Overdrive Racing’s Yazeed Al Rajhi has moved into the lead of the 2025 Dakar Rally with three stages remaining after overhauling Toyota Hilux stablemate Henk Lategan.
Al Rajhi made the most of a superior starting position on the ninth stage from Riyadh to Haradh to take nearly 13 minutes out of road opener Lategan.
It means that Al Rajhi now holds a lead of 7m09s over his Toyota Gazoo Racing rival heading into the final three stages, although the former will start ahead of Lategan on the road for stage 10 tomorrow.
The task facing Lategan from first on the road was always going to be a steep one. The ninth stage of the 47th edition took place almost entirely on gravel tracks, leaving Lategan and navigator Brett Cummings as effective road sweepers.
That in itself would not have been as bad for Lategan and Cummings had they not had a navigation error early on the stage, compounded by suffering a puncture. They were caught and passed by the Century Racing CR7 of Mathieu Serradori as a result, who started third on the road and six minutes behind Lategan.
Al Rajhi, who started sixth on the road, made good progress straight away and was just 16 seconds adrift at the first waypoint, having entered the day 5m51s behind. By 81km, he had halved that deficit and, by the 123km marker, he had moved ahead by nearly a minute.
From there, Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk were in total control of the overall classification and streaked clear of Lategan by over seven minutes.
“[It was] a very, very difficult stage for us,” a disappointed Lategan said post-stage. “It was actually not supposed to be so bad, but we made an error at the beginning, we got lost and while we got lost, we got a puncture.
“That was one of our worst days of this Dakar. It’s not over, there’s still a long way to go and a lot of racing miles to go, but that’s how it goes.”
In stark contrast, Al Rajhi produced a strong strategic drive throughout and was surprised to have taken the overall lead.
Al Rajhi, who is aiming to become the first Saudi Arabian driver to win the Dakar Rally, has bided his time throughout the 2025 event but will however face the challenge of starting ahead of Lategan on the road on Wednesday’s 10th stage.
“I am very happy; we did a great job, and this was our plan,” said Al Rajhi. “We pushed at the right moment, and we will keep fighting until the end to try and win the Dakar. I didn’t know that Lategan missed the waypoint, but now I know!”
Al Rajhi is driving to become the first Saudi driver to win the Dakar
Behind Al Rajhi and Lategan, the battle for the final podium position continues to be too close to call between M-Sport Ford’s Mattias Ekström and Nasser Al-Attiyah, who finally gave the Dacia Sandriders its first Dakar stage win.
“It was a very good day,” said Al-Attiyah. “I am happy to win the stage. We have three days left; we need to be really focused now, because everything is open. It was a very clear stage with no problems.”
The two crews fought tooth and nail for the bulk of the special, with Ekström initially holding a 10-second advantage over the five-time Dakar winner at the 81km marker. Al-Attiyah then moved ahead by 42 seconds at the fifth waypoint before he and navigator Edouard Boulanger flexed their muscles further by pulling clear after the halfway point.
In the end, Al-Attiyah extended the gap over Ekström even further after the Ford Raptor punctured in the last section, dropping nearly five minutes.
“We struggled a little bit in the middle with the navigation but there wasn’t that much to do otherwise,” reflected Ekström. “It wasn’t so enjoyable, we had a puncture about 5 or 6km from the end, but we are here and still fighting.”
Despite the time loss to Al-Attiyah, M-Sport can be satisfied with their maiden Dakar as it enters the final stages, with Mitch Guthrie Jr and Kellon Walch consolidating fifth place overall, just under an hour off the overall lead.
