated GR DKR Hilux T1+, despite facing some navigational challenges towards the end of the stage. This left them 7min 17sec adrift of the lead.

The champions started their rally by posting the 4th fastest time on the short, sharp Prologue, which was run on the last day of 2022, to determine the starting order for the opening stage. After the Top 10 finishers in the Prologue nominated their starting positions, Nasser and Mathieu took to the stage as the 7th car on the road.

The TGR crew drove at a steady pace, finding their feet over the opening kilometres of the stage. Unfortunately, a tricky navigational section towards the end of the stage cost them some time, finishing at 6th place.

Things started with a literal bang for Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings. The winners of two stages during Dakar 2022 finished the Prologue in 10th place, forcing them to open the road for the first stage. They had barely started the stage when contact with a low-hanging branch shattered the windscreen of their car, severely limiting their visibility.

They drove with the broken windscreen until they suffered a puncture some 29km into the stage. The stop gave them the opportunity to remove the windscreen and change to individual goggles, which they had to wear for the remainder of the 367km-long stage, which started near Sea Camp, and finished 193km to the south of the bivouac. 

Despite the challenge of opening the road, suffering a puncture and having to drive with no windscreen, the TGR crew managed to record the 11th-fastest time, 11min 45sec behind the leaders. They will be aiming for a clean run on Stage 2, with the hope of improving on their current position.

Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy fell foul not only to a mid-stage puncture, but also found the going tough in terms of navigation. Their performance on the opening stage netted them 18th position for the day, leaving them with a deficit of 18min 31sec to the stage winners. The 2009 winner of the rally and his co-driver will be pushing hard during Stage 2, in order to remain in touch with the leading group. 

Stage 2 will also see the Dakar Rally move from its base at Sea Camp for the first time in five days, as the event moves to the canyons of Alula, to the northeast of its starting point. The day will start with a liaison of 159km, with a timed section of 430km up next, before the stage ends just 1km from the next bivouac. Stage 2 promises more sandy tracks, with a small number of dunes, mixed with rocky traverses. 

Dakar 2023 is scheduled to finish on 15 January, 2023, in the city of Dammam. In between lie 13 more stages, spanning across the Saudi landscape and into the so-called Empty Quarter where a sea of dunes await the competitors.

QUOTES: 
Glyn Hall, TGR Dakar Team Principal: “All-told, we had a reasonable day today. All three cars performed well and were it not for some punctures and navigational issues, which are part and parcel of rally-raid racing, we would have been in exactly the positions we expected. As it stands, Henk and Brett managed a really complex scenario very well today, and should have an easier run tomorrow. As for Nasser, he is in a perfect position for Stage 2.”

Nasser Al-Attiyah: “It was not an easy start to this year’s Dakar. We lost our way a little around 40km from the finish, so we lost some time, but at least the first stage is behind us. Let’s see what we can do on Stage 2.” 

Giniel de Villiers: “This was not a great stage for us, unfortunately. We had a puncture quite early on, and since we carry only two spares, I had to take it a little easier over the many rocky sections. We also had to turn around quite a few times, to hunt for waypoints. But that’s how it is, and we’ll have to try again tomorrow.” 

Henk Lategan: “It was an eventful day for us, opening the stage, hitting a branch and dealing with a puncture. But I think we handled it well, and even though we lost quite a lot of time today, I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s stage.” 
 

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2 days ago (Dec 31, 2022)

Two of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing W2RC’s key sponsors, Red Bull and Eurol, have committed to share in the team’s W2RC journey for 2023, supporting Nasser and Mathieu’s efforts through TGR. Eurol is the Dutch developer and producer of lubricants, additives, cleaners, technical fluids and specialty products, available in over 90 countries worldwide. Innovation, quality and sustainability are core values of the Eurol brand. Eurol provides TOYOTA GAZOO Racing with the Eurol Specialty Racing line with SYNGIS Technology, for extreme high-performance levels under all circumstances. 

Red Bull has established itself as the premiere supporter of extreme sports and athletes, and as such fits perfectly with TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s Dakar and W2RC efforts. The Austrian energy drink manufacturer has partnered with Nasser, Mathieu and TGR over numerous years, and the involvement bore fruit when Nasser and Mathieu won a second Dakar title for TGR in January 2022. 

The team is also supported by Jonsson Workwear and USN.

6 days ago (Dec 27, 2022)

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing primed to defend crown at Dakar 2023

- Latest evolution of GR DKR Hilux T1+ ready to defend its title 
- Three-car factory team primed for action 
- Cars fully assembled and ready for shake-down

With the world’s toughest rally-raid race just five days away, the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) Dakar Team has assembled its three GR DKR Hilux T1+ race cars at the Sea Camp, north of the Saudi Arabian town of Janbu. The next step is a thorough shakedown to confirm that everything works as expected, before attending to the final checks and administration for Dakar 2023. 

The 11km-long prologue for the race, which is used to determine the starting orders for the first stage, will get the action under way during the afternoon of 31 December 2022, before the race itself kicks off on New Year’s Day 2023. Fourteen competitive stages will follow, with a Rest Day following Stage 8. 

For TGR, the 2023 Dakar Rally will offer an opportunity to defend the crown it won, when Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah and French co-driver, Mathieu Baumel, brought the GR DKR Hilux T1+ home in first place at the end of the 2022 edition of the race. This was Nasser and Mathieu’s second victory for the team, and they will be aiming for a repeat performance early in the new year. 

Teammate Giniel de Villiers, from South Africa, has one of the best Dakar records in history, having competed in twenty Dakars to date. He won the race in 2009, and has been on the podium seven additional times. He has only finished outside the Top 10 once in twenty races, and will be aiming for another solid result, again with co-driver Dennis Murphy, also from South Africa, beside him. 

For the South African pairing of Henk Lategan and co-driver Brett Cummings, their first two Dakar Rallies together proved learning experiences. In their first outing, in 2021, the pair crashed heavily during Stage 5 of the rally, resulting in a broken collarbone for Lategan. In 2022 they bounced back and took two stage victories.

Dakar 2023 promises to be one of the toughest yet, consisting of 14 stages rather than the dozen that has become the norm over the last few editions of the race. Not only that, but the route also ventures further into the so-called Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia than ever before. Add to that the Rest Day, which comes well after the mid-point of the race, as well as the removal of mid-stage rest-and-refuel points, and it is clear that the upcoming rally will be tough. 

With that said, the GR DKR Hilux T1+ has seen constant improvement since the last Dakar, winning the inaugural W2RC in the hands of Nasser and Mathieu, and taking Giniel to yet another title in the South African Rally-Raid Championship, which serves as one of the test series for the team. With refinements to the car’s quality, reliability and durability, the team is confident that it has built an even better car than the one that won the race in 2022. 

The route for the upcoming Dakar Rally starts at the so-called Sea Camp, on the North-Western coastline of Saudi Arabia. Both the prologue and Stage 1 will be staged from here, before Stage 2 takes the rally towards the stunning rocks and canyons around Alula. Next up is Stage 3 towards Ha’il, where the bivouac will remain in place for three days before shifting to Al Duwadimi for two days. Stage 8 will see the rally reach the Saudi capital of Riyadh, for a much-needed Rest Day. 

From here, the route continues in an Eastward direction towards Haradh, before shifting into the Empty Quarter for the final few days of the event. This year’s Marathon Stage – where the crews race away from the bivouac to an unsupported camp in the desert, before racing back the following day – will take place near the end of the race, and may well change the outcome of the event. 

The final stages of the race will take the crews from Shaybah to Al-Hofuf, and on to the city of Dammam, on the Arabian Gulf. While the closing three stages of the rally all feature distances under 200km, the organisers have cautioned that these stages may well prove the toughest of the event, and that competitors should not take them lightly based purely on their relatively short distances. 

Dakar 2023 is scheduled to finish on 15 January, 2023, in the city of Dammam. This will be the Dakar’s first visit to the city, and also the first time that the race spans across the entire Saudi Arabian landscape from coast to coast.

QUOTES:
Glyn Hall, TGR Dakar Team Principal: 
“We’ve had a stunning year building up to this race, starting with a win at the Dakar in January this year. This was followed by the W2RC title, as well as the South African Rally-Raid Championship win, so we feel that we are extremely well prepared for the race. All I want now is for the flag to drop, so that we can go racing in order to see how our latest GR DKR Hilux T1+ stacks up against the competition.” 

Nasser Al-Attiyah: 
“The Dakar Rally really is the big one! We’ve had a great year, winning the first ever W2RC title. But we’d love to add another Dakar victory to the list, and we are sure that the car is good enough to bring us that win.” 

CAR NUMBERS
200 - Nasser Al-Attiyah / Mathieu Baumel 
205 - Giniel de Villiers / Dennis Murphy 
217 - Henk Lategan / Brett Cummings

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a month ago (Dec 5, 2022)

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing set to take on Dakar 2023 with three-car team

- Reigning champions Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel to lead the way 
- Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy return to Dakar action 
- Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings aim to impress on third outing 
- The updated and even more brutal GR DKR Hilux T1+ ready to face stiff competition in the legendary rally

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing is set to take on the 2023 Dakar Rally with a three-car team early in January. The reigning masters, Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel, will return to lead the way together with newly crowned South African Rally-Raid Champion Giniel de Villiers and co-driver Dennis Murphy, as well as Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings. 

This event will mark the start of the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) 2023 season, with Nasser and Mathieu again taking on the world’s toughest cross-country races. 

The duo will be competing in all five rounds of the FIA’s W2RC during 2023. The championship starts with the Dakar Rally in January, and will be followed by the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge at the end of February; the Sonora Rally in Mexico during April and the Desafio Ruta 40 in Argentina at the end of August. The season will draw to a close with the Rally of Morocco, again scheduled for mid-October. 

The two remaining crews will compete the rest of the season in the South African Rally-Raid Championship (SARRC) as part of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing South Africa (TGRSA), which also serves as a key component in the ongoing testing and development of the GR DKR Hilux T1+. In 2022, the seven-round SARRC was won by Giniel and the former champions Henk and Brett finished second in the championship considered one of the world’s toughest rally-raid series. 

The tough 2022 racing season offered TGR comprehensive opportunities to improve the Dakar-winning GR DKR Hilux T1+ in terms of quality, durability and reliability. In line with Toyota’s ethos of “Making Ever-better cars”, the team capitalised on more than 25,000km of racing and testing completed by its crews in both the W2RC and SARRC. Furthermore, the crews further built on their own competencies, thanks to 130 combined days on the road, securing both the W2RC and SARRC titles for the team. 

For the 2023 season, the FIA has refined its criteria aimed at balancing the performance between the Class T1+ vehicles, and their counterparts in Class T1U (ultimate). The primary focus of the updated rules is to close up the field, making competition even tougher. For example, both the Class T1+ and T1U cars have had their peak power output reduced by 30kW. The power curves have been adjusted to blend the change proportionately, and the altitude compensation for turbo powered T1+ cars has been removed. 

At the same time, TGR has been constantly upgrading the GR DKR Hilux T1+, with the aim of improving its quality, durability and reliability even further, ensuring that the car is fully prepared for the rigours of the Dakar Rally, the W2RC and the SARRC. As such, improvements have been made to the car’s differentials, suspension parts and wishbones, which have been reinforced. The single damper setup has also been optimised, as has the transmission’s shifting characteristics. Finally, the software has been tweaked to accept the latest racing fuel, and to ensure that the car conforms to the Balance of Performance requirements as set out by the FIA. 

The team’s commitment to the development of the GR DKR Hilux T1+ is reflected by the privateer racing community, with seven privately entered versions of the car signed up for Dakar 2023. These cars sport similar setups and specifications to the GR DKR Hilux T1+ campaigned by the factory entry. 

TGR also supports Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body (TLC), a rally team of Toyota Auto Body Co., Ltd. that competes in the Toyota Land Cruiser. In the 2022 Dakar Rally, it achieved its ninth consecutive victory in the production car category. In the 2023 Dakar Rally, the team will enter a new Land Cruiser 300 GR SPORT and aim for their 10th straight victory in the production car category. 

HINO TEAM SUGAWARA entered the 2022 Dakar Rally with a vehicle equipped with a racing hybrid system for the first time, and finished 22nd overall in the truck category. In the 2023 Dakar Rally, they will participate in a truck equipped with an improved hybrid system. 

Dakar 2023 is set to start on 31 December, 2022 on the North Western coast of Saudi Arabia, before traveling inland towards the city of Ha’il. From there, the route continues in a South-easterly direction, bisecting the feared Empty Quarter, before finally swinging northwards towards the finish at Dammam, on 15 January, 2023. 
 

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