Honey to the bee for Sanders, all smiles for Al Rajhi

Dakar 2025 | Stage 11 | SHUBAYTAH > SHUBAYTAH
January 16 ^th 2025 - 17:38 [GMT + 3]

FOCUS
Dunes and fog are not a good mix when the riders, drivers and crews have to start a special on the Dakar. This morning, the Empty Quarter was full of dense mist, preventing the helicopters from taking off and ensuring the race’s safety. The delay of the start to the special while waiting for the skies to clear also incited the bikers to request that the stage be shortened, which it was, with the finishing line after 152 kilometres instead of 308, as initially planned. The change was particularly advantageous for Daniel Sanders, an amateur beekeeper, who was in a very favourable position ahead of the final stage. The original distance of 276 kilometres, mainly made up of dunes interspersed with very fast chotts, was maintained for the top cars. Yazeed Al Rajhi made the most of every grain of sand to regain the lead in the general rankings from Henk Lategan, while Mattias Ekstrom consolidated his position on the 3rd step of the podium.

OUTLINE
• On a special whose length was reduced by half, Tosha Schareina knuckled down and managed to make up 7’31’’ of the 16 minutes and 31 seconds separating him at the start of the day from Daniel Sanders, once the dunes were finally warmed by the sun. The Spaniard reinforced his second place but will have limited possibilities of dethroning the leader on the 61-km final stage, which includes a grouped start.

• Adrien Van Beveren had more than one reason to open the throttle in the desert. In the end, it all came to nothing in the quest to take 2nd place from the speedy Spaniard who achieved the day’s best time. However, he still had to stay off the brakes in order to keep hold of his third place in the general rankings, which was under threat from Luciano Benavides. The man in form on the rally’ second week indeed finished in front of the Frenchman by 24’’ but stays in 4th place in the general rankings, 6’26’’ off the third step on the podium.

• The series of success continues for Ford, who won their first stage on the Dakar yesterday with Nani Roma and tasted victory today with Mattias Ekstrom, who produced the best time in his Raptor and looks well set to achieve his first overall podium finish in the Ultimate class. Nasser Al Attiyah’s objective today was again to battle for third place. He finished with the second-best time but is still more than 4 minutes from the podium.

• However, the game of cat and mouse was fruitful for Yazeed Al Rajhi, who showed his skills in driving through the dunes to catch and then clearly distance Henk Lategan. The Saudi driver has chosen the best moment to regain the Dakar leader’s throne. The South African’s under par performance has left him trailing the new rally leader by 6’11’’. 

• Yasir Seaidan is the other Saudi driver who enjoyed the excursion into the Empty Quarter with a third stage victory. His hattrick has not affected Nicolas Cavigliasso, who has led the general rankings since the first day of the race and who now boasts a lead of 1 hour 11 minutes over Gonçalo Guerreiro, who is his closest pursuer.  

• Sara Price won a second special on the 2025 edition of the Dakar, with the added pleasure of beating her Can-Am team-mate ‘Chaleco’ Lopez. The American has not disrupted the march to victory of Brock Heger, who still leads the general rankings. However, Xavier de Soultrait in his Polaris has reluctantly tumbled off the second step on the podium, with the Chilean taking his place.

• Martin Macik obtained his fourth stage success of the fortnight and took his lead to almost 2 hours 30 minutes over Mitchel van den Brink, allowing him to lose two and a half minutes per kilometre on tomorrow’s stage and still win. The Dutchman, in turn, will have to carry on keeping an eye on Ales Loprais, who is only 5’30’’ behind. While the leader seems home and hosed, the final podium is not yet set in stone.

A CRUSHING BLOW

It had all started so well for SSV title holder Xavier de Soultrait, who took the lead in the category at the beginning of the rally in Bisha. On completion of the 48 HR Chrono stage, the man from the Auvergne region in France had even shown his Polaris RZR was more than capable of competing with the Can-am armada led by ‘Chaleco’ Lopez. However, mechanical troubles commenced on the way to the marathon bivouac, with steering system parts causing him problems. Given that his rivals also experienced mishaps, de Soultrait was able to keep hold of second position in the general rankings, ultimately in a rather comfortable manner, because it was his team-mate Brock Heger who took command of the SSV race. A one-two finish would have been good, but the Frenchman lost all hope of that today. Once again, he was betrayed by a front-end assembly that was unable to tackle the dunes in two-wheel drive configuration and resigned himself to exiting the special and heading to the bivouac by road. As a result, he will receive an enormous penalty and the drop down the general rankings will be just as severe.

STAT OF THE DAY: 121
Tosha Schareina had not won on the Dakar since the prologue on the 2024 edition. The prodigy from Valencia, who was among the favourites this year, waited until the penultimate stage to score his first victory in 2025. What a prestigious success it was, obtained in the vast desert of the Empty Quarter. It is the second in his career and the 121st for Spain in the bike category. This impressive figure accounts for more than 18%s of stages in the Dakar’s history. At the age of 29 years, Schareina still has time to further improve his roll of honour. He will need to do so to follow in the tracks of his countrymen for whom he has been heralded as a successor: Joan Barreda with 29 success, Jordi Arcarons and his 27 victories and Marc Coma with 24 stage wins. Out of these three riders, only Coma managed to win the Tuareg trophy. This is an outcome to which the Honda rider is likely to come very close to this Friday, entering the final stage nine minutes behind the rally leader Daniel Sanders.

QUOTE OF THE DAY - Henk Lategan: “I’ve never been a sand or dune expert”
“We were a little bit too far ahead on the road, we finished right behind the opener. To be honest, there’s not much more we could have done today. I tried my best and at the end we were looking for tracks and opening some of the way with Lucas. I tried… that was about what we could manage today. I’ve never been a sand or dune expert but I’m happy to come through the stage. The car is still in one piece. We made it, now there’s just one more short day and then we will be at the finish. It’s amazing. We’ve had a really good Dakar with some ups and downs. Some things went our way, others didn’t. Overall, I’m happy with how it went and how it’s going. We still have one more day to go until we get to the finish. It’s been a really good race”.

PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY
For those who doubted it, Mattias Ekstrom has proved his consistency over the two weeks of racing to show he has what it takes to be a leader. It is not the first time that the Swedish driver has taken on this role, because he was the best placed of the three Audi RS Q e-Tron drivers enrolled in 2022, finishing the rally in 9th position, already with a stage victory. This year, it is again with a new vehicle, the Ford Raptor, that he has shown he can take on the mantle from Carlos Sainz, the leader of the clan at the start in Bisha. Ekstrom has been discreet but perfectly positioned ready to pounce all throughout this edition of the Dakar and obtained his third stage victory in Shubaytah, his first of the year, at the very moment when he was called upon to defend his third step on the podium. With a pursuer of the calibre of Al Attiyah hot on his heels, there was a genuine risk of losing his cool but that’s just not how he does things…

W2RC: Al Rajhi heading for a double first
If Yazeed Al Rajhi wins his first Dakar rally tomorrow, for the Saudi driver it will also be the first time he has taken command in the W2RC general standings, a privilege which is usually reserved for Nasser Al Attiyah. Only Sébastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz have taken the lead from the Qatari. The Frenchman did it during the 2022 season on completion of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge (ADDC), when he left the second leg with an advantage of 1 point over Al Attiyah. Carlos Sainz remained leader of the general standings for two events on the 2024 calendar: the Dakar and the ADDC. Al Rajhi will become the third man to contest first place in the championship with the three times world champion. A double date with history awaits the Saudi driver.

THE MAKINGS OF A CLASSIC
Due to the delay in proceedings for the various categories on the Dakar today, the Dakar Classic only included one single act. It was a shot at glory for Dirk van Rompuy on the eve of the finish of the Dakar Classic: the Belgian achieved a faultless performance on the navigation test behind the wheel of his HDJ 80 to win. As for leaders Carlos Santaolalla and Lorenzo Traglio, they cancelled each other out, both missing a way point. Tomorrow again, there will only be one navigation test on the menu. The Dakar Classic remains in the hands of the title holder. The precision with which the navigators negotiate the way points could make the difference, as in bygone days when co-pilots had to be handy with a compass. More than ever, the finale of this 5th edition has an African flavour!