After Dacia had their day in the sun on Thursday, Toyota was keen on returning the favor Friday and delivered. Henk Lategan now leads the South African Safari Rally with one stage to go, but has Dacia’s Sébastien Loeb breathing right down his neck.

Loeb entered Stage 4 with Carlos Sainz, Lategan, and Lucas Moraes trailing him by less than a minute. A slow start for Loeb ultimately cost him and he had to climb back into the top ten in the closing stretch; although he achieved that and finished eighth, he was one spot and 1:09 behind Lategan.

With Moraes and Sainz finishing outside the top ten, Lategan now holds the overall by just 39 seconds over Loeb. If Lategan hangs on, it’ll be his first World Rally-Raid Championship triumph and a huge boon in his title quest, while Loeb is looking to finally end his three-year drought.

“I wouldn’t say it was perfect, but it was a good day for us,” commented Lategan. “We started off really well, despite some tricky sections in the beginning. Then it started opening up and becoming a bit more flowy and we could really start pushing. Toward the end, we lost a little bit of time. It is anybody’s game, and it’s going to be a flat-out battle for the win tomorrow.”

Of course, one cannot discount those a few minutes back either. Guillaume de Mévius finished second to sit third overall, trailing Lategan by 2:41. Seth Quintero is seven seconds behind de Mévius, while TGR teammate Moraes is fifth and 2:59 back of Lategan.

Difficult Stages 1 and 3 mean Saood Variawa’s chances are extremely slim barring a miracle, but he made the most of the even-numbered legs. After finishing runner-up in Stage 2, he scored his second career W2RC stage victory on Friday, narrowly edging out de Mévius by 58 seconds. He sits 12th overall and trails Lategan by 14:23.

Unlike FIA, Daniel Sanders is on the right track to going three-for-three in FIM. Another stage win on Friday gives him a 7:01 advantage on Luciano Benavides going into the final day.

Sanders had to stave off a charging Adrien Van Beveren for the Stage 4 win. The latter climbed from fifth and was running as close as 21 seconds on the leader before Sanders pulled away to win by 53. Honda teammates Skyler Howes and Ricky Brabec dueled for third in RallyGP, with the former winning out as Brabec was slowed by two crashes.

Edgar Canet was the fourth fastest rider overall and holds a 20-minute edge over Tobias Ebster in Rally2.

Quad leader Gaëtan Martinez made an error early on that allowed teammate Antanas Kanopkinas to catch him. The two dueled before Kanopkinas ultimately beat him for the stage win by 4:48. However, Martinez still has over 19 minutes on him.

“In the first part of the stage, I pushed hard, and I think Gaëtan made a small mistake so I caught up to him and rode about 100 kilometers behind in the dust,” Kanopkinas explained. “Over the final 30 kilometers, we swapped places, and I got to enjoy that stretch. The route was really good and diverse. Lots of enduro and trial elements.”

Stage 4 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	212	Saood Variawa	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	2:10:49
Challenger	17	17	David Zille	BBR Motorsport	2:19:21
SSV	31	401	Alexandre Pinto	Old Friends Rally Team	2:28:20

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	2:24:56
Rally2	4	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	2:26:56
Quad	17	173	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	2:55:38

Leaders after Stage 4

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
Ultimate	1	205	Henk Lategan	Toyota Gazoo Racing	11:01:42
Challenger	15	308	David Zille	BBR Motorsport	11:38:53
SSV	29	407	Mário Franco	Franco Sport	12:50:03

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	12:06:28
Rally2	6	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	12:44:08
Quad	17	174	Gaëtan Martinez	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	15:18:17

Featured image credit: Edoardo Bauer / Edophoto / DPPI / ASO