Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux takes Dakar victory

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s (TGR) Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel have taken overall victory in the off-road Dakar Rally held in Saudi Arabia over the past two weeks.

The Qatari/French pair led from the start in their new GR DKR HiLux T1+ that performed faultlessly to give Al-Attiyah his first win in Saudi Arabia since the Dakar was moved there in 2020, finishing with a winning margin of 27 minutes and 46 seconds.

The winning Hilux was part of a four-car team running under the TGR brand with the South African pair of Giniel de Villiers and co-driver Dennis Murphy crossing the line in fifth place after a broken oil pipe that put paid to their podium aspirations mid-race.

Fellow South Africans Shameer Variawa and co-driver Danie Stassen finished the 4,261km of competitive stages in 15th place and with a final stage win Henk Lategan and co-driver Brett Cummings, climbed to an overall 31st place.

Toyota Australia sales, marketing and franchise operations vice president Sean Hanley said Toyota Australia congratulates all the TGT drivers and co-drivers on a sensational result.

“In six years, TGR has grown into global motorsport powerhouse with victories in the World Rally Championship, and the World Endurance Championship and iconic races such as Le Mans and Dakar,” Hanley says.

“It’s from this activity, that we are building the GR brand and importantly for our customers, GR cars such as the GR Yaris and forthcoming GR86 that continue to push the performance envelope,” he says.

The winning GR DKR HiLux T1+ was a new build for Dakar this year featuring larger wheels and tyres, more wheel travel, and the 3.5 litre twin-turbo V6 petrol engine that also powers the new Toyota LandCruiser GR Sport in some markets.

On taking his second Dakar win for TGR, Al-Attiyah says it was such an amazing feeling to win. 

“We led right from the beginning, and managed to control the pace throughout the race, making it an amazing win. I’d like to thank TGR and all our sponsors for the support. I’d also like to thank our team principal and technical manager Glyn Hall for building this fantastic new HiLux T1+. It was an amazing Dakar and I am extremely happy,” he says.