Story byMotorsport photoRachit ThukralWed, January 7, 2026 at 11:49 AM UTC·4 min readFactory Toyota driver Henk Lategan annihilated the competition in the Dakar Rally on Wednesday, scoring a mammoth seven-minute victory in the first part of the marathon stage. In a 2026 event that has seen Toyota’s form fluctuate wildly day to day, Lategan mounted an impressive comeback from Tuesday’s disappointment to log the quickest time in the 417km marathon stage around Al-Ula. The South African trailed Dacia’s Sebastien Loeb when the fourth stage of the rally-raid kicked off on Wednesday morning, but quickly ascended to the top at the second checkpoint, establishing an advantage of 46s over Nasser Al-Attiyah. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHis lead continued to grow throughout the stage, particularly through the middle sections, as he overtook 11 cars over the course and ended the day 7m03s in the front. This was the largest winning margin in Dakar this year, putting Lategan firmly at the top of the overall standings. Five-time Dakar winner Al-Attiyah (Dacia) couldn’t close the gap to Lategan in the closing sections and had to settle for second position, with father-son duo Marek and Eryk Goczal following him in their customer Toyota Hiluxes in third and fourth positions. Loeb rounded out a solid day for Dacia in fifth place, but conceded almost 18 minutes to Lategan on a day the latter was completely untouchable. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMichal Goczal, brother of Marek, was seventh-fastest for Energylandia, followed by the factory Toyotas of Toby Price and Saood Variawa. Century’s Mathieu Serradori was ninth in the best of the Century CR7s, while Seth Quintero made it a whopping seven Toyotas inside the top 10. As was the case in Stage 2, Toyota’s improved competitiveness coincided with a drop in form for Ford, with the two manufacturers essentially swapping positions in the pecking order. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement#228 Ford M-Sport Ford: Mitch Guthrie, Kellon Walch#228 Ford M-Sport Ford: Mitch Guthrie, Kellon WalchThe Blue Oval’s best representative was Mattias Ekstrom in 11th, the two-time DTM champion dropping more than 26 minutes through the deserts of Saudi Arabia.
