Vaidotas Zala: “It was a way tougher day than I expected”

Dakar 2026 | Stage 12 | AL HENAKIYAH > YANBU
January 16 ^th 2026 - 16:27 [GMT + 3]

Vaidotas Zala was second today behind Mitch van den Brink, finishing 6’56’’ behind) and took advantage of the misfortunes of Ales Loprais, who was 5th in Yanbu, 11’56’’ behind the winner, to increase his lead in the overall rankings by 5 minutes. The Lithuanian now leads by 21’34’’ with just 105 kilometres left before the finish of the last special on his 2nd Dakar in a truck, which should see him claim outright triumph.

 “I think today was a good reminder to not count on the finish until you are there. It was a really rough day, really rough, with a lot of stones and so many bushes where I wouldn’t go with a car. There were trucks without whole windscreens. With a crack windscreen against the sun there’s nothing you can see. We came across our team-mate Loprais on the side, so we stopped to turn him back on his wheels. I don’t think there was too much damage but I think he lost a little bit of time. We also had one puncture. Overall, it was a way tougher day than I expected. I thought that the penultimate day would be a normal day but today was a really tough day”.