Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon in 4th overall
Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz lose 8min 28sec on Stage 3
Stage 3 of the 2025 South African Safari Rally brought the crews back to Sun City, completing the second half of the Marathon Stage. After a tough overnight stop at the remote bivouac near Stella, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) returned to action with all three of its GR Hilux EVO crews completing the day safely, and two of them maintaining strong positions inside the overall Top 5.
The stage comprised a 246km special, with a short 9km liaison before the timed section and a 263km road section back to the overnight bivouac. The route featured a similar mix of terrain to the previous day, with large stretches of dry grasslands, sandy tracks, bushveld trails, and fast gravel sections. Cold overnight temperatures added to the challenge, particularly for crews unaccustomed to camping without support in Marathon Stage conditions.
2025 South African Safary Rally – Stage 3Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings (#205) started the day strongly. Benefiting from a later road position, they immediately set about making up time. They caught and passed two rivals early on and were showing excellent pace through the middle of the stage. Unfortunately, a broken driveshaft near the 90km-to-go mark forced them to complete the final section in three-wheel drive. Despite the setback, they still managed to post the fifth-fastest time of the day and now sit third in the overall standings, just 30 seconds off the lead with two stages remaining.
Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon (#203) enjoyed a clean and consistent run, making the most of their strong road position. Their strategy over the two-day Marathon Stage paid off, as they climbed to fourth overall, a mere 56 seconds from the lead. Despite the physical toll of a cold and restless night at the Stella bivouac, they maintained their focus and avoided mistakes across the technical and slippery terrain.
It was a more difficult day for Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz (#204), who lost time with a less favourable starting position and a few navigational errors. The pair completed Stage 3 in 15th place, but remain in eighth overall, 4 minutes and 15 seconds off the lead. With two competitive stages left to run, they will be looking for a push on Stage 4 to close the gap to the leaders.
2025 South African Safary Rally – Stage 3Tomorrow’s Stage 4 will take the rally into the Waterberg region near Thabazimbi, with a long day on the cards: 224km of special stage, preceded by a 263km liaison and followed by a 206km road section back to Sun City. With minimal gaps in the standings and varied terrain expected, the penultimate stage could prove pivotal in the fight for overall honours.
Henk Lategan: “The stage started off really well. We were further back on the road today and we knew we had some time to make up. We managed to catch Carlos first and overtook him, then we caught Nani, overtook him as well and at some stage we started seeing Seb’s dust so we knew our pace was really good. Unfortunately, we broke one of the drive shafts and these cars don’t operate so well in 3-wheel-drive. We lost a lot of time but the end result was not too bad and we’re still in the fight.”
Lucas Moraes: “So, we just arrived back to the bivouac finally after a very cold night. It was probably the toughest night in a marathon stage for me in my career. It was very cold and we were a little bit unprepared for the weather, but the Stage 3 result was really great. We managed to do a clean run, clean marathon stage, which is the most important thing, and we are fourth overall now – only 52 seconds from the lead. Tomorrow, we are starting in a great position, and we’ll keep fighting.”
Seth Quintero: “It was a cold one out there for sure. Hearing the Lions was pretty cool and we had a lot of fun, getting to see them. But yeah, we ended up doing really well yesterday and again today. We have a better start position for tomorrow, which is really the last big day. We’re really going to make a big push to get into the lead again tomorrow and then full send on the last day.”
South African Safari Rally 2025 – Standings after Stage 3
| 1 | #219 | S. Loeb / F. Lurquin | (The Dacia Sandriders) | 8hour47min05sec |
| 2 | #225 | C. Sainz / L. Cruz | (Ford M-Sport) | +00:23 |
| 3 | #205 | H. Lategan / B. Cummings | (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing) | +00:30 |
| 4 | #203 | L. Moraes / A. Monleon | (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing) | +00:56 |
| 5 | #227 | N. Roma / A. Haro | (Ford M-Sport) | +02:41 |
| 6 | #208 | B. Baragwanath / L. Cremer | (Century Racing) | +02:54 |
| 7 | #277 | G. Woolridge / B. Dreyer | (Neil Woolridge Motorsport) | +02:57 |
| 8 | #204 | S. Quintero / D. Zenz | (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing) | +04:15 |
| 9 | #211 | M. Prokop / V. Chytka | (Orlen Jipocar Team) | +04:30 |
| 10 | #222 | G. De Mevius / X. Panseri | (X-Raid Mini JCW) | +05:26 |
Source: Toyota
