Two podiums for TGR on Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge Stage 3

• 2nd on Stage 3 for Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz
• 3rd on Stage 3 for Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon
• Moraes/Monleon in 2nd place overall

Stage 3 of this year’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge was a stern test of 237km, serving as the first part of the Marathon Stage – where crews race to a remote encampment, without the benefit of technical crews to prepare their cars after the stage. The highly reliable GR Hilux EVO took the challenge in its stride, however, as Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz (#204) posted the 2nd-fastest time on the day – just 3min 59sec behind the winning pace.

The Californian driver started the stage as the 5th car into the battle. This turned out to be an ideal position from which to attack, and Quintero made the most of the opportunity. With that said, he remains in 4th place in the overall standings, 6min 7sec behind the leaders.

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At the same time, teammates Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon in the #203 GR Hilux EVO posted the 3rd-best time on Stage 3, giving TOYOTA GAZOO Racing two podium spots for the stage. Moraes/Monleon finished just 1sec behind Quintero/Zenz, making their deficit to the stage winner exactly 4min – this despite suffering a puncture in the opening kilometres of the stage, which cost them the best part of 3min. Moraes/Monleon move into a provisional 2nd place in the overall standings as a result, just 49sec behind the lead, with two stages remaining.

TGR’s Guy Botterill and co-driver Dennis Murphy (#211) were 12th-fastest today. The pair found the going tough in the technical dunes of Stage 3, but were pleased with their pace nonetheless. They finished the stage 9min 18sec adrift of the winner, and remain in 10th place overall – 19min 1sec from the lead.

The final TGR pairing of Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet (#218) were forced to abandon Stage 2 of the event, but they rejoined the rally for Stage 3. Setting off as the last car in the Ultimate Category, the young driver found the sand softer than expected, and lost more time when a tyre came off the rim. They changed the tyre quickly, but lost more time as they had to deflate the spare for the soft terrain. Their stage time placed them in 13th position today, 13min 38sec behind the leaders.

The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge resumes tomorrow, with Stage 4 – a 300km-long Special Stage, which will bring the crews back from the Marathon encampment to the main bivouac at Mezeer’ah. This penultimate stage may prove pivotal in the outcome of the rally, as Thursday’s final stage is a relatively short affair of 167km, which will bring the rally to a close in Abu Dhabi.

QUOTES:

Seth Quintero (#204): 

“It was a good day for us. Knowing that it’s Marathon, we wanted to take it easy and bring the car back in one piece, and that’s what we did. We just checked over the car and it’s perfect. We’re ready to fight for another two days, another two long days.”

Lucas Moraes (#203): 

“For the overall standings, we are very good, still wide open. We are 49 seconds behind only Nasser now. We had a puncture right in the first 500 meters today, but we managed to change it and now the car is looking good for tomorrow.”

Guy Botterill (#211): 

“We had a reasonable day despite crazy difficult dunes, lots of drops, and very technical terrain. It’s exactly the experience that I need. We were by ourselves the whole day from the beginning to the end. We didn’t catch a car in front of us and the car behind us didn’t catch us. So, I was actually really happy with our pace. We never had any issues in the car. Just a really good clean day and just building on the experience.”

Saood Variawa (#218):

“We started out at the back, and the sand was quite soft when we got there. We also started close to midday, so that also hampered us a little bit. We had one tyre de-bead, which took us about 5min to change, as we had to deflate the spare. We are learning a lot, gaining experience and I’m happy with that.”

Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2025 – Stage 3 Results

Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge 2025 – Standings after Stage 3