Over the last two months Toyota has been planning for the eventuality that two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso will decide to contest the Dakar Rally. Alonso - who won the Le Mans 24 Hours with Toyota last year - is expected to test a Dakar-spec Gazoo Racing South Africa Hilux within the next month, after contesting the Daytona 24 Hours with Wayne Taylor Racing.

Toyota's Japanese HQ has contacted Glyn Hall, the team principal of its South African-based cross-country rally raid project, and he has been working on a plan in case Alonso wants to enter the Dakar.

Dakar 2019 - Stage 10: Pisco > Lima - Liaison: 359km / 223 miles Stage: 112 km / 70 miles The last stage in the dunes of Pisco will be anything but a walk in the park for the competitors still in the race after what has been one of the toughest editions of the Dakar. The dune-heavy 112 km special will keep the leaders honest to the end!

Some footage from the first week of the 2019 Rally Raid in Peru that has not been published yet.

Also our personal observation after week 1: Not wanting to take away from the sport per se yet adding up the facts that #Dakar2019 is only in 1 country (are the other countries as Argentina, Chile, Bolivia are tired to pay millions of $'s with no tangible ROI?), barely breaks 5000km on length and has only 10 stages plus the prior the race interview with Overdrive Motorsports Racing CEO Jean Marc Fortin ( ASO "robbing participants" with high fees / https://r.sa-seo.com/JeanMarcFortin ) the Nicola Dutto story (https://youtu.be/MnR8hqv-tsY), the road-book mess ups that screwed everyone the other day and have Loeb threatening to never come back our own experience with extreme unjustified trademark bullying ASO is starting to look like a 2 bit operation instead of the world renowned organization they once were.

Stage 6 kicked off Sunday morning from the overnight bivouac of Camana with another 267km of liaison before it reached San Juan De Marcona, making a total run of 316 km in the special stage.Oriol Mena, who had also suffered a big crash during the stage 5, seemed determined to make it to the finish line today without another incident. He rode with caution for the day but ran out of fuel close to the finish line. His team mate, Joaquim Rodrigues, who wasn’t far behind, came to his help, and in the process, both lost some time.

For Joaquim Rodrigues, the day started well as he rode with good rhythm and was poised for a good stage finish. Despite losing some time in helping out his team mate, he managed to climb up several positions Sunday. Oriol Mena finished the stage at 20th position and JRod at 21st position, thus bringing another stage home for the team. After Sunday’s stage, Oriol Mena stands at 13th position and JRod, climbed 8 positions to break into top 20 at 20th position in the overall rankings, at the end of the stage 6.

Rest day is actually the wrong term for the Saturday at the Dakar, as participants are not really able to rest. The race cars must be stripped down completely, given a thorough check and prepared for the second half of the race. The mechanics already started this work as soon as the cars arrived yesterday evening.The MINI JCW Buggy and MINI JCW Rally crews have a very early start tomorrow. The first car leaves the bivouac and starts the leg back to Marcona at 03:30. A total of 810 kilometers lie ahead of the drivers – 290 of them against the clock.

Everyone is waiting in great suspense to see what week two of the Dakar brings with it. Many are expecting it to be even tougher. Stéphane Peterhansel – MINI JCW Rally: “There were good points and bad points to come out of the first week. The best thing is that we are currently lying second overall. Plus, David did a very good job. Five days, and we have never gone the wrong way. On the negative side, however, I have made too many mistakes.”

For Hero MotoSports Team Rally, it was an emotional day as the news of crashes kept coming out from the stage. The first casualty for the team came in the form of rider C S Santosh, who suffered a nasty crash between the waypoint 4 and 5, rendering him incapable of pursuing the stage further. This unfortunate crash brought a premature end to his attempt to conquer a record 5th Dakar by an Indian. His condition is stable and he is currently being attended to by the medical team at a hospital in Tacna.

Today’s stage was quite fast with all the riders going flat out in waves of 10 in a motocross style start. The presence of fesh-fesh severely impaired the visibility for the riders coming at the back, and stones hidden away in the course of the route made it even more dangerous.