For the first time since the second stage of the 2025 edition of the Dakar Rally, there’s a new overall leader in the car category as Saudi local Yazeed Al Rajhi overtook South Africa’s Henk Lategan in the overall rankings on stage nine. Qatari five-time Dakar champion Nasser Al-Attiyah won the ninth special.
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Al-Attiyah set the pace early on in his Dacia Sandrider, with the M-Sport Fords of Mattias Ekström and Mitch Guthrie close behind. Belgian Guillaume de Mevius was also in contention after just 37 km of Tuesday’s special with his X-Raid Mini and Overdrive Racing’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi also kept his Hilux in the front, eventually settling for third. In the end, Al-Attiyah’s pace saw him finish two minutes 47 seconds ahead of de Mevius.
“It was a good stage. I’m waiting to see how much time we have gained because it was a very quick stage. But I can be happy with the result. There are three days left and we are going to try and do our best,” Al-Attiyah said.
Ekström would go on to be fourth fastest, ahead of Overdrive Racing’s Rokas Baciusa – while his teammate Guthrie would end up just behind Baciuska. Cristina Gutierrez would also put in a strong effort in her Dacia Sandrider on stage nine, finishing eighth fastest.
It was a forgettable special for the Toyota Gazoo Racing outfit, as Guy Botterill’s plan to support teammate Henk Lategan for the rest of the Dakar backfired when the former crashed out after 272 km of the day’s special – leaving Lategan to cover the last 85 km on his own. Unfortunately, Lategan also had issues of his own on stage nine and would finish 11th fastest on Tuesday – 16 minutes behind Al Rajhi.
“It’s a bit of disaster to be honest. It was really a mess, about 13 km in and we got lost. We thought we missed the waypoint but we actually had it. It wasn’t great and when we got lost we got one puncture and then towards the end we got another one and the wheel is actually flat. So, it was a messy, messy, messy day for us but it’s not the end of the world, we’re still in it. But it’s a bit of a disappointing day,” Lategan said
On Wednesday, the Dakar field will continue from Haradh to Shubaytah via a long liaison section that will cover some 520 km and an additional 115 km of special stage in an isolated section of Saudi Arabia known as the Empty Quarter.
Overall rankings
- Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing) 45h 06m 54s
- Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing) 45h 14m 03s
- Mattias Ekström (Ford M-Sport) 45h 31m 44s
- Nasser Al-Attiyah (The Dacia Sandriders) 45h 32m 15s
- Mitch Guthrie (Ford M-Sport) 46h 13m 46s
- Mathieu Serradori (Century Racing Factory Team) 46h 13m 46s
- Juan Cruz Yacopini (Overdrive Racing) 46h 51m 35s
- Seth Quintero (Toyota Gazoo Racing) 46h 53m 01s
- Joao Ferreira (X-Raid Mini JCW Team) 47h 17m 56s
- Brian Baragwanath (Century Racing Factory Team) 47h 38m 08s
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