2025 DAKAR: SANDERS DRAWS FOUR OF A KIND AS AL RAJHI UPS THE ANTE
With Carlos Sainz and Sébastien Loeb out of the way, Nasser Al Attiyah seemed to be one of the main beneficiaries of the inaugural third of the Dakar. On Wednesday, a puncture delivered an ominous warning before disaster struck in the shape of a broken rear right steering ball joint.
FOCUS:
Most visitors come to Al-ʿUla to marvel at the prehistoric sites in the area and the jaw-dropping Nabataean temples on which it stakes its claim to fame, testament to a civilisation thriving for several millennia in a region spanning Jordan. Tourists also come to indulge their senses at the high-end hotels embedded harmoniously in the natural environment, but the riders and crews of the Dakar will be spending the night at an entirely different type of accommodation following 415 km of racing.
Prior to camping out in Berber tents, the competitors weaved their way around canyons, surged up rocky plateaus and turned on the afterburners on flat sandy expanses. Daniel Sanders and Yazeed Al Rajhi got a salutary boost heading into the second half of the marathon stage.
OUTLINE:
- The Kove rider Mason Klein, a stage winner in Al-ʿUla during his stint with KTM, set a blistering pace on his way to this city from the dawn of time. The Spaniard Tosha Schareina eased off the throttle at the tail end of another barnstorming performance, giving the overall leader, Daniel Sanders, a clear run to his fourth stage win of the year.
- As it stands, the two fastest riders today are also perched at the top of the leader board after the three men opening the road made a collective blunder. The W2RC champion, Ross Branch, is now at 26 minutes, followed by Skyler Howes at 27 and the defending champion, Ricky Brabec, at 29.
- The two strongest drivers in the race or, at least, the most consistent also gained ground in the stage to Al-ʿUla. Yazeed Al Rajhi stormed to victory with 4′51″ to spare over his Toyota stablemate Henk Lategan. The South African leads the general standings with 6′54″ in hand over the Saudi. Mattias Ekström rounds out the provisional podium at 21′40″.
- Nasser Al Attiyah’s luck in the 2025 Dakar finally ran out today. The Qatari avoided the catastrophic fate of Sainz and Loeb on previous days, but he still conceded 33 minutes, bringing his overall deficit to nearly 36 minutes. On the flip side, Mathieu Serradori made a leap forward and is now knocking on the door of the podium at 30′25″.
- Sara Price, who had seen her title prospects go up in smoke a couple of days into the rally, produced an impeccable performance and even beat her Can-Am teammate “Chaleco” López in the special. It was a mixed bag for Polaris: Brock Heger maintained his grip on the overall lead, but a mechanical 40 km before the bivouac sent the title holder, Xavier de Soultrait, careening down the standings, much like Florent Vayssade yesterday.
- Nicolás Cavigliasso extended his streak, taking his third stage win of 2025 and padding his lead over the young American Corbin Leaverton, who now trails by 25′14″ in the overall.
- The 2024 truck champion, Martin Macík, has no intention of surrendering his throne. Today, he picked up his third stage win in a row and increased his buffer over his closest rival, Aleš Loprais, to 45 minutes.
PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY:
Mathieu Serradori is a box full of surprises, as he has proved on occasions such as that day in 2020 when he won a Dakar stage in a two-wheel drive buggy of his own design. He has since expanded his ambitions, developed his vehicles as a joint project with Century, and made a radical decision this season with his switch to a 4×4 with a view to finishing as high as possible.
Despite the fierce competition in the class this year, the driver and electrician from the Var department bounced from seventh to fourth in the general standings today, 30 minutes from Lategan and 9 from Ekström in third place. Starting the special in eighth place put him in a prime position to rocket up the field, which he did in short order before opening the road in the wake of a flawless performance by his teammate Loïc Minaudier over the last 80 km. The man who loves to prickle the champions reached the marathon bivouac in sixth place, shortening the odds on a similar performance in the next stage.
A CRUSHING BLOW:
With Carlos Sainz and Sébastien Loeb out of the way, Nasser Al Attiyah seemed to be one of the main beneficiaries of the inaugural third of the Dakar. The five-time winner of the race completed stage 3 in second place overall without finishing higher than fifth in a stage or pushing his Sandrider too hard. However, in rally raids as in life, sometimes the first will be the last. On Wednesday, a puncture delivered an ominous warning before disaster struck in the shape of a broken rear right steering ball joint.
Cristina Gutiérrez, who donated the necessary parts, and the mechanical acumen of her co-driver, Pablo Moreno, were the only thing standing between the Qatari and another withdrawal. In the end, Al Attiyah slipped to seventh overall, 35′53″ behind the leader, Henk Lategan. Used to leading from the vanguard, he will now have to fight from the rear. “We’ll have to adapt. My only option is to attack”, he warned. Nasser “Al Attack” is back.
STAT OF THE DAY:
20 Skyler Howes, Ross Branch and Ricky Brabec posed a triple threat to Daniel Sanders in the general standings heading into the special. 6 to 9 minutes off the pace, they were bracing to concede some time on the road to Al-ʿUla because they were opening the road and the Australian was starting far back.
Their losses were not supposed to approach the 20-minute barrier, yet that is exactly what they did. The three riders made a costly navigational blunder about 15 km out. “We made a big mistake and that definitely killed us”, ranted a despondent Brabec. The consequences are severe. Tosha Schareina has vaulted past them into second place, while their deficits to Sanders have tripled or even quadrupled, with Branch now 26′10″ down, Howes 27′01″ back and Brabec 29′13″ off the pace.
“It’s rally. One moment you could be doing the best you’ve ever done, and then one note later, you lost your Dakar”, pointed out the defending champion. The tables could turn tomorrow, when “Chucky” will be tasked with opening the road with Schareina hot on his heels.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Schareina: “I lost a couple of minutes to avoid opening tomorrow” “It was tough today, with rocky sections for 400 kilometres. I pushed from the start, caught up with Daniel at the refuelling, then we rode together. In the end, I tried to stay calm, I lost a couple of minutes to avoid opening tomorrow. You had to be careful with the bike, with the tyres, because it’s a marathon stage, and tomorrow we still have over 400 kilometres to go.”
THE MAKINGS OF A CLASSIC:
Lorenzo Traglio, about to enter the fifth decade of life, is the heir to Tecnosport, which his father Maurizio set up in the 1980s. Italian fans used to go wild over the blood-red Nissan cars from his workshop. Over the last three years, Lorenzo has given them a new lease on life in the Dakar Classic.
The Italian passion for rally raids springs from the heart. His collaboration with Rudy Briani, a friend of his father’s, bridges the past and the present. Victory would be “the crowning achievement of a never-ending story”. This Italian love story is just crying for a happy ending. Tecnosport, second last year, currently hold the Dakar Classic lead ahead of the two Spanish former winners. Italy could become the third country to win the Classic, following in the slipstream of France (2021 and 2022) and Spain (2023 and 2024).
WORLD RALLY-RAID CHAMPIONSHIP: LOEB STILL IN CONTENTION FOR THE TITLE!
Can a driver who has gone home empty-handed from the Dakar still win the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship? Sébastien Loeb wants to answer an emphatic “yes” to that question. A rollover in stage 3 damaged the roll cage of his Dacia Sandrider. The news came out in the dead of night, leading to his third withdrawal in nine starts.
The Frenchman failed to finish any stage in the top 5, leaving him with a big, fat zero on his account in Saudi Arabia. The nine-time world rally champion will have his work cut out for him in his bid to secure a tenth FIA title. While it is true that Nasser Al Attiyah managed to claim the 2024 W2RC crown after bowing out of the Dakar, at least he had scored 18 stage points.
There are up to 235 points up for grabs in the remaining four rounds: 120 for the overall, 100 for stages and an extra 15 if the Power Selective Section is in place at each event, as will be the case in the Dakar.
