Al Attiyah regains lead as Dakar Rally reaches halfway point

As the Dakar Rally hit the dunes in the final stage of the event's first half, Nasser Al Attiyah came to the fore once more. The Qatari driver, who has claimed five Dakar titles, was on the attack from the start in Hail this morning, buoyed by being the 15th driver to begin. At the finish line of the 326-km special, having shown the extent of his skills without pushing a step too far, Al Attiyah picked up his 49th stage win to continue a series of 19 consecutive editions with a minimum of one such success. His performance today puts him at the top of the overall rankings going into the rest day, overtaking and then pulling away from Toyota driver Henk Lategan to leave the South African 6m10s behind.

“The car is working very, very well and I’m really happy," Al Attiyah said. "It’s fantastic to have the lead at the rest day. We need to follow this strategy for next week also. The first week was not easy, but we always tried to manage to not have any problems; we just had a few punctures. We tried to open on the second day of the marathon, but we are quite happy.”

Al Attiyah's Dacia team had extra cause for celebration as it reached the Saudi capital of Riyadh, having achieved its first one-two finish on the Dakar thanks to the second place obtained by Sebastien Loeb. The Frenchman's mission to climb back up the overall rankings is underway, although he is still sixth overall, 17m36s behind Al Attiyah.

Behind Al Attiyah and Lategan, the top trio in the overall rankings is completed by Nani Roma, who has not enjoyed such success since 2019, at the end of the Dakar’s South American era. The Catalan driver, trailing the race leader by 9m13s, finds himself as the leading representative of the Ford team, which still looks capable of exerting maximum pressure in the second half of the rally. Carlos Sainz Sr. in his Raptor is still in the reckoning for outright triumph, in fourth place 11m49s behind Al Attiyah, as is Mattias Ekstrom, occupying fifth, 12m11s behind the Qatari. America's Mitch Guthrie Jr., who placed seventh on today's stage with his Ford, is now seventh overall, 21m49s back.

Among the bikes, Daniel Sanders was on a roll on the first big sandy stage leading to Riyadh just before the rest day. Starting from Hail in third position, the defending champion swiftly caught Nacho Cornejo and then his KTM teammate Luciano Benivades on his way to finishing the special stage alone and gobbling up a considerable chunk of the bonuses on offer to the opener (2m40s), providing him with sufficient time to pull away in the overall rankings. However, the Australian, probably got carried away by his enthusiasm and neglected to respect a speed limit, costing him a six-minute penalty.

Ricky Brabec duly reaped the rewards of his consistency, both on the day and since the start in Yanbu. The American secured his 12th stage win on the Dakar after Sanders' penalty and confirmed his status as the Australian's biggest rival. The Monster Energy Honda HRC rider is aware of how far he still has to go to win a third title, as he is still 45 seconds Sanders, but remains the only Rally GP rider to have made no mistakes so far.

“I knew today was going to be a little bit tough, but there's still a long way to go," said Brabec, who is chasing his third victory at Dakar. "I'm still in a very good spot, right between Tosha and Daniel. I’m not spending too much time opening.

"Now I think my only goal is to catch Daniel on the day after the rest day and try to take some bonus time; that's how the rally works now. You have to open to win. I haven’t been fortunate enough to get up to the front just yet but there are still seven days of racing left, so anything can happen. The sand dunes weren't my strong point, I'm a little bit heavy on the bike and there was soft sand, but I'm happy with the result.”

The day before, it was Tosha Schareina’s turn to be penalized for a mistake. The Spaniard was unable to fully redeem himself, even though his starting position (as fifth rider to begin) gave him an opportunity to make up for it. In the end, the worst was avoided as Sanders was caught out by the speed cameras, but his initial battle plan did not include spending the rest day at the foot of the podium, 11m56s behind his major rival, though he is less than a minute behind Benavides in third place.

The Defender Rally Team has dominated the Stock car class thus far. Kin Marcin/Red Bull Content Pool

It's been a dream Dakar thus far for the Defender Rally team in the Stock car category, where it claimed another 1-2-3 sweep on stage 6, this time led by America's Sara Price over teammates Rokas Baciuska and Stephane Peterhansel. The Lithuanian continues to lead the class overall at the midpoint by a comfortable 44-minute margin, while in the SSV category, America's Brock Heger also enjoys a healthy overall buffer over his RZR teammate Xavier de Soultrait of 32m, despite ceding 5m16 today to the Frenchman, who won the stage. On the Dakar, though, no lead is ever really safe.