Toyota’s Lucas Moraes beat Ford rival Mattias Ekstrom to score victory on Stage 7 of Dakar Rally, as Henk Lategan’s advantage was almost entirely eliminated.
Competitors faced a shorter 418km test around Al Duwadimi on Sunday, with the organisers having adjusted the route and the start timing to ensure medical helicopters could be deployed.
A surprise bout of rain made the terrain even harder to tackle, while a roadbook error at the 158km mark meant several drivers lost their way, forcing Dakar to effectively neutralise a 20km stretch in the middle of the stage.
Moraes emerged from the chaos to take a dominant 7m41s victory in his Toyota Hilux, bouncing from a mechanical issue on Saturday that had cost him over three hours and thrown him out of contention for the overall win.
Ekstrom had led at the first checkpoint of the day but gradually slipped to fourth place, behind Moraes, Century’s Matthieu Serradori and his own team-mate Mitch Guthrie Jr. But the Swede was able to regain lost ground as the stage progressed, eventually recording his best finish of Dakar 2025 in second.
He was closely followed by Guthrie Jr, the American rounding off a strong showing for Ford in third.
This was after Dakar updated the final times of a number of drivers who were caught out by the mistake in the roadbook and were originally shown much lower down the order.
Five-time event winner Nasser Al-Attiyah had at one point lost over 40 minutes to stage winner Moraes, but after a correction from Dakar he was classified fourth and only 11m15s off the pace.
Toyota driver Seth Quintero and Dacia team-mate Cristina Gutierrez finished a minute back in fifth and sixth respectively, while Yazeed Al-Rajhi was once again the top runner for the customer Overdrive squad in seventh.
Denis Krotov led Mini’s charge in ninth, behind another Toyota of Stage 3 winner Saood Variawa.
Overall leader Lategan had a difficult day aboard his factory Hilux as he lost 15 minutes and slumped to 15th in the stage classification.
This means the seven-minute lead he had coming into the stage has nearly been wiped out, with Al-Rajhi closing in within 21 seconds of him despite having an average day of his own.
Ekstrom is also now only 10 minutes adrift of Lategan, while Al-Attiyah has likewise reduced his deficit to 21m57s with five stages remaining.
Guthrie Jr and Serradori also have an outside shot at victory, both trailing the South African by less than an hour after Sunday.
Dakar 2025 - Results after Stage 7 (Top 10)
|
Pos
|
Driver
|
Car
|
Time/Gap
|
|
1
|
Henk Lategan
|
Toyota
|
33h43m58s
|
|
2
|
Yazeed Al-Rajhi
|
Toyota
|
21s
|
|
3
|
Mattias Ekstrom
|
Ford
|
10m25s
|
|
4
|
Nasser Al-Attiyah
|
Dacia
|
21m57s
|
|
5
|
Mitch Guthrie Jr |
Ford
|
40m01s
|
|
6
|
Matthieu Serradori |
Century
|
54m20s
|
|
7
|
Juan Cruz Yacopini
|
Toyota
|
1h13m05s
|
|
8
|
Seth Quintero |
Toyota
|
1h28m32s
|
|
9
|
Joao Ferreira
|
Mini
|
1h58m25s
|
|
10
|
Brian Baragwanath
|
Century
|
2h07m38s
|
