DAY 7: Stage 5 – January 9, 2025
Route: AlUla > Ha’il – Liaison 64km and Special 428km
– American Seth Quintero banked his second 2025 stage win on Thursday to become the youngest ever driver with multiple stage wins in the Ultimate class, after edging out five-time winner Nasser Al-Attiyah. The Qatari moved up to fourth overall behind South African leader Henk Lategan, despite a 10-minute time penalty for leaving behind a flat tyre. Twenty-two-year-old Quintero, who now occupies ninth overall heading into the Ha’il rest day, said: “Yesterday we got three flats and lost over an hour, so today I thought let’s just go for it. All in all, it was a really rough Marathon Stage for us but day two ended up a lot better than day one.”
– Sweden’s Mattias Ekström stayed firm in third overall after Stage 5 with Brazilian Lucas Moraes and American Mitch Guthrie Jr. also in the top 10 as Ultimate debutants Toby Price and co-driver Sam Sunderland rebounded from their Stage 4 punctures to finish 11th on the day. Australian Price, 37, admitted: “Yesterday killed us, but it is what it is. It’s disappointing to let everyone down, who made this Dakar possible for us. From here on out, the aim is get good stage results and go from there.”
– Argentine Luciano Benavides also powered to a stage win – his first of the 47th edition – to cut the deficit to overall leader Daniel Sanders down to 24 minutes and 15 seconds with Friday’s rest day to recuperate ahead of the race’s second half. The 29-year-old, who is seventh overall, said: “I got past a lot of guys today and had a good rhythm throughout the day. What’s difficult is identifying the stages that you can really push on. I hope my strategy works better for me in the second week.”
– Elsewhere in the bike category, it’s been an encouraging first Dakar week for 19-year-old rookie and Sanders’ Red Bull KTM Factory Racing teammate Edgar Canet. The Spanish teenager leads the Rally2 class following three stage wins in his category and has cemented a position in the top 10 overall. He revealed: “It was a long stage with a mix of sandy piste and some rocks. Some of the navigation points were difficult. We’re halfway and I’m leading Rally2, so I’m happy with how things are going.”
– The Challenger class saw Portuguese driver Gonçalo Guerreiro cut leader Nicolas Cavigliasso’s overall advantage to 28m34s at the 2025 race’s midway point, however his Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team teammate Corbin Leaverton lost over three hours on the perilous path between AlUla and Hail. Guerreiro, 24, said: “It’s been such a difficult two days of Marathon Stage, I’m really happy it’s done. We pushed when we could. Now, we’ll use the Rest Day to change some things on our setup.”
– With Francisco “Chaleco” López securing his second SSV stage win in three days, the remaining Dakar convoy gets a well-earned rest in Ha’il – once the capital of the Arabian Desert – tonight and tomorrow before they resume racing during Saturday’s Stage 6 from Ha’il to Al Duwadimi.
2025 Dakar Rally selected overall standings after Stage 5
Ultimate
1. Henk Lategan (ZAF) 28:10.11
3. Mattias Ekström (SWE) +20.54
4. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) +35.00
5. Lucas Moraes (BRA) +41.55
6. Mitch Guthrie Jr. (USA) +42.44
9. Seth Quintero (USA) +1:30.10
15. Rokas Baciuška (LTU) +3:28.19
16. Giniel de Villiers (ZAF) +3:32.17
18. Guillaume De Mévius (BEL) +3:50.19
26. Toby Price (AUS) +6:06.51
45. Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP) +37:34.39
49. Nani Roma (ESP) +65:19.34
Challenger
1. Nicolas Cavigliasso (ARG) 30:38.42
2. Gonçalo Guerreiro (POR) +28.34
5. Dania Akeel (SAU) +1:37.59
6. Pau Navarro (ESP) +2:02.16
SSV
1. Brock Heger (USA) 31:48.54
4. Francisco López (CHL) +2:01.59
Bike
1. Daniel Sanders (AUS) 30:20.15
7. Luciano Benavides (ARG) +24.15
10. Edgar Canet (ESP) +1:01.44
26. Kevin Benavides (ARG) +3:14.56