WATCH | Al-Attiyah extends Dakar lead despite eighth-place finish in Stage 9

Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa (TGRSA) enjoyed mixed fortunes in Stage 9 of the 2023 Dakar Rally, but managed to bring all three factory crews across the finish line. But it was not how they envisioned it to go.

Race leader and defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel, as well as Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy, ended the stage inside the top 10. For Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings, however, things were turned on its head just 18km into Stage 9.

"It was a bad stage for us today. Not far from the start, we went over a steep dune with a step-down," Lategan said once he returned to the bivouac, more than 51 minutes after stage winners Sebastien Loeb/Fabian Lurquin.

"At the bottom of the dune, one of our dampers broke, and we knew we were in big trouble. We might have lost hours, were it not for Yazeed Al Rajhi and Dirk von Zitzewitz, who stopped with us."

The occupants of car #217 were assisted by teammates and privateers Yazeed AL Raiji and his co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz. The duo removed the damper from their own Hilux T1+, allowing Lategan and Cummings to continue.

Al Raiji and Von Zitzewitz suffered a damaged wheel hub in Stage 6, ending their ambitions to finish on the podium at the end of the two-week race.

Though they finished Stage 9 in eighth place, one position behind De Villiers/Murphy, Al-Attiyah and Baumel managed to extend their lead in the general standings. All three TGRSA crews are inside the top 5, with Lategan/Cummings and De Villiers/Murphy in fourth and fifth, respectively.

De Villiers noted: "Overall, it was a reasonably good stage for us, as we didn't have to get out of the car. We struggled a little bit to find the one waypoint, but nothing major, so we're happy with the