AL HENAKIYAH, Saudi Arabia — The day’s route, which was quicker and less sandy than yesterday’s, was better for drivers seeking stage success than the favorites for the overall rankings who were among the first to set off.
As a result, the pretenders for victory on the day were more likely to come from among the later starters.
In this exercise, it was Mattias Ekstrom who crossed the finishing line with the fastest time. To win the eighth special stage of his career on the Dakar and his third this year, the Swede beat another Raptor driver, Romain Dumas, who missed out by 1’22’’ on his first stage win on the Dakar but still managed to achieve his best result on his ninth participation.
For Nasser Al Attiyah, the horizon is clearing as he heads toward the sea. On taking starter’s orders in Bisha this morning with a lead of 12 minutes over Henk Lategan, the Dacia Sandriders team leader already had his mind set on driving to control the race.
He applied himself meticulously to the task and 346 kilometers further on he discovered that, in addition to skill, luck was also on his side… and most definitely not on Lategan’s.
The South African had already been bothered by many problems on this edition of the Dakar but so far had managed to fight to keep himself in a place equivalent to his result last year (when he finished 2nd). However, everything changed after 140 km when he broke the bearing on his rear left wheel. The ensuing repairs put paid to his hopes of finishing on the podium of the Dakar in 2026.
The rather tricky role of Al Attiyah’s closest rival is now played by Nani Roma, who was the main beneficiary of Lategan’s woes, moving up a place on the podium. The Catalan’s Ford Raptor now trails the Qatari by 8’40’’, which is a gap that will be difficult to close unless lady luck or mister misfortune have other ideas once again.
However, Roma will have to ask himself whether it is really in his best interests to adopt a conservative approach too, with a 10-minute lead over third placed Sébastien Loeb. The Frenchman is capable of pulling out all the stops to try and secure a one-two finish for Dacia should he manage to climb onto the second step of the Dakar podium for the fourth time in his career. That is his challenge for the rally’s last two days.
