Yazeed Al Rajhi, Daniel Sanders win 48-hour stage at Dakar Rally as big names hit trouble

BISHA – Saudi driver Yazeed Al Rajhi held on to his overnight lead to win the fearsome “48-hour Chrono” – the second stage of the Dakar 2025 rally – on Jan 6, while defending champion Carlos Sainz of Spain limped in 1hr 30min behind.

The 43-year-old racing in his home country completed the 967km special stage, spread over two days, in 10hr 56min 54sec, despite a two-minute penalty for speeding.

He was followed by South African Henk Lategan at 4min 16sec with Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, who overtook Al Rahji briefly to hold the lead for 142km, finishing third.

Lategan tops the provisional standings, 4:45 ahead of Al Rajhi, with Al-Attiyah in third. Sebastien Loeb is sixth, 18:56 off the lead.

“We looked after the car for the stage because we knew it was really, really long,” said Lategan.

“If you don’t look after the car, it won’t look after you. It’s actually a big surprise to be first because we haven’t been really focusing on it. But I’m happy with that.”

Al Rajhi said on his arrival at the bivouac (temporary camp) of the rally, which began on Jan 3: “It was really, really hard. I feel like this is our 10th day on the Dakar.

“The navigation was very, very difficult in some places, due to the divots and dust. You needed a rocket, not a car to pass through them. It wasn’t easy.”

For this long stage, which started on Jan 5, the competitors had to bivouac in the desert and did not benefit from the assistance of their teams at the night stop.

Sainz seriously damaged his Ford Raptor when he rolled it on Jan 5 but managed to finish the stage although he is 26th in the standings.

Nine-time world rally champion Loeb, who is still looking for his first Dakar victory, was half an hour behind at the camp on Jan 5 evening, after a fan problem caused his engine to overheat.

But the Frenchman had a better day on Jan 6, making up much of the deficit to finish seventh, 13:10 behind the leader.

Third stage win for Sanders

Australian Daniel Sanders continues to dominate on the bikes, his “48-hour Chrono” victory making it three in a row after he won the prologue and first stage.

It is the first time any rider has taken the first three stages since Spaniard Joan Barreda in 2017 between Bolivia and Argentina.

“It wasn’t too bad, pretty hard in the soft dunes, it was very tough for a lot of us,” said Sanders.

“When opening, you didn’t know if it was going to be a soft dune or a hard dune. It was pretty tough. The dust kind of ruined it a lot. Everyone was bunched up fighting in the dust for the opening bonuses. It was a bit tough on that side.”

Sanders, who is aiming to become the second Australian to win the Dakar on a bike after Toby Price, holds a 12:36 lead over American Skyler Howes in the provisional overall standings. AFP