DAY 12: Stage 9 – January 14, 2025
Route: Riyadh > Haradh – Liaison 232km and Special 357km
– Tuesday’s high-speed Stage 9 dash from Riyadh to Haradh served as a link between Saudi Arabia’s capital city and the barren wilderness of the Empty Quarter Desert with five-time Dakar champion Nasser Al-Attiyah scoring his first 2025 Ultimate class stage win in his Dacia Sandrider. The Qatari’s 49th stage win of his illustrious Dakar career puts him 31 seconds behind the Ford Raptor T1+ of Mattias Ekström, who holds third place overall behind new Saudi leader Yazeed Al Rajhi and South African driver Henk Lategan. Al-Attiyah, 54, admitted: “We pushed all day on a very fast stage. Now, we need to do our best on every kilometre.”
– Belgian Guillaume De Mévius excelled again in second in his MINI to score useful World Rally-Raid Championship points in the second week of this Dakar, despite being over seven hours behind overall. The 30-year-old said: “Today we started behind, so we knew we could push and try for a good time. That’s what we did and overall the stage was good for us.”
– Argentine Luciano Benavides has hit a rich vein of form with back-to-back bike stage wins, which now leaves him just 7m23s off a podium finish. His Red Bull KTM Factory Racing teammate Daniel Sanders still leads from Spaniard Tosha Schareina and Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren. The 29-year-old Benavides said: “I kept my focus on the roadbook all day and it was more of a mental challenge than anything else. The dunes are the terrain that I like the most, so I can’t wait to go there tomorrow.”
– Australian Sanders, who has five 2025 stage wins and a 14m45s lead in his quest for a first Dakar title, added: “It was a good start but, after the first neutralisation section, we came into somewhere that I remembered from other years. The dirt was really white, so I couldn’t see the tracks properly. I was just trying to make sure I was on the right spots.”
– With Portuguese driver Gonçalo Guerreiro of the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team just 27m58s off the Challenger class lead and SSV legend Francisco ‘Chaleco’ López comfortable in third as he seeks another podium, the Friday finish is now in sight with three days of racing left. Guerreiro, 24, said: “It doesn’t matter how fast you are, if you can’t find the right way to go. Now it’s the dunes and I have no fear, let’s go!”
– Wednesday’s Stage 10 sees the remaining convoy tackle immense Empty Quarter Desert sand dunes that can reach up to 250m high, so all the competitors will be on high alert despite the short special distance.
2025 Dakar Rally selected overall standings after Stage 9
Ultimate
1. Yazeed Al Rajhi (SAU) 45:06.54
2. Henk Lategan (ZAF) +7.09
3. Mattias Ekström (SWE) +24.50
4. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) +25.21
5. Mitch Guthrie Jr. (USA) +56.28
8. Seth Quintero (USA) +1:46.07
13. Rokas Baciuška (LTU) +3:34.01
14. Lucas Moraes (BRA) +5:12.30
19. Guillaume De Mévius (BEL) +7:04.31
40. Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP) +37:58.41
44. Nani Roma (ESP) +66:16.45
Challenger
1. Nicolas Cavigliasso (ARG) 49:38.09
2. Gonçalo Guerreiro (POR) +27.58
3. Paul Spierings (NLD) +1:03.55
4. Pau Navarro (ESP) +1:47.35
6. Corbin Leaverton (USA) +3:53.22
29. Dania Akeel (SAU) +73:22.59
SSV
1. Brock Heger (USA) 51:13.20
2. Xavier de Soultrait (FRA) +1:49.53
3. Francisco López (CHL) +2:07.38
Bike
1. Daniel Sanders (AUS) 47:45.34
2. Tosha Schareina (ESP) +14.45
3. Adrien Van Beveren (FRA) +20.21
4. Luciano Benavides (ARG) +27.44
8. Edgar Canet (ESP) +1:28.36