Henk Lategan: “It was better to lose time today”

Dakar 2026 | Stage 8 | WADI AD DAWASIR > WADI AD DAWASIR
January 12 ^th 2026 - 14:33 [GMT + 3]

Henk Lategan finished second in the special stage. However, the South African was not aiming for such a good result, as his strategy aimed at avoiding starting at the front tomorrow in the second special that will be run separately for bikes and cars. In the overall rankings, the official Toyota driver is back on the podium (6'08’’ behind the leader). Mattias Ekstrom (4'00’’ off the summit) is just over two minutes ahead of him. Nasser Al Attiyah, fourth on the day, remains in the lead.

“We didn't want to win the stage. We had a few problems at the start of the special, including a puncture, so we stopped to change the wheel, then in the dunes we got a little lost looking for a waypoint. We knew we weren't going to make up any time, so we picked up the pace and in the end we even stopped for a bit at the side of the road, but not long enough. It was a bit of bad luck or no luck. It's difficult to spot and control the others during the day. It was better to lose time today and not open tomorrow. It's really a big lottery to open without the motorbikes. We already played that game with the rocks in the first week, now we're going to do it by opening."