The Brazilian Lucas Moraes in the car and the Australian Daniel Sanders in the motorcycle won the 7th stage of the Dakar-2025 in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, marred by confusion on the car route.
Due to an error at km 158 of the car route in the « roadbook »the participants’ route guide, the race lead wandered off the course.
Wasting precious time, she wandered until a helicopter from the organization came to put the cars back on the right path.
As a result, the organizers had to erase the times on a section of around twenty kilometers of the special route.
“When you want to do the roadbook, do it well. You have to check it lots and lots of times. Because it was a disaster, it posed a big risk”annoyed the Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah (Dacia) at the finish of the special.
“We were there for 50 minutes, 50 minutes going in circles (…) We passed everyone who was turning around, who were trying in the same place as us but we had already tried”described the Belgian Guillaume de Mevius (Mini), who arrived among the first at the disputed point
Despite the neutralization of the entire sector, the cars saw their running order disrupted for the rest of the stage.
“We were in the dust for 100 kilometers but we had traces. And there are others that opened but weren’t supposed to open.”this is the Mevius.
The stage, a loop around Al Duwadimi, was finally awarded to the Brazilian Lucas Moraes on a Toyota with a time of 4:01:49, followed by the Swede Mattias Ekström at 7:41 and the American Mitchell Guthrie at 9min 28sec, both on Ford.
Price and Sunderland drop out
In the provisional general classification, the South African Henk Lategan (Toyota) remains in the lead but is only 21 seconds ahead of the Saudi Yazeed al-Rajhi (Overdrive).
The third, Mattias Ekström, is 10 min 25 sec behind.
The auto category recorded the abandonment for “medical reasons” of the duo Toby Price and Sam Sunderland, each double winner of the Dakar motorcycle race. They joined forces this year to move to the cars.
Australian motorcycle rider Daniel Sanders, victorious in the 7th stage of the Dakar around Al Duwadimi, January 12, 2025 / Valery HACHE / AFP
On two wheels, Australian biker Daniel Sanders further established his domination of his category by winning his 5th victory in a special since the start of the race on January 3.
The 30-year-old KTM rider increased his lead in the provisional general classification by completing the 412 km special around Al Duwadimi in 04h 10m 33sec. The 2nd, the Spaniard Tosha Schareina, is at 15 min 33 sec and the French Adrien Van Beveren (3rd) at 26 min 07 sec.
“It was a very fast stage, technical at the beginning. There was a lot of rain, so we had beautiful, clearly visible tracks, which allowed us to correct any mistakes or mini detours that those in front took. The speed was good, the concentration was good, the head too”declared the Australian upon arrival.
The young Spaniard Edgar Canet (KTM), 19, obtained the second best time of the day at 03 min 36 sec. Schareina (Honda) follows suit for third place, nine seconds behind.
