TOYOTA

Toyota arm Hino makes deal to settle emission fraud case

US officials late Wednesday announced a $1.6 billion deal with Toyota subsidiary Hino Motors to settle charges it deceived regulators about the amount of emissions spewed by its diesel engines.

Hino used altered emissions test data to get approval to import and sell more than 110,000 diesel engines to the US, most of which were installed in heavy-duty trucks made by Hino, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

As part of the deal, Hino will plead guilty to engaging in a criminal conspiracy to mislead regulators and consumers, violating environmental protection laws and endangering public health, US attorney general Merrick Garland said in a release.

US regulators and the state of California, which has strict vehicle emission standards, worked out criminal and civil remedies with Hino valued at more than $1.6 billion.

"Hino's actions directly undermined EPA's program to protect the public from air pollution," acting EPA administrator Jane Nishida said in a release.

The proposed settlement is contingent on approval from a US district court judge in the state of Michigan.

"Corporate crimes such as these endanger the health and well-being of innocent Americans, as well as the environment in which we all live," said US attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Dawn Ison.

The deal includes a five-year term of probation during which Hino will be barred from importing diesel engines it has manufactured into the United States and implement a comprehensive compliance and ethics program, according to the EPA.

Hino will also have to recall some trucks with engines violating emissions standards and spend some $155 million to replace marine and locomotive engines through the US to offset excess air emissions, according to the EPA.

As part of the deal, Hino will plead guilty to engaging in a criminal conspiracy to mislead regulators and consumers, violating environmental protection laws and endangering public health, U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland said in a release.

The proposed settlement is contingent on approval from a U.S. district court judge in the state of Michigan.

The deal includes a five-year term of probation during which Hino will be barred from importing diesel engines it has manufactured into the United States and implement a comprehensive compliance and ethics program, according to the EPA.

© 2025 AFP

 

DAKAR 2025

Daniel Sanders wins Dakar 2025 with podium for Tosha Schareina and Adrien Van Beveren

Australian Daniel Sanders has taken the overall win at Dakar 2025, which he led from the prologue to the end - something that no one had done since Spaniard Marc Coma in 2009 -, achieving the third Touareg for Australia after those won by Toby Price in 2016 and 2019; and regaining the throne for KTM a year after losing it to Honda.

The golden wing brand has had to settle for a double podium: second place has gone to Spaniard Tosha Schareina, who ends eight years of drought for Spanish motorcycling on the podium at the Dakar (since Gerard Farrés' third place in 2017); with Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren repeating the third place from a year ago. The Spaniard Edgar Canet has conquered the Rally2 category as a rookie and at just 19 years old, ahead of the Austrian Tobias Ebster and the Frenchman Romain Dumontier -winner of the same in 2023-; while the Romanian Emanuel Gyenes has won a very tight duel in Original. Within the Rally2, Canet has also won in the Junior and Rookie subcategories; the Spanish Sandra Gómez in Women and the Czech David Pabiska in Veteran.

The final stage, a loop in Shubaytah with a short 61-kilometre special, was for the South African Michael Docherty, also winner of the penultimate stage; who has beaten Adrien Van Beveren by just three seconds, with Tobias Ebster third at 44 seconds to reinforce his status as the best privateer in the general classification ahead of the Slovak Stefan Svitko, fifth today. Between them was Tosha Schareina, yesterday's winner, with the champion Daniel Sanders in sixth position. The top 10 was completed by the Argentine Luciano Benavides - who is just a few steps away from the podium in his best final position -, Romain Dumontier, the Portuguese Rui Gonçalves and the winner of the last Dakar, the American Ricky Brabec.

Swinxy

DAKAR 2025

Dakar, Nasser Al Attiyah: “It was a difficult stage”...Nasser Al Attiyah finished second in the day's special, 41 seconds behind winner Mattias Ekstrom and was unable to gain time on the Swedish rider who remains ahead of him in the overall standings. The five-time Dakar winner is 26min50sec behind Yazeed Al Rajhi and is 4min16sec off the final podium. Al Attiyah found the stage difficult, and even had to deal with two punctures. After that, the stage went by without any major problems, but the goal of finishing on the podium seems to be slipping away:

“It was a difficult stage. At the beginning we had two flat tires due to a big impact and we stopped for five minutes to change both wheels. After that we tried to accelerate again… We finished today without any other problems, the car was working very well and we are quite satisfied. It's great to have the new car and be fighting for the podium. We are happy, we had a good performance, but a new car always needs time.”

Dakar trucks...Czech driver Martin Macik(image above) continued his dominant run in the Dakar truck category, taking his fifth stage victory. Macik completed the stage with the fastest time, beating Kees Koolen by just seven seconds in a thrilling finish. With this victory, Macik further solidifies his position at the top of the overall standings, now holding a lead of over 2 hours and 25 minutes over Mitchel van den Brink.

Macik set the early pace at the first time check, leading by 4min40sec over van den Brink, his closest competitor in the overall standings. However, as the stage progressed to the 39km mark, Vaidotas Zala, navigated by Paulo Fiuza, took control, pushing Macik to over six minutes behind. Teruhito Sugawara moved up to second place, while van den Brink and Ales Loprais both lost more than ten minutes.

At the 68km midpoint, Macik responded strongly, regaining the lead with a 2min41sec advantage over Kees Koolen and 4min19sec over Zala. Meanwhile, yesterday's stage winner Ales Loprais found himself trailing by more than eight minutes.

Macik maintained his strong pace throughout the rest of the special, eventually crossing the line seven seconds ahead of Koolen, with Zala just over two minutes behind.

With this latest success, Macik reinforces his lead in the general classification, increasing his advantage over van den Brink to more than 2 hours and 25 minutes. Van den Brink, in turn, managed to gain more than 1min30sec over Loprais, maintaining third place in the overall classification with a small advantage of five minutes over the Czech driver. Koolen, in fourth, is more than 3h38min behind fourth place.

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DAKAR 2025

Stage 11: Mattias Ekström wins, Yazeed Al-Rajhi is overall leader again

Another stage, but a change in the lead of the overall classification for Ultimate. Mattias Ekström gave Ford a second stage win, but at the top of the Dakar, Yazeed Al-Rajhi has overtaken Henk Lategan for the race lead and heads into the final day with more than a six-minute advantage. João Ferreira finished in eighth place.

The start of the special was delayed due to fog that prevented the helicopter from taking off for safety reasons. The beginning of the special was marked by strategic plays. Nani Roma stopped after 10km to help his M-Sport teammates, while Cristina Gutierrez also stopped early to support Nasser Al Attiyah for Dacia. As Ekström and Al Attiyah passed their respective colleagues, they started walking again, a clear sign that they would be supporting what was to come in this stage.

The 276km route remained unchanged, but the 3pm stop at the refuelling point at kilometre 138 would see a slight difference, with stragglers heading straight to Shubaytah.

Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah / Edouard Boulanger (Dacia Sandrider) started the stage well and set the fastest provisional time at 45km, ahead of Mattias Ekström / Emil Bergkvist (Ford Raptor) and Yazeed Al-Rajhi / Timo Gottschalk (Toyota Hilux Overdrive). ). At 94km, Ekström was already the leader, with Al-Rajhi in second, followed by two Challenger cars and one SSV. Henk Lategan (ZAF)/Brett Cummings (Toyota GR DKR Hilux) were sixth in the stage, third in Ultimate, ahead of Mitch Guthrie (USA)/Kellon Walch (Ford Raptor) and Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah /Edouard Boulanger (Dacia Sandrider).

The trio of Ekström, Al-Rajhi and Al-Attiyah remained in front until kn 209. In the last control before the arrival of assistance. Ekström had a 1min25sec lead over Al-Attiyah, with Al-Rajhi dropping to third, followed by Guthrie and Lategan who continued to lose time.

At the end of the stage, Ekström was the winner, followed by Al-Attiyah, with Al-Rajhi closing the podium but moving up to first place overall. Guthrie was fourth and Lategan fifth, just over nine minutes ahead of the benchmark. The Portuguese duo João Ferreira-Filipe Palmeiro (Mini Jcw Rally 3.0d/X-Raid Mini JCW Team) had an excellent stage and finished in sixth place.

The overall accounts...Lategan started the stage 2min27sec behind Al-Rajhi, with Ekström in third at 26 min and Al-Attiyah in fourth at 30 minutes behind the leader. After today's stage, Al-Rajhi leads with a 6min11sec advantage over Lategan. Ekström is 22 minutes off the lead and Al-Attiyah is almost 27 minutes behind. The fight for victory at Dakar 2025 is wide open, but Al-Rajhi took an important step forward today. João Ferreira managed to move up one place and is now eighth overall.

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RALLY DAKAR 2025

Nani Roma treats himself to a treat: wins his first stage in the Dakar with Ford

Nani Roma(image above) has treated himself to a treat in the tenth stage of the Dakar, a short special (120 km) that allowed riders who started behind their leaders, such as the Catalan, to have a chance of victory.

It is the first stage win for the Folgueroles rider with his new team, Ford, and a reunion with the victory that has been 10 years in the making, since the 2015 Dakar in which he defended the crown.

In addition, it comes after a Dakar 2025 full of disappointments. Like those that kept him from the final victory in the 48-hour stage when the Raptor's engine broke. Since then he had to work in the shadows for Ekström, he has suffered new scares (such as the head-on collision with Vitse in the stage ), but today he was able to show his speed and savour a more than deserved victory.

His victory today, although somewhat conditioned by the circumstances of the day, confirms the feelings he conveyed to MARCA on the rest day, where he assured that without the reliability problems he could have achieved a good result.

Nani Roma has won a stage of the Dakar 10 years later(imagem above). Red Bull

Lategan, back in the lead... The fight for the general classification has been very exciting. Today, Henk Lategan has returned the favor to Al-Rajhi, giving him 9:36 and regaining control of the race. The Saudi was stranded in the dunes for five minutes at kilometer 83 (when he was already taking the stage calmly) and that perhaps cost him more time than he wanted... but he got away with it well because he is just 2:27 behind Lategan and tomorrow he will start much further behind the South African... and -unlike the motorcycles- it is expected that between the cars the differences could be very wide.

In addition, it has been confirmed that Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia) is out of the fight for victory. The Qatari today was 12:09 behind Lategan and 3:25 behind Al-Rajhi, the penalty he was exposed to for opening the track after his victory yesterday. Ekström even slightly increased his gap with the five-time Dakar champion in his defence of the podium.

The peculiarity of the special, short and entirely in dunes, has made the classification also unusual, with up to five vehicles in the top 10 of the Challenger and even SSV categories. Special mention for the Saudi Dania Akeel, third scratch, or the young Spaniard Pau Navarro -winner of stage 8 in Challenger- who was seventh.

Tomorrow the penultimate stage of the Dakar in cars will be contested, over 284 kilometres... and everything will be decided in the classification.

-Car classification, stage 10

Dakar 2025:

Nani Roma (Ford) 2h 06:34

Lucas Moraes (Toyota) 18 s behind.

Dania Akeel (Taurus) (cat.bChallenger) at 1:40

Brian Baragwanath (Century) at 2:21

 Chaleco López (Can-AM) ((cat. SSV) at 4:11

Javier González Ferioli (Can-AM) (cat. SSV) at 4:36

Pau Navarro (Taurus) (Challenger cat.) at 4:44

Daniel Schröder (Volkswagen) at 5:11

Juan Cruz Yacopini (Toyota) at 5:18

Sarah Price (Can-AM) (SSV cat.) at 5:36

-General car classification, stage 10

Dakar 2025:

Henk Lategan (Toyota)

Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota) at 2:27

 Mattias Ekström (Ford) 26:46

Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia) at 30:21

Mitch Guthrie (Ford) at 54:05

Mathieu Serradori (Century) at 59:41

Juan Cruz Yacopini (Toyota) at 1h 33_30

Seth Quintero (Toyota) at 1h 36:46

Joao Ferreira (Mini) at 2h 08:35

Brian Baragwanath (Century) at 2h 17:06

Reporter: Enrique Naranjo

DAKAR 2025

Michael Docherty makes history for South Africa in a Dakar 2025 that will be decided tomorrow

South African Michael Docherty has made history by winning the tenth stage of the Dakar 2025, achieving the first victory for his country 22 years after the last of the eight achieved by the legendary Alfie Cox, until now the only driver to have achieved victories for South Africa.

The favourites opted to cut the throttle in the final stretch of the short special to start behind in tomorrow's decisive stage, which Australian Daniel Sanders will start with a lead of 16:31 over the Spaniard Tosha Schareina and 22:24 over the Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren.

The truth is that there was not much to tell in the penultimate stage of this Dakar 2025. A special of just 115 kilometres between Haradh and Subaytah where the distances were ridiculous and in which, to top it all off, the favourites had as a priority to finish in the furthest possible position.

This explains why the three drivers occupying the provisional podium positions, as well as the American Ricky Brabec, gave up around seven minutes in the last of the three stages of the day and came out of the top 10, giving all the prominence of the stage to less usual drivers.

Taking advantage of the fact that there is absolutely nothing at stake in the general classification, Michael Docherty went out with fire to try to show off his devilish speed, and boy did he do it: he took the victory with a time of 2 hours and 3 seconds to beat the Portuguese Rui Gonçalves by 1:20, the only one who managed to be faster than the South African in one of the sections.

Rui Gonçalves has come close to opening his list of victories at the Dakar 2025 (image above)

The Austrian Tobias Ebster also shone with third position, two minutes behind, with the veteran Slovak Stefan Svitko, the Spanish rookie Edgar Canet and the American Skyler Howes, the best placed of the favourites today, already more than five minutes behind. Lithuanian Arunas Gelazninkas, a two-time winner in Original, made history by putting the new Hoto in seventh place, ahead of Frenchman Benjamin Melot, who despite competing in the category without assistance has made it into the top 10 ahead of his compatriot Mathieu Doveze - who is already in Dakar Experience - and Slovenian Toni Mulec.

Daniel Sanders was eleventh, just over eight minutes behind the winner; with Ricky Brabec 13th, more than nine behind; Tosha Schareina 17th and Adrien Van Beveren 19th, more than ten behind; so all of them will have a great starting position tomorrow. The one who did not have a good day was Lorenzo Santolino, who lost almost an hour and dropped to 16th position in the general classification.

Swinxy

 

RALLY DAKAR 2025

Loprais beats Mitchel van den Brink and wins 9th stage of the Dakar in trucks. Macík is 4th

Ales Loprais(in the images) managed a small comeback in his dream of the unlikely title in the trucks in the current edition of the Dakar. This Tuesday (14), he took the best in the ninth special of the biggest rally in the world, completing the 357 km timed in just 3h20min51 and reducing the disadvantage to the leader in the overall.

Loprais has always been among the leaders in the Dakar stage, but took the lead at km 40. From that point on, he gave Mitchel van den Brink no chance and won the special. The Dutchman ended up in second place, 1min29s behind the winner. The podium also included Vaidotas Zala in third place.

Martin Macík, who has dominated the current edition of the Dakar in trucks, came in fourth place, 7min31s behind the leader. Martin Soltys was fifth, followed by Kees Koolen, Martin van den Brink, Maurik van den Heuvel, Tomas Vratny and Richard De Groot.

In the overall standings, Macík remains comfortably in the lead, with an aggregate time of 50h14min19s and a 2h23min advantage over Mitchel van den Brink. Loprais is in third, with Soltys and Koolen rounding out the top five.

The Dakar leaves Haradh this Wednesday (14), heading towards Shubaytah. The competitors will face a timed stretch of 115 km, in addition to another 520 km of travel.

Dakar 2025, Trucks, Overall classification after 9th stage:

1	M MACÍK F TOMASEK D SVANDA	MM Technology Team	50:14:19
2	MITCHEL VAN DEN BRINK M TORRALLARDONA J VAN DE POL	Eurol Rallysport	52:38:01
3	A LOPRAIS D KRIPAL D RODEWALD	Instatrade Loprais	52:42:57
4	M SOLTYS V MIKSCH T SIKOLA	Tatra Buggyra ZM	55:22:38
5	K KOOLEN W DE GRAAF D KOZLOVSKY	MM Technology Team	55:36:56
6	MARTIN VAN DEN BRINK B VAN HEUN R MOUW	Eurol Rallysport	56:22:17
7	V ZALA P FIUZA M VAN GROL	Skuba Team De Rooy	57:08:25
8	R DE GROOT J DER VAET J HULSEBOSCH	Firemen Dakar	58:43:03
9	A VAN LOON B VAN DE LAAR J VAN DE LAAR	Van de Laar Racing	60:50:42
10	T SUGAWARA H SOMEMIYA Y MOCHIZUKI	Hino Team Sugawara	62:10:08

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