Dakar 2025, Stage 9: Al-Attiyah fastest as Al-Rajhi grabs overall lead

Nasser Al-Attiyah bounced again from a tough exhibiting on Monday to assert victory on Stage 9 of the Dakar Rally, whereas a puncture for Toyota driver Henk Lategan promoted Yazeed Al-Rajhi to the general lead.

Dacia’s Al-Attiyah and Ford rival Mattias Ekstrom initially duelled for victory within the 357km take a look at between Riyadh and Haradh, with the 2 buying and selling the lead within the first a part of the day.

Qatar driver Al-Attiyah held the early benefit in his Dacia Sandrider earlier than Ekstrom flexed his muscle to leap to the entrance 81km into the stage.

The five-time Dakar winner retook the lead on the following checkpoint and started to stretch his benefit within the second half of the day, pulling out a lead of over a minute with lower than 100km to run.

As Ekstrom dropped additional again, Al-Attiyah continued to chip away from his rivals, finally reaching the end line with a 2m47s margin over X-raid Mini’s Guillaume de Mevius, who moved as much as second.

The Belgian stood third for a lot of the all-gravel stage on Tuesday, however leapfrogged Ekstrom on the 217km mark to safe his finest end of 2025 since his victory on Stage 6.

In the meantime, Overdrive’s Al-Rajhi put in a stable efficiency in a buyer Toyota to take third, demoting Ekstrom’s Ford to fourth place.

Al-Rajhi team-mate’s Rokas Backiuska rounded off the highest 5, forward of the opposite Ford of debutant Mitch Guthrie Jr.

No manufacturing unit Toyotas completed inside the highest 10, as Man Botterill crashed out on the 272km mark and Lategan suffered an early puncture that value him seven minutes to repair.

The South African haemorrhaged extra time later within the stage, finally ending 16 minutes again in eleventh place – only a day after he had taken victory on Stage 8.

His troubles allowed Al-Rajhi to grab the lead within the Final class with simply three phases remaining, the Saudi driver transferring 7m09s clear on the prime of the standings.

Ekstrom continues to carry third place on Ford’s maiden manufacturing unit outing, with Al-Attiyah now lower than a minute behind within the last-remaining Dacia.

Guthrie Jr sits half an hour adrift in fifth place, whereas Matthieu Serradori has strengthened his grip on sixth place regardless of a low-key outing on Tuesday.