Factory Toyota driver Henk Lategan beat Ford rival Mattias Ekstrom to take victory in Prologue at the start of the 2025 Dakar Rally.
The 47th edition of the world's biggest cross-country rally kicked off with a short 29km special in Bisha in south west region of Saudi Arabia, with a total of 64 cars lining up in the Ultimate category.
While all eyes were on Ford and Dacia as they made their full-fledged debuts in Dakar, incumbent Toyota stole the limelight by scoring a narrow win with its proven Hilux T1+.
Representing the South African division of Toyota Gazoo Racing, Lategan completed the prologue in 15m28.06s on his return to Dakar after a one-year hiatus, beating the Ford Raptor of former DTM and World Rallycross champion Mattias Ekstrom by just 1.3s.
Both drivers eclipsed the early benchmark set by Dacia newcomer Nasser Al-Attiyah, who was first to take the starting line and set a time of 15m48.4s in the lead Sandrider.
Debutant Rokas Baciuska put in a solid effort in a customer Toyota entered by Overdrive, finishing fourth and just a second adrift of Al-Attiyah after a test that featured a mix of dirt track, gravel and sand.
Brian Baragwanath rounded off the top five for Century Racing, while nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb came home in sixth for Dacia.
Lucas Moraes and Saood Variawa were classified seventh and ninth respectively for Toyota, sandwiching the Ford of two-time Dakar winner Nani Roma.
Guerlain Chicherit took 10th place on his switch to X-Raid Mini, ending up 42s down on the time set by pacesetter Lategan.
Making his debut on four wheels, ex-KTM star Toby Price recorded the 11th-fastest time with a late effort on his Overdrive Toyota, finishing just two seconds behind Chicherit.
Seth Quintero and Guy Botterill could only manage 15th and 17th respectively aboard their factory Toyotas, separated by the last-remaining Dacia of Cristina Gutierrez.
Defending Dakar champion Carlos Sainz also made a low-key start to the 2025 event, wounding up 24th on his debut for Ford.
The top 10 drivers in Prologue will be able to choose their starting positions for the first full stage, which will also take place in Bisha and cover a timed distance of 412km.
Unlike in the bikes category, times from Prologue will not be added to the respective tallies of drivers in cars. However, finishing positions outside the top 10 will still be utilised for determining the starting order for Saturday's special.
Dakar 2025 - Prologue results (Top 10):
| Pos |
Driver
|
Car
|
Time/gap
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Henk Lategan
|
Toyota
|
15m28
|
| 2 |
Mattias Ekstrom
|
Ford
|
+0:01s
|
| 3 |
Nasser Al-Attiyah
|
Dacia
|
+0:20s
|
| 4 |
Rokas Baciuska
|
Toyota
|
+0:21s
|
| 5 |
Brian Baragwanath
|
Century
|
+0:30s
|
| 6 |
Sebastien Loeb
|
Dacia
|
+0:33s
|
| 7 |
Lucas Moraes
|
Toyota
|
+0:35s
|
| 8 |
Nani Roma
|
Ford
|
+0:35s
|
| 9 |
Saood Variawa
|
Toyota
|
+0:41s
|
| 10 |
Guerlain Chicherit
|
Mini
|
+0:42s
|
