Henk Lategan: “It’s actually a big surprise to be first”

January 6 ^th 2025 - 12:18 [GMT + 3]

The South African, who won the prologue and finished third on the 48 HR Chrono, has taken the lead in the general rankings, 2’45’’ ahead of Yazeed Al Rajhi.

“It was difficult, to be honest. In the dunes, our inexperience showed a bit and I was struggling a bit. We didn’t get stuck or anything, but I think I was a little bit slow through the dunes. Towards the end of the really long dunes section, I got sick, had to stop and get out of the car for a bit. After the dunes cleared, I started enjoying it a bit again. There were some nice flowing tracks, so it was fun at the end of yesterday. The dust was a problem for most of the stage. The navigation was also super, super tricky. Brett did really well, finding one of the way points really quickly. All in all, I’m happy with the stage, but it was not straightforward, not simple and definitely not without some moments, some errors and mistakes, but I think it’s impossible to do an almost 1000-kilometre stage without any mistakes. The car is feeling good, there is nothing wrong with it mechanically. We checked overnight and there were no oil leaks and nothing funny. We looked after the car for the stage because we knew it was really, really long. If you don’t look after the car, it won’t look after you. It’s actually a big surprise to be first because we haven’t been really focusing on it. But I’m happy with that. We’ve been playing a more strategic game over these two days, so I’m happy. We’ll probably be closer to the front and the navigation will have to be perfect, so that’s a bit of pressure, but it’s okay”.