From an aerial point of view, the day’s special could be seen to take place along a line stretching from west to east through the provinces of AlUla and Hail over a distance of 428 km. On zooming in, it became evident that the riders, drivers, and crews experienced an especially varied stage, with an equal amount of quick, sandy tracks and passages that were rocky, sometimes of volcanic nature, requiring caution. At the riders’ and drivers’ level, they encountered rocky formations that looked either formidable or inviting, according to preference, but which never gave a clear indication of which direction to choose. The navigation was tricky on the last part of the special, where taking care of tyres was especially important on the terrain made up of large gravel. Luciano Benavides avoided every single pitfall to dominate the stage on two wheels, as did Seth Quintero, who won for the second time in the week by one second ahead of Nasser Al Attiyah, who is back in the game
- Luciano Benavides has returned to the forefront, having not won a stage on the Dakar since 2023, which was his best year so far. Adrien Van Beveren was deprived of victory on the special by a penalty for speeding but climbed into 4th place on the general rankings.
- Daniel Sanders’ position at the summit of the leaderboard has never been under threat. The Australian will be able to enjoy the rest day, with a lead of 6’52’’ over Tosha Schareina and 17’38’’ over Ross Branch. KTM, Honda, and Hero make up the provisional podium.
- After a tough day yesterday, Nasser Al Attiyah showed his true colours to regain ten minutes on all his rivals currently on the provisional podium. However, that is exactly the same time as the penalty he was given for reaching the bivouac with a missing spare wheel. As a result, the stage victory goes to Californian Seth Quintero, by the slimiest of advantages – just one second.
- Henk Lategan still leads the general rankings, with an advantage of 10’17’’ over Yazeed Al Rajhi and 20’54’’ over Mattias Ekstrom. The Qatari driver, who will have to wait to give the Dacia brand its first success on the Dakar, lies further back, 35 minutes behind the South African leader.
- Yasir Seaidan won for the first time in his career in the Challenger class at the finish in Ha’il. The Saudi no longer has a shot at overall victory but still wants to feature prominently in the race. Nicolás Cavigliasso has opened up a gap after taking advantage of the problems encountered by Corbin Leaverton. He now boasts a lead of 28 minutes over Gonçalo Guerreiro, his closest pursuer.
- In the SSV category, ‘Chaleco’ López is also still in the hunt for stage victories and picked up a second one today, beating Brock Hegger by 20 minutes. The American will not mind, because he leads the category on the rest day, with an advantage of 1 hour and 21 minutes over his Polaris team-mate Xavier de Soultrait.
- Martin Macík is unflappable behind the wheel of his truck, which was the fastest for the fourth consecutive stage, and he can no longer see Aleš Loprais and Vaidotas Žala in his rear-view mirror. His closest pursuer, Michel van den Brink, trails by almost two hours