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Team Audi Sport was fairly consistent throughout the first half of the Dakar Rally as Carlos Sainz and Mattias Ekström survived the two-day Chrono Stage to comfortably sit 1–2 in the overall ranking. After a rest day on Saturday, however, Sébastien Loeb is priming his foot to kick the door down following a masterful Stage #7.

After winning the Chrono Stage, Loeb overtook Lucas Moraes at KM 311 and stormed off to his third win. Sainz finished fourth, just missing the class podium by forty-four seconds off Loeb’s Prodrive ally Nasser Al-Attiyah. While Sainz’s run is certainly not an effort to scoff at, Loeb’s win whittled the margin between him and Sainz from thirty minutes to just nineteen.

“That was a really good day today that came out well for us,” said Loeb. “It was not easy though as it was difficult with the navigation and a bit complicated with a bit of everything; some canyons, some dunes, tracks and so on but we stayed concentrated on the roadbook. We did make a couple of mistakes here and there with direction but overall we were able to correct all those mistakes very quickly to enable us to push.”

Sainz became Audi’s last hope at securing the Dakar win after Ekström suffered a mechanical issue fifty-one kilometres into the stage. Fellow Audi driver Stéphane Peterhansel, who was already out of contention with a Chrono Stage retirement, stopped to provide assistance but it was not enough to salvage his day. Consequently, Ekström falls from second overall to twentieth.

“After thirty kilometres, Emil (Bergkvist) and I felt that something was loose. We heard this ‘klak klak klak klak’, but very little,” Ekström explained. “Later, we got a slow puncture and the upright was grinding on the rim. Shit happens, life goes on.”

After making her name in side-by-side vehicles, Dania Akeel will move up to the top class of rally raid when she starts competing in a Toyota Hilux Overdrive in the Ultimate (T1) category in 2025, competing in both the Saudi Toyota Championship and World Rally-Raid Championship. Her entry will be prepared by Overdrive Racing.

Akeel got to drive an Hilux Overdrive in October at the W2RC Next Gen Tryouts, which allowed racers from other categories to pilot T1 cars on a test course following the W2RC season-ending Rallye du Maroc. Said Hilux is normally driven by Yazeed Al-Rajhi, a fellow Saudi competitor.

“We decided with the support of Abdul Latif Jameel Toyota, and with the support of all the sponsors, their support and encouragement, that I will participate in the T1+ category with the Overdrive team,” Akeel told SSC Saudi Sports Company at the Dakar Rally. “Our champion Yazeed Al-Rajhi is racing with them, and they assured me that they have a place and a car, and the sponsor supports this decision.”

She normally races in the Challenger (formerly T3) class, finishing eighth in class in her Dakar début in 2022; she was one of the first Saudi women to enter the race, which moved to her home country in 2020. Akeel signed with Wevers Sport to race a Taurus T3 Max starting with the 2023 Rallye du Maroc, where she finished sixth among T3 entrants.

Her 2024 Dakar Rally was upended by a clutch failure ninety-one kilometres before the end of the Chrono Stage on Friday. She had been twelfth overall among Challenger entrants with a best finish of seventh in Stage #3.

Eryk Goczał‘s quest for a second consecutive Dakar Rally victory was smooth sailing when he scored five Challenger stage wins in the first half, but he and his EnergyLandia Rally Team‘s hunt has come to an abrupt end. On Saturday, the FIA announced he and his uncle Michał Goczał have been disqualified for non-compliant clutches that were discovered during inspection prior to the start of the Chrono Stage on Thursday.

The FIA reported their Taurus T3 Max cars had clutches made from carbon composite material, which is one of four elements that cannot be used to build most parts on the car under Article 2.3 of the FIA International Sporting Code’s Appendix J, Article 286 (which covers Challenger class regulations); titanium and magnesium alloys and ceramics are also forbidden. Only some parts like the dashboard, intake manifold, air ducts, and the exterior bodywork may use composite material.

At their hearing on Saturday afternoon, the team defended their clutches by pointing to the same ISC article’s Article 8.1.1 that states construction of the clutch is “Free”. The stewards rebutted this by pointing out that although they have the freedom to build the part themselves, the prohibited materials are still outlined in that rulebook and should have been heeded.

“To put it plainly, the technical regulations authorise the use of a free clutch, but another article states that carbon can only be used for an exhaustive list of elements in which the clutch does not appear. The carbon clutch provided no additional performance, but probably better reliability,” explained Taurus, a joint project between MCE-5 Development and Wevers Sport. “Taurus, whose original clutches are made of steel, regrets this misinterpretation of the technical regulations by the EnergyLandia Rally Team and also expresses its heartfelt sympathy for the two crews who did a fantastic job during the first week of the Dakar 2024.”

Shortly after the penalty was issued, the team stressed they have “fully studied” the regulations and committed “no error or oversight” while receiving “assurance from technical persons associated with the organizers that a clutch (elements of clutch) made of carbon is permitted, in particular as it does not provide any advantages or impact on the vehicle’s performance.” They further alleged the inspection “could have been carried out at the request of one of the other teams taking part in the rally with the aim of eliminating key competitors from the rally,” pointing out the fact that Eryk had been leading the Challenger overall by over an hour after winning the Chrono Stage. EnergyLandia intends to appeal the case, though they lamented that it must receive a response from the FIA within thirty days well after the race had already ended.

Following the reveal of their continued driver line up for their existing numbers 50 and 51 cars, Ferrari AF-Corse have unveiled who will be driving their third Ferrari 499P in the FIA WEC. 2023 LMP2 champion Robert Kubica will be joined by official Ferrari drivers Robert Schwartzman and newcomer to the Scuderia Yifei Ye.

Poland’s Robert Kubica enjoyed a great year in the final season of the LMP2 class in the FIA WEC (World Endurance Championship). His Team WRT car was only off the podium in one round, the season opener at the 1000 Miles of Sebring. From then on, they achieved two third positions, one second, and three wins at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, 6 Hours of Fuji, and the season finale at the 8 Hours of Bahrain.

This third Ferrari has an uphill battle before it. It is joining a very competitive and established Hypercar class. As a driver with great experience, Kubica is aware of the challenge before them. “We will have to try to keep our feet on the ground and do our best,” he said, adding “especially at the beginning of the season it will not be easy, but we will try to maximize track time to gain crucial experience.” With other teams, such as Lamborghini, making their debut in 2024, and the Ferrari team having finished second in the 2023 constructors championship, they stand a real chance to be competitive.

Former Ferrari Academy driver Robert Schwartzman was promoted to Ferrari reserve driver in 2023. He competed in an F1 practice session for the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, and competed for AF-Corse in the 2023 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, securing a win at the final round at the 3 Hours of Barcelona. In November 2023, Schwartzman posted the best overall time in a 499P in the rookie tests at Bahrain.

For Chinese driver Yifei Ye, 2024 will be his second season in the WEC and his first full-time season. The 23 year old competed in all but two rounds of the 2023 WEC season for Hertz Team Jota in a Porsche 963. While they never got onto the podium, they had a competitive season. Ye even enjoyed a stint in the overall lead of the prestigious Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans before he unfortunately lost control, leading to a crash that required a 20 minute repair stint in garage.

The Polaris RZR Pro R Factory tore it up in SCORE International during Polaris Factory Racing‘s début season in 2023, and is currently doing the same at the 2024 Dakar Rally with Sébastien Loeb Racing. After six of twelve legs, Xavier de Soultrait has three stage wins in the RZR and ranks third overall in the SSV class.

The SSV category, formerly T4, is often dominated by Can-Am who won the 2022 and 2023 World Rally-Raid Championships. Mavericks also hold a massive number advantage with twenty-eight entered to just eight Polarises, two of which are the Pro R Factory fielded by SLR while the others are fielded by Xtremeplus and TH-Trucks Team. Despite being outnumbered, Polaris Factory Racing technical director Alex Scheuerell called himself “very confident” in SLR’s duo, and his belief in them has paid off tremendously at the halfway point. De Soultrait’s stage victories are the first at Dakar for a Polaris since Patrice Garrouste won the penultimate leg in 2018.

Scheuerell explained to The Checkered Flag that his faith in SLR and the RZR Pro R Factory comes from the “proof (that) is in the 2023 Baja results.” Despite the factory team being new, they won the Pro UTV Open class at all four SCORE races with team principal Craig Scanlon claiming the San Felipe 250, Brock Heger winning the Baja 500 and Baja 400, and Cayden MacCachren conquering the Baja 1000. Heger, a short course off-road racing champion, secured the season-long SCORE title in the category.

“We expect some growing pains this year in Dakar, but we are excited to learn and are hopeful that our engineering, the drivers and crew at Sébastien Loeb, and our preparation will be the difference,” said Scheuerell.

Although there are similarities such as the base chassis and powertrain being the same, the RZR Pro R Factory that de Soultrait and Florent Vayssade are racing is slightly different from the model that competes in SCORE and other desert races in North America under the Polaris Factory banner. After all, rally raids like the Dakar have different demands for vehicles than in traditional desert events; for example, there is integrated storage space in the rally version for spare parts and tools, which comes in handy at marathon stages where crews are not allowed to provide assistance. Other changes, particularly to the chassis, were made to comply with FIA regulations.

Seth Quintero‘s hopes of winning the 2024 Dakar Rally went up in smoke when an oil pipe broke during Stage #4. Fortunately, his Dakar is technically not over as he and forty-six others have been approved for the Dakar Experience, which will allow them to contest the rest of the race even if they are classified at the bottom of the order with significant time penalties.

When a competitor is forced to retire from a stage, they can either drop out entirely and head home or receive a second chance to continue under the Dakar Experience. This relegates them to what is effectively a last-place finish in the final results, but lets them still take part so long as their vehicle is able to keep going. They only have one restart, meaning another stage retirement during the Rally’s second half takes them out altogether; however, they can rejoin if the exit was due to injury and they are cleared to race.

Dakar Experience racers are required to have an orange filter on their number plate to separate them from those in contention. They can still compete for stage wins, though victories will not impact their standing in the overall; Quintero perhaps best exemplified this in 2022 when he was relegated to the Experience after just the second stage but went on to win every stage the rest of the way. Once they complete the final stage, they will not be allowed to stand on the podium like other finishers but may instead pass below a titled arch.

Quintero is one of eleven cars in the top Ultimate category who are in the Dakar Experience, with other notable faces including Krzysztof Hołowczyc and Brian Baragwanath. Hołowczyc was involved in a bizarre accident with Kris Meeke during the Chrono Stage on Thursday that knocked the latter out of the race with terminal damage, rendering him unable to enter the Dakar Experience, while Baragwanath was sidelined for the third and fourth legs as he waited for new front suspension parts to arrive from South Africa.

Silvio Totani made headlines when he used his Nissan Patrol to pull the overturned truck of Richard de Groot in Stage #5, but he suffered a radiator issue shortly after completing the stage that forced him to skip the Chrono Stage.

As the sun prepared to peek out Friday morning, everyone cleaned up their meager encampments and resumed the Chrono Stage. On paper, many of the leaders only needed to complete roughly 110 kilometres after covering most of the ground during the first day of the 48-hour stage on Thursday. Of course, that was easier said than done.

Nasser Al-Attiyah‘s aspirations of a third consecutive Dakar Rally dried up when a steering arm broke on his left rear wheel hub at the KM 530 mark. By the time he and Mathieu Baumel resolved the matter, they had already lost over two hours and forty-five minutes, sending the Stage #5 winners barrelling down the order. They were able to reach the stage finish, unlike overall leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi who crashed out on Thursday, but in twenty-seventh which dropped them from second to sixteenth.

With the top two out, Carlos Sainz inherits the overall lead and holds a twenty-minute advantage over Audi team-mate Mattias Ekström. Al-Attiyah will now use the second half of the rally to support his Prodrive ally Sébastien Loeb, who won the Chrono Stage—reaffirming his sandbagging strategy in Stage #5 to get a lower starting position was the right call—and sits third.

“On the last fifty kilometres, we broke the steering and we couldn’t do anything to repair,” explained Al-Attiyah. “We waited for our assistance truck to come, we fixed it and then got to the finish. Everything is not finished, but now we’ll try to play for the World (Rally-Raid) Championship. I will also try to help Seb, to be behind him. At least he can win this Dakar. I will do my best for him to win because we are a team.”

Janus van Kasteren finished nearly three hours behind Martin Macík Jr. because of a mechanical failure at KM 436, leaving him 2:37:53 back of Macík in the Truck overall and slimming his hopes of repeating in the class. Macík also now has an hour and sixteen minutes on Aleš Loprais, the largest gap between first and second in a class so far.

Although this is his maiden Dakar Rally, Rodrigo Varela is currently second overall in the SSV class with a stage win. Perhaps making his début more impressive is that he is driving a Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo that he hastily put together in Portugal before bringing it to Saudi Arabia, where he had to scramble to find spare parts before the race began.

Speaking with Universo Online, Varela explained the cargo ship with his car had to change course from its original route through the Red Sea to avoid attacks or raids by the Houthis. Consequently, the vehicle is not expected to arrive in Saudi Arabia until 16 January, nearly two weeks after the Dakar had already started. Most Dakar Rally vehicles were transported together on the Jolly Palladio and Jolly Titanio vessels after undergoing scrutineering in Barcelona in early December, and reached their destination in Yanbu later that month. However, competitors were still allowed to bring their vehicles to the race on their own.

He learned of the rerouting on Christmas Day. Varela eventually came across an available, mostly race-ready Maverick in Portugal, where Can-Am’s factory SSV team South Racing is headquartered; once in Al-‘Ula, he began a scramble to find spare parts within four days until the race started while also ensuring it passes inspection.

“We started to race to look for some alternatives, to try to continue with this dream of racing the Dakar,” Varela told Cross-Country Rally News. “And then, an UTV showed up in Portugal for us to buy and try to bring it here as fast as possible by plane. Everything worked out, we managed to bring the UTV. We had four days to set up this car, to get it ready to race the Dakar. But we’re here and now we’re going to have fun.”

Varela’s original Maverick was prepared by Gustavo Gugelmin, co-driver for Challenger driver Austin Jones and a close friend of the family who previously worked with his father and 2018 Dakar SSV champion Reinaldo Varela.

The Superstar Racing Experience has “postponed” their 2024 slate, which would have kicked off in the summer as has been the case since the inaugural season in 2021.

“We entered the next phase of our racing series with great anticipation and excitement for what was ahead. Our expectations, however, have been tempered by market factors that have proven too much to overcome,” reads a series statement.

“Time has run out to put forth the kind of events our fans, partners, drivers and tracks deserve. We’re thankful to each for their commitment, their contributions and their support as we brought a new idea to reality.

“The racing industry continues to evolve and we are actively exploring strategic options for the series’ long-term potential. We made this announcement now to allow our partners the time and flexibility to best serve their interests.

“We will provide updates on future plans for SRX when they’re available.”

The 2024 Dakar Rally‘s shiny new feature, the 48-hour Chrono Stage, kicked off Thursday as competitors on both the FIA and FIM sides started concurrently—a departure from the latter heading out first—before branching off on their own routes through the Empty Quarter desert. As the name suggests, the stage will last for two days, with everyone reporting to a break area once the clock struck 4 PM on Thursday and will resume Friday at 6 AM.

Unfortunately for many, the sweeping dunes and chotts of the Empty Quarter cut short their marathon before they could reach their base camp. Yazeed Al-Rajhi was the biggest victim when he entered the Chrono Stage as the overall leader, but was forced to retire after just fifty-one kilometres when he flipped his Toyota Hilux at high speeds. He and co-driver Timo Gottschalk were unharmed, but the crash forced them to withdraw from the stage, effectively putting them out of contention for the win even if they are able to return to the race.

“We caught up with the two cars in front of us. We didn’t slack off, we were driving well,” said Al-Rajhi. “We had a flat during the stage, and it was challenging. We were driving at a high speed, but the car hit something, flipped on her face, onto the windshield. I believe they said something about the shocks; we want to adjust them a bit, make them tougher to withstand the next two days. Perhaps the stiffness of the shocks, along with refuelling, made it tighter up.”

With Al-Rajhi out of the picture, Wednesday’s stage winner Nasser Al-Attiyah found himself with a prime opportunity to take the overall lead. However, the stage win may have also bitten him as it meant starting up front, a disadvantageous position as the first starters have to navigate the route on their own whereas those after them could simply follow. Sébastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz both opted to sacrifice time and the win in Stage #5 to avoid starting first, which has paid off for them so far as Sainz currently leads the stage after the first day with twenty-four minutes on fifth-placed Al-Attiyah while Loeb sits third. Sainz’s Audi team-mate Mattias Ekström is second.

While Al-Rajhi is the most prominent loss, others to fall before the Chrono Stage include Kris Meeke and Krzysztof Hołowczyc, who crashed together with the latter hitting the former’s driver-side door, though both were not injured and remained in good spirits. Stéphane Peterhansel, the third Audi driver, had a tyre puncture that he could not efficiently resolve after the hydraulic jack system malfunctioned, causing the car to lose power steering. Vaidotas Žala also lost his hydraulics after hitting a pothole and he subsequently bowed out.

Tim Steele, one of the top drivers in what is now the ARCA Menards Series in the 1990s, passed away peacefully Sunday at the age of 55. He had been dealing with health complications stemming from a stroke in 2022.

“This morning, my dad peacefully took the checkered flag here on earth,” wrote his daughter Kelsey Slade on Sunday. “His life was an exhilarating ride, always at full throttle, driven by a passion for racing and a wild spirit. While many knew him for his accomplishments on the racetrack, his role as a dad and grandpa was by far the greatest victory! God Speed Dad, I love you!!”

After starting his career on a motorcycle, he switched to late models before graduating to ARCA in 1993 and won the championship as a rookie. He scored two more titles in 1996 and 1997, winning a combined twenty-three races. By the time of his final season in 2006, he had won forty-one times, over a quarter of his starts in the series, including a record five in a row to close out his 1997 campaign. Twenty-four of those victories came on superspeedways, while he also has nine victories at Pocono Raceway, more than any other driver.

While much of his accomplishments came in ARCA, he also dabbled in NASCAR’s three national divisions. In 1993, he subbed for the injured Davey Allison in two NASCAR Busch Grand National Series (now Xfinity Series) races, which he parlayed into a six-race stint in the Cup Series the following year with Allison’s father Bobby Allison’s team. In 1997, he did seven Busch races for Phoenix Racing, notching a fifth-place run at Las Vegas and a sixth at Talladega. That same year, he was on the verge of moving up to the Cup Series full-time in 1998 with his father and football great Brett Favre purchasing Bud Moore Engineering and sponsorship from Nike and Sony, though a concussion sustained in a testing crash at Atlanta ended that prospect.

Steele also entered thirteen Craftsman Truck Series races in 1999 for his family team with a pole and best finish of ninth at Nazareth.

Timothy A. Steele: 1 March 1968 – 7 January 2024

At just 118 kilometres in Selective Sections, the fifth stage of the 2024 Dakar Rally is a relative breeze as everyone’s focus is on Thursday’s much anticipated 48-hour Chrono Stage. Sébastien Loeb was thinking so far ahead that he was willing to take his foot off the gas and make a few mistakes during Wednesday’s action, sacrificing a good finish which would have meant starting further ahead.

Loeb was the first car to start the stage after winning on Tuesday, and was running seventh when he crossed the second and final checkpoint at KM 80. He eventually finished ninth, which while not an unimpressive outing was rather uncharacteristic especially as his Prodrive team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah cruised to the stage win. The Frenchman then received a fifteen-minute penalty for not crossing a waypoint, dropping him further down the order to fortieth.

“We missed a waypoint intentionally,” Loeb admitted to L’Équipe. So why the forced unforced error?

Starting a stage is often seen as a disadvantage in rallies. Since races like the Dakar take place in wide open deserts without paved roads, those who start further back can simply rely on the path laid by rivals who went out first whereas the latter have to figure out the course on their own via what is given to them on the roadbook. To mitigate the damage, the FIM rewards the first starter with a time bonus that reduces the extra time they accumulated from having to navigate unlike the riders after them. The FIA has no such benefit.

While Loeb obviously has experience as the opener, he was not too excited about the prospect of opening the Chrono Stage, which takes place in the massive Empty Quarter and is the longest leg of the race at 584 kilometres.

The Ferrari – AF Corse team has confirmed that they are retaining their 2023 hypercar driver line up for the 2024 FIA WEC season. Last year’s runners up in the team championship and winners of the presitigious Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans are hoping that continuity in their driver line up will enable them to achieve even greater things in 2024.

Car #50

As part of a massively expanding hypercar class in the WEC (World Endurance Championship), the Ferrari 499p made its full season debut in 2023. Car number 50 will be driven by Italian Antonio Fuoco, Spain’s Miguel Molina, and Denmark’s Nicklas Nielsen. This car stunned in the season opener at Sebring, USA, where, at their very first event, the team secured pole position, beating the formerly unbeatable Toyota Gazoo Racing. During the race, they lost places to both Toyotas, but still managed to finish an excellent third at the first time of asking.

This success would be topped at the next round at Portimão where car 50 finished in second, once again behind Toyota. A further two podiums would come later at Monza, Ferrari’s home race, and at the season finale in Bahrain. These four finishes were instrumental in Ferrari achieving second place in the overall constructors championship, beating the likes of Porsche and Cadillac. This year, they will be hoping to push one step further and secure their first win, something that the sister car has already achieved.

Car #51

The second Ferrari achieved the holy grail of sportscar racing by winning the 2023 Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 51 car, piloted by Britain’s James Calado and Italians Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi, broke Toyota’s five year dominance at Le Mans and secured the only win in the 2023 season not taken by Toyota. It also marked Ferrari’s first overall win at Le Mans since 1964, a triumphant return to the top for the Scuderia.

Calado, who has won three world titles with Ferrari in the FIA WEC LMGTE Pro class since 2014, says that the goal for 2024 is to continue to fight for overall victory in the hypercar class. “I’ve had some incredible experiences with the Prancing Horse, and continuing on this path is extraordinary” the British driver said, adding “my goal for the future is to become Hypercar world champion.“

Butch Dean, who helped launch the careers of many desert racing stars from his shop in Las Vegas, passed away Friday. He is survived by his sons Pat and JC and grandsons James and Jordan, all of whom are also desert racers.

Dean ran Butch’s Speed Shop, an off-road prep shop in Las Vegas that opened in 1968. Known as “Papa Butch”, he used the shop as his hub to sell and prepare desert race cars. He also lent his services and mentorship to local upstarts who would go on to become the discipline’s greatest names such as BJ Baldwin, Rob MacCachren, and the Herbst and Gaughan families.

“Butch spent a lot of time in the shop, he spent a lot of time out in the desert testing,” commented Tim Herbst. “He spent a lot of time with the drivers and the people who were working on the cars. That’s proven by the success of all these drivers who have done very well in the sport. They are all a product of Butch Dean.”

Pat, James, and Jordan are close with the Gaughans and have competed in desert races like the Baja 1000 with them; Jordan recently won the 2023 Baja 1000 in the Trophy Truck Spec class with Riley and Troy Herbst.

He turned over the shop to Pat in 2007, and the store was moved to a new location in 2022. Dean was inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2022.

“Stage #4 was good, it was the shortest one yet so I was happy to have a shorter day,” began Ricky Brabec. “We’re at the bivouac an hour earlier than we have been, so that’s also nice and it gives the mechanics some more time to work on the bikes.”

Besides another hour to unwind and debrief, Brabec and his Monster Energy Honda Rally Team also got a little time to celebrate as he finished the stage runner-up to team-mate José Ignacio Cornejo. The latter’s stage win, the sixth of his career, boosts him to the top spot in the Dakar Rally‘s general ranking.

Cornejo and Brabec chased down overall leader Ross Branch to start the stage before Branch crashed just forty kilometres in; another crash happened twenty kilometres from the finish, though he was still able to salvage a fourth-place finish. With Branch out of the picture, the Honda duo occupied the top two for the rest of the day, though Brabec still had to stave off Monday’s winner Kevin Benavides for second. Although Benavides had more time bonuses than Brabec, he was still eighteen seconds shy of overtaking him.

“It was a mix of terrains and they did say it would be a little bit easier,” Cornejo commented. He now has a 1:15 lead on Branch while Brabec remains third and just under five minutes behind his ally. “It felt faster and not as physical as the previous days, but there were some sections of tricky navigation so I had to stay focused. I did some little mistakes at the beginning but then I pushed harder with a good solid pace and finished in a positive way.”

On the FIA side, Nasser Al-Attiyah seemed poised to finally score his first Dakar stage win with Prodrive until his team-mate Sébastien Loeb and Yazeed Al-Rajhi erased deficits of twenty-four seconds and 1:32 to overtake him in the final thirty-six kilometres. Al-Rajhi’s Toyota colleague Seth Quintero posed the biggest challenge to Al-Attiyah to start the day before a damaged oil pipe doomed his pursuit.