Stage 1 took the convoy around Sun City, the beating heart of the South African Safari Rally. 555 km (including 260 km against the clock) stood between the field and the finish line. ● Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing) outgunned Carlos Sainz (Ford M-Sport) and Sébastien Loeb (The Dacia Sandriders) to make it two victories in a row for South Africa and Toyota in the car race. The top 3 in the overall mirrors the stage podium. David Zille led home a Taurus 1-2-3 in Challenger, while Mário Franco (Francosport) broke his W2RC duck in SSV. Ross Branch (Hero MotoSports) claimed the RallyGP stage ahead of Monster Energy Honda HRC's Adrien Van Beveren and Ricky Brabec, a triumph that also catapulted him to the overall lead. A somewhat impaired Michael Docherty (BAS World KTM Racing) still managed to extend his victorious streak in Rally2. Gaëtan Martinez (CFMoto Thunder Racing) also made it two in a row in the quad race. Stage 2 tomorrow will be held under marathon rules. The convoy will roll into the Marathon Camp after 623 km (including 356 km against the clock), where no service crews will be awaiting the competitors. Follow this daunting challenge live on the Race Center HERE
FIA: Two-yota
The local star Henk Lategan left the opposition in the dust today. The Toyota factory driver romped home with 2′38″ to spare over Carlos Sainz and his Ford Raptor and 3′34″ over Sébastien Loeb and his Dacia Sandrider. On the flip side, the Frenchman's teammate, Nasser Al Attiyah, was slapped with a 2-minute penalty for missing a waypoint and plummeted to seventh place, 5′25″ down. Lategan, who rocketed to the top of the leader board by the same margin, secured his third W2RC triumph, following the prologue and stage 8 of the Dakar last January. The South African netted Toyota their 70th championship win and tightened the marque's grip on the race after Guy Botterill (Toyota Gazoo Racing) emerged victorious from the prologue.
CHALLENGER: Zille goes back to his winning ways
David Zille took the stage by 1′51″ over his brother in arms at BBR Motorsport, Pau Navarro, and 2′27″ over Adam Kuś (Akpol Recykling Team). The Challenger championship leader, Nicolás Cavigliasso, has a 3′52″ deficit to make up after incurring a 2-minute penalty. For fellow Argentinian Zille, this was his fourth W2RC victory and the first since stage 9 of the 2025 Dakar.
SSV: Mário Franco opens his account
Mário Franco made the switch from Challenger to SSV behind the wheel of a Can-Am Maverick R for this round and it is already paying dividends. The Portuguese driver was the fastest of the championship entrants, 3′25″ ahead of Claude Fournier (MMP) and 3′40″ clear of Michele Cinotto (CST Xtreme Plus Polaris). Like Guy Botterill in Ultimate yesterday, this was his maiden W2RC win, which makes him the 109th victor in the history of the series.
FIM: Branch the Hero of the day
Team Hero MotoSports spent the day in Sun City at the business end of the race. Nacho Cornejo posted the best time at km 18 and then his stablemate Ross Branch took over all the way to the finish. The Motswana put 55 seconds into Adrien Van Beveren and 1′09″ into another Honda rider, Ricky Brabec, to clinch his thirteenth career W2RC win. A 2-minute penalty for a missed waypoint pushed the prologue winner, Daniel Sanders (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), down to fourth place, 3′04″ back. Branch is the new overall leader with 50 seconds to spare over VBA and 1′03″ over Brabec. The KTM duo of Sanders (+2′44″) and Luciano Benavides (+3′22″) round out the top 5. Several RallyGP riders ran into trouble. Tosha Schareina (Monster Energy Honda HRC) took a tumble and finished seventh, 7′35″ off the pace. Even worse, his teammate Skyler Howes and the newly minted Sherco factory rider Bradley Cox dropped 17 and 25 minutes, respectively, to the leader from Botswana.
RALLY 2: Call an ambulance… but not for Docherty!
Not even a bout of illness can stop Michael Docherty! The South African was feeling a bit under the weather at the start, but that did not prevent him from scooping up his ninth Rally2 stage on the trot and extending an undefeated streak that goes back to stage 12 of the Dakar. He was 37 seconds quicker than Edgar Canet on a works KTM and 49 seconds faster than Tobias Ebster astride a factory Hero.
QUADS: Martinez goes the distance
The winner of the prologues of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and South African Safari Rally, Gaëtan Martinez, was still chasing his first win in a long stage. At long last, the Frenchman got his hands on it, defeating his CFMoto stablemate Antanas Kanopkinas by 24′47″. The Pole Marek Łój crashed out of the stage, while the local star Carien Teessen was hamstrung by a mechanical.
SCHEDULE:
- 21 May: stage 2 — Sun City–Marathon Camp (road section: 267 km / special: 356 km / total: 623 km)
- 22 May: stage 3 — Marathon Camp–Sun City (road section: 272 km / special: 255 km / total: 527 km)
- 23 May: stage 4 — Sun City–Sun City (road section: 470 km / special: 224 km / total: 694 km)
- 24 May: stage 5 — Sun City–Sun City (road section: 88 km / special: 118 km / total: 206 km)
