Ekstrom strikes back at Dakar while Howes takes first stage win

The route for today's 11th stage of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia was quicker and less sandy than yesterday’s, and so proved better for drivers seeking stage success than the favorites for the overall rankings, who were among the first to set off. As a result, the pretenders for victory on the day were more likely to come from among the later starters. In the Ultimate class, it was Mattias Ekstrom (pictured above) who crossed the finishing line with the fastest time. To win the eighth special stage of his career on the Dakar and his third this year, the Swede beat another Ford Raptor driver, Romain Dumas, who missed out by 1m22s on his first stage win.

For Nasser Al Attiyah, the horizon is clearing as he heads towards the sea. On taking starter’s orders in Bisha this morning with a lead of 12 minutes over Henk Lategan, the Dacia Sandriders team leader already had his mind set on driving to control the race. He applied himself meticulously to the task for the 346 kilometer run and once again, luck was also on his side rather than Lategan’s. The South African had already been bothered by many problems on this edition of the Dakar but so far had managed to fight to keep himself second overall. But that all changed when his Toyota Hilux broke the bearing on its left-rear wheel. The ensuing repairs put paid to his hopes of finishing on the podium this year.

Instead, the role of closest rival to Al Attiyah is now played by Nani Roma. The Catalan’s Ford Raptor now trails the Qatari by 8m40s, a gap that will be difficult to close over the final two stages.

“It was difficult at the beginning – we passed two cars and had so much dust," related Roma. "Then when we passed them before the pit stop, we tried to be consistent. We saw Lategan stop and we’re sorry for him – it’s never nice to see someone who is fighting but has a mechanical issue, but it’s part of this game.”

Roma will have to ask himself whether it is really in his best interests to adopt a conservative approach, with a 10-minute lead over third-placed Sebastien Loeb. The Frenchman is sure to be pulling out all the stops to try and secure a one-two finish for Dacia.

In motorcycles, Skyler Howes became the ninth American biker to win a Dakar stage. The route to Al Henakiyah lent itself perfectly to the Californian, who is used to success on the Vegas to Reno race or the Sonora Rally, which both boast similar terrain. The Monster Energy Honda rider's charge through stage 11 will not enable him to improve on his best final result (third in 2023) but he is still set to finish the rally at the foot of the podium.

“It’s really cool to get a stage win on the Dakar, especially on this edition and on a stage like this, which is my style – rocky and high speed. I’m happy with the way I rode.Tomorrow, I need to open and it will be a more challenging day for sure. We’ll see how it goes...

The Honda clan has cooked up a strategy to try to secure Ricky Brabec a third outright triumph on the Dakar... starting with giving up his place at the top of the overall rankings! Adrien Van Beveren took advantage of his position as stage opener to wait for his American teammate after refueling in order to share the openers’ bonus points with him. However, Brabec's maneuvering became more subtle towards the end of the stage, as he chose to ease off in order to secure a starting position for tomorrow behind his main rival Luciano Benavides, even if it meant relinquishing the lead. The pressure is mounting on Benavides, who now leads the overall rankings by just 23s and will be forced to start tomorrow’s decisive stage with Brabec hot on his heels due to a starting position sixminutes afterwards.

While there was good news concerning Daniel Sanders, who was able to finish the stage despite injuring his shoulder yesterday, the Australian only managed to achieve the 13th-best time of the day and will be unable to provide any support to Benavides tomorrow. This role could fall to Edgar Canet, who, due to his third-place finish today, will start the special three minutes ahead of him.

There's little strategic suspense in the Stock category, which continued to be a Defender Rally Team parade. Rokas Baciuska once again took the stage win, this time with Stephane Peterhansel ahead of teammate Sara Price. Brock Heger similarly doubled down on the SSV lead with another stage victory, putting the RZR factory driver more than an hour ahead of fellow American Kyle Chaney.