Nasser al-Attiyah having received a 10-second penalty, it was Seth Quintero who finally won the fifth stage of the Dakar this Thursday in Saudi Arabia.
The American Seth Quintero (Toyota) won the fifth stage of the Dakar-2025 rally in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, passing a second ahead of the Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah penalized by 10 minutes. At the wheel of his Dacia, the Qatari, five-time defending champion, hit the gas to make up for his half-hour lost the day before and was initially proclaimed winner of the 428km special between Al Ula and Hail.
But the judges subsequently imposed a penalty on him which put him just behind Quintero, timed in 4h 32min 53sec. “Nasser al-Attiyah received a 10-minute penalty. The explanation is that he arrived with a spare wheel missing from his vehicle.declared the organization in the press room.
Never two without three
Since the start of the Dakar on Friday, this is the third stage where the organizers have changed the winner of the day’s stage several hours after the finish of the race, due to penalties or bonuses awarded retrospectively. The Swede Mattias Ektström finished 3rd in today’s stage, just eight seconds behind the leader. The provisional general classification remains dominated by the South African Henk Lategan (Toyota), followed at 10min 17sec by the Saudi Yazeed al-Rajhi (Overdrive) and Mattias Ekström at 20min 54 sec.
