Saudi Dakar Rally – Stage 10: Al-Attiyah Cuts Peterhansel’s Dakar Lead

Al-ʿUla, KSA – Nasser Al-Attiyah took a small chunk out of 13-time champion Stéphane Peterhansel’s now 17-minute lead in the final days of the Dakar Rally. Yazeed Al-Rajhi pounced on the opportunity to take another stage win as a consolation prize for not being able to challenge for the title.

 

Ahead of Thursday’s penultimate stage, Al-Attiyah kept his hopes alive by taking 49 seconds off Peterhansel’s overall lead on the 10th stage, a 342kilometre timed special stage.

But the event remains wide open with 464km awaiting the remaining field from Al Ula to Yanbu. Al-Attiyah warned his rival: “The key to this Dakar will be tomorrow. It’s a really, really difficult stage.”

The rival pair were joined in the top five by defending champion Carlos Sainz, who remains in third place overall but more than an hour out of contention. And Sainz said: “The first part of the stage had very tricky navigation and we lost quite a bit of time. After that, things got better but it was still not easy because of all the dust. We had to get past six or seven cars. It wasn’t easy.” Kuba Przygoński currently lies in fourth overall, which would match his best-ever Dakar finish if he can hold onto it to the finishing line.

Kevin Benavides leads by just 51 seconds from Ricky Brabec with Sunderland, of the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team, in third and with just a 10-minute deficit to make up. It is no coincidence that Ricky Brabec is the defending champion! The American reached the rest day stuck in the doldrums, almost 20 minutes behind the leader, but his reaction has been swift and spectacular. He won the first part of the marathon stage and has since finished every stage on the podium. The Honda rider continued to make up time as his main rivals, including Xavier De Soultrait, Toby Price and Nacho Cornejo, made fatal mistakes. Brabec’s win in stage 10, combined with Kevin Benavides’s mediocre performance in the same special, bring the American within one minute of his stablemate in the general standings. Tomorrow, Brabec will face the challenge of opening the longest stage in this year’s edition… but he already acquitted himself brilliantly today by opening the way after overtaking Benavides.

 

Nacho Cornejo’s supporters in Chile were probably already preparing to celebrate. Their hero seemed poised to win the Dakar at the young age of 26 and was heading into the final stages with a margin of 11 minutes and a calm, collected approach that pre-empted unnecessary risks. Even after his crash, the folks in Iquique must have breathed a sigh of relief when they saw their boy jump right back on his bike. However, it all went downhill from there. First, the effects of the crash slowed Cornejo down to the point that he surrendered the lead and faced a vicious high-stakes battle in the last two stages. Shortly after, the Honda rider was forced to withdraw from the race due to a concussion that required close surveillance and in-depth examinations. Leaving his fifth Dakar in a helicopter is probably not what he was expecting.

Chaleco Lopez could not pick up a sixth stage win in the lightweight vehicle race but still leads by 10 minutes. Seth Quintero, who had to be towed back to the bivouac because of gearbox trouble on Tuesday, bounced back from arriving at 4.30am to make Wednesday’s start.

 

Kamaz have got their sights on a second straight Dakar truck win with Dmitry Sotnikov, who took second on the stage, leading teammate Anton Shibalov in second and another Kamaz driver in Ayrat Mardeev lying in third overall.

Mardeev said: “The day went well, the main thing is that the team kept the positions in the general classification.”

Overall standings after Stage Nine

Car
1. Stéphane Peterhansel (FRA) X-Raid Mini 37h33m06s
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) Toyota Gazoo +00h17m01s
3. Carlos Sainz (ESP) X-Raid Mini +01h03m44s

Bike
1. Kevin Benavides (ARG) Honda 40h20m08s
2. Ricky Brabec (USA) Honda +00h00m51s
3. Sam Sunderland (GBR) Red Bull KTM +00h10m36s

Truck
1. Dmitry Sotnikov (RUS) Kamaz Master 40h57m31s
2. Anton Shibalov (RUS) Kamaz Master +00h47m22s
3. Ayrat Mardeev (RUS) Kamaz Master +01h14m42s

Lightweight vehicle
1. Chaleco Lopez (CHL) Can-Am 45h39m18s
2. Austin Jones (USA) Can-Am +00h10m13s
3. Aron Domzala (POL) Can-Am +00h42m41s