A capital lead for Sanders and Lategan

Dakar 2025 | Stage 8 | AL DUWADIMI > RIYADH
January 13 ^th 2025 - 17:59 [GMT + 3]

FOCUS

The province of Riyadh stretches out over a vast expanse of land and occupies a central position in Saudi Arabia. The day’s special took place to the south of the capital, on split routes for the FIM and FIA vehicles, but both over distances of more than 480 kilometres. Impressive portions of dunes whetted the appetites of the sand specialists who are eager to enter the Empty Quarter to satisfy their hunger but concentration was especially key to victory, with regard to both driving skill and navigation. Off-piste, the riders, drivers and crews had to guide themselves between the hills without procrastinating and on the quicker sections, it was the tangle of different tracks that got the navigators’ pulses quickening. Thanks to their versatility, Daniel Sanders and Henk Lategan were each able to preserve their position at the peak of the rally, which was a major step forward as the countdown to the finish begins.

OUTLINE

• The beginning of the day was marked by the fall and exit from the race of Pablo Quintanilla, due to a shoulder injury suffered after 133 km. Luciano Benavides and Adrien Van Beveren stopped to assist the Chilean rider and then resumed the special at a searing pace. After being recredited with the time spent helping their stricken colleague, the Argentinean and Frenchman took the top two places on the day’s podium, in that order, separated by 2’08’’.
• Tosha Schareina was therefore only a very provisional winner of the stage, but his fine performance especially allowed him to regain 3’30’’ on Daniel Sanders, obliged to open the way after his victory yesterday. However, the time lost to the Honda rider will not cause the Australian leader to panic because he still sits on the cushion of a 11-minute lead, which is a fairly considerable gap with a view to the next three stages as well as perhaps being decisive for the title.
• Henk Lategan is a recidivist: not only because he won his second stage of the rally, but also because he won in Riyadh where he also achieved the best time in 2022. The day’s top three was completed by his team-mate and countryman Guy Botterill (1’47’’ behind) and Mathieu Serradori, 4’04’’ back.
• This performance especially gave a little breathing space to the South African, who has pushed his closest pursuer Yazeed Al Rajhi back to 5’41’’ behind. Mattias Ekstrom, who was the second driver to start this morning, is still on the podium but now trails by 28’55’’. For Nasser Al Attiyah, the day's deficit is just as worrying, because he now finds himself 34’14’’ behind.
• A new name now features on the list of stage winners in the Challenger class, thanks to the success of 19-year-old young Spaniard Pau Navarro, by 1’23’’ ahead of Paul Spierings. This battle took place far behind Nicolas Cavigliasso, who leads the general rankings by 25’49’’ ahead of Gonçalo Guerreiro, who has hardly moved from 2nd place since the start of the rally.
• Brock Heger continues to make honourable progress with his SSV, without breaking into sweat. On his first participation, he has already understood that he can leave stage win hunting to others, thanks to a lead of 1 hour 41 minutes over Xavier de Soultrait. On the contrary, Jeremias Gonzales Ferioli has gone on the attack and today picked up his second consecutive stage success.
• Martin Macik won his fourth stage victory on the rally, increasing his lead to 2 hours 29 minutes over Mitchel van den Brink. The Dutchman, however, will now have to defend his 2nd position, which is under threat from Ales Loprais, who trails the rally leader by 2 hours 36 minutes.

QUOTE OF THE DAY - Guillaume De Mévius: “It was a tough day, a difficult day”

De Mévius had a day to forget today. The Belgian, who finished the Dakar 2024 in second place for his first participation in the Ultimate class, has shown he is worthy of this rank but has suffered too many problems to reproduce such a performance with his new co-pilot Mathieu Baumel.

“It was a difficult stage for us. We had a technical problem at the beginning of the stage after one hundred kilometres. We had to stop to repair it and we had to start again without the rear-wheel drive, only the front. So, it was tough. We were in everybody’s dust. We had to tackle the dunes, but a car with only front-wheel drive in the dunes is not what you want. It was a tough day, a difficult day. But the rally is like this”.

A CRUSHING BLOW

A metronomic presence in the rally has bowed out. He occasionally made mistakes in his youth, prematurely exiting the rally on his first two attempts (in 2013 and 2014) and then in 2017. Since then, Pablo Quintanilla has become a safe bet for his teams, having finished the last seven editions of the Dakar, the only elite rider who could boast such a record. Quintanilla will not be able to raise the figure to 8, due to a fall after 133 kilometres. Suffering from a shoulder injury, the two times FIM world champion (in 2016 and 2017) has had to throw in the towel on his 13th Dakar. The rally caravan has thus lost its most experienced official rider, who was runner-up on the 2020 and 2022 editions. In spite of that, Honda are still the best represented of the leading teams. They still have four riders in the race, all in the top 5 (Schareina in 2nd, Van Beveren 3rd, Brabec 4th and Howes in 5th). They are only missing first place, occupied by Daniel Sanders, who the reds will do their utmost to dethrone before the finish in Shubaytah.

STAT OF THE DAY: 286

So unlikely an occurrence it was that nobody saw it coming. A major figure was missing from yesterday’s stage, because Giniel de Villiers exited the rally prematurely for the first time since his debut on the Dakar in 2003. The South African, who won the first South American edition in 2009 in an aptly named Volkswagen Tuareg, not only enjoyed a 100% completion rate on his first 21 participations but also graced the overall podium eight times. In total, the driver who moved to Toyota contested 286 consecutive stages, with 18 stage wins. Giniel was forced to withdraw from the rally due to concussion suffered by Dirk Von Zitzewitz, the co-pilot with whom he won in 2009.

PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY

Mathieu Serradori’s reputation has for a long time been forged through his eye for exploits, such as his stage victory in 2018, and his status as a thorn in the side of the major teams, which enabled him to climb into final 7th position in the general rankings in 2022. His new challenge involves making the duo he forms with Loïc Minaudier one of the crews that count on the Dakar. The trend in the Frenchman’s second week of racing proves that this project is starting to bear fruit. Behind the wheel of the CR7 T1+ that he has chosen this year, he has not lost grip on 6th place in the general rankings and his third-placed finish today puts him within less than three minutes of Mitch Guthrie. The top 5 is now in touching distance for the electrician and native of the Var area in France, who developed his 4x4 in close collaboration with the South Africans of the Century 21 team. The fine performance of the CR7 has been backed up by the presence in 4th place on the day’s stage of his team-mate Brian Baragwanath.

W2RC: Benavides and Sanders 3 stages behind AVB

Today, Monday 13th January 2025, Luciano Benavides won his first stage victory of the season and his 13th on the W2RC. The world champion in 2023 is now neck and neck with his team-mate Daniel Sanders, who has picked up 5 stage wins since the start in Bisha. For both the Argentinean and Australian, it is their first time riding in the colours of KTM since their respective transfers from Husqvarna and GasGas. By winning stage 5, Adrien Van Beveren raised the W2RC stage record to 16. ‘Chucky’ or the younger Benavides brother could equal AVB by the finish in Shubaytah… and perhaps win the Dakar. Following the Hero-Honda duel in 2024, the match between KTM and HRC seems underway for 2025.

THE MAKINGS OF A CLASSIC

The Porsche 959 number 702 has not been able to complete the rematch. Yesterday, during the 4th dune test, the German car’s clutch gave up the ghost. After its arrival last year freshly produced by the Nantes Prestige Autos workshops, its youthfulness prevented it from doing better than 5th. Juan Morera, the winner of the 2023 edition, was keen to comeback and prove the Porsche’s potential. However, the three-way battle for the title is over. Carlos Santaolalla and Lorenzo Traglio are now set for a duel. The Spanish title holder’s Toyota HDJ 80 has dominated the general rankings for three days since leaving Bisha, while the Nissan pick-up Terrano driven by last year’s runner-up has taken top billing on four. The gap between the two pretenders to the crown has never exceeded 48 points. This morning, only 20 points separated them and stage 8 looked set to reduce this gap, in favour of the title holder, who has been at the helm since stage 6. Several days before arriving in the Empty Quarter, the grains of fine sand could prove to be what makes the difference between the two masters of the Dakar Classic in 2025.