Aurélien Canot, Media365, published on Monday January 13, 2025 at 1:21 p.m.
The main victim the day before of the erroneous note in the roadbook which had made the Saudi desert look like a roundabout during rush hours, Henk Lategan quickly moved on to something else. On Monday, South African driver Henk Lategan, already winner of the prologue, won an 8th stage marked by the retirement of his compatriot Giniel De Villiers and thus consolidated his first place in the general classification.
A South African hides another on this Dakar. While his illustrious compatriot Giniel de Villiers, winner of the event in 2009 but forced to throw in the towel before the finish, joined Carlos Sainz and Sébastien Loeb on the list of former winners for the Spaniard and for the unfortunate favorites since their beginnings regarding the Alsatian, having been forced to abandon during this 47th edition, Henk Lategan (30 years old), was able to forget his setbacks of the day before by consolidating its leadership in cars on Monday. Not only did the Toyota driver once again leave his mark on this 8th stage, but he also won it, despite a two-minute penalty for speeding (Editor’s note: His first on this Dakar). A new stroke of strength from the leader of the ranking which allowed him to consolidate his lead at the top, now with almost five minutes ahead of his Saudi rival and runner-up Yazeed Al-Rajhi, once again unstuck when he was once who came back thirty seconds behind the South African and who had the heavy (and always complex) task of opening the track on Monday.
Lategan took the rematch
As a symbol, it was in Riyadh, where the winner of the day had won his first victory on the Dakar in 2022 that the one who had already won the prologue and therefore now has two stage victories in this Dakar 2025 advanced even further his pawns towards a first final victory by beating another… South African Guy Botterill. Or day and night with Sunday’s stage (7th stage), which saw Lategan, first to solve the general enigma constituted by the roadbook error made by the organizers, lose time by finding himself in front of all his opponents, thus opening the track to them even though he had been one of the only pilots not to need the help of the helicopter sent there to find the right waypoint. which had led him to request that the times be neutralized before the place where the error in question had been made. A request that had been rejected. Lategan took his revenge in his own way on Monday.
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