Stage 10: Haradh – Shubaytah Stage 120km, liaison 520km
Stage ten may have been ‘only’ 120km, but it comprised 96% dunes, and these weren’t little heaps of sand but full-fat dunes where Saudi driver Yazeed Al Rajhi, the overall leader after Tuesday’s stage, should have been right at home.
He wasn’t, though.
Nani Roma and Alex Haro gave the new Ford Raptor its maiden Dakar stage win after grabbing the lead after the favourites ran into navigational issues and stayed there to the end. Behind the Ford, drama unfolded right at the start of the stage.
Starting first on the road, Nasser Al-Attiyah got lost as early as km 9, leaving the five-time winner languishing in 36th and 13’39” off the front-running pace at the 45km mark.
A kilometer later, yesterday’s stage runner-up, Belgian Guillaume de Mevius/Mathieu Baumel stopped for 35 minutes to attend to their recalcitrant Mini JCW.
By km 45, Mitch Guthrie, Lucas Moraes, Seth Quintero and Juan Yacopini were all squabbling over the fastest time but it was Roma who was quickest, followed by the Toyota Gazoo Racing pair, Lucas Moraes/Armand Monleon 11 seconds slower with another superb performance coming from Brian Baragwanath/Leonard Cremer in their Century Racing CR7 holding third, 47” behind the Hilux.
A remarkable performance came from Daniel Schroeder/Henry Kohne in their WCT-Amarok who popped up with the fourth fastest time.
Al Rajhi stopped for five minutes at km 83, dropping time to Lategan, who’d started from 11th on the road.
Moraes was pushing Roma hard, 47 seconds adrift at km 97 with Baragwanath holding on to third and Schroder having the drive of his life in fourth.
All eyes, though, were on the virtual overall leader at this point and it’s where Lategan re-took the overall lead by 1’16”over the Overdrive Hilux pair.
As the cars rolled in to the Shubaytah bivouac, Roma had done just enough to hold off the Toyota, with 18 seconds in it at the end.
Baragwanath claimed the final step of the stage podium while Schroder claimed easily his best stage result with fourth, and was just fast enough to keep Yacopini behind by 7”.
Cristina Gutierrez/Pablo Moreno was the leading Dacia Sandrider home in sixth, just under a minute ahead of the X-Raid Mini JCW of Denis Krotov/Konstantin Zhiltsov.
Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz made it home in eighth, 40’ seconds ahead of 20-year old Alliyah Koloc/Sebastien Delaunay in their Red-Lined Revo-GTR, easily the young Seychelles lady racer’s best ever stage.
Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier rounded out the top ten in their Century Racing CR7.
Lategan ended the stage in 11th place, Al Rajhi in 27th and Al-Attiyah in 30th. Is this strategy at play?
Overall, it has become a two-horse race between Henk Lategan and Yazeed Al Rajhi; the South African reclaimed the lead in the overall standings from Yazeed Al Rajhi. The two Toyota drivers are separated by 2′27″. Mattias Ekström remains third, while Nasser Al Attiyah dropped more than half an hour to Lategan and is now 30′21″ down.
A navigation error near the start of the special cost Al-Attiyah the five-time winner, a golden opportunity to get himself back in contention for the title. He did not mince his words: “I’m very disappointed, but what can you do? We could have had a great stage, but we’ll see what position we’re in and what we can do tomorrow. Every day is very important, and we had a good pace, but we lost a lot of time. This is the most disappointing day of my life.”
“It’s difficult for me to judge my pace in the sand. I’m used to the gravel more and I know when I’m going quickly and when I’m not. In the sand, I have no idea”, said Lategan. “We were going at a decent pace, I thought, then Martin Prokop came past us so I thought maybe we’re going a bit too slow and sped up a little bit.”
On two wheels, Michael Docherty became the second South African to win a stage, following in the footsteps of Alfie Cox, whose last victory was in 2003… 22 years ago. Interestingly, Docherty sports race number 22, making this connection even more symbolic.
The win for Michael Docherty, the second-ever Rally 2 rider in history to win a Dakar stage, after Danilo Petrucci in 2022! The South African claimed his first career victory, 1′20″ ahead of Rui Gonçalves and 2′21″ ahead of Tobias Ebster. Stefan Svitko finished fourth, 5′10″ behind, marking his best result of the year. Edgar Canet rounded out the top 5 at 5′34″. Docherty, Ebster and Canet also form the Rally 2 podium for the day, in that same order!
Tosha Schareina, second overall, was 16’31” behind Daniel Sanders, but he reckons he can still turn the tables on the leader in tomorrow’s decisive stage: “I think I [tried] to go more or less slow in the dunes to not open the stage tomorrow. I felt good, I felt really with me. Just started about two weeks racing, so yeah, that’s all. I think they told me that they put me two more minutes, so I start tomorrow behind him. But yeah, good for that. For sure, it’s so complicated in 300 K to cut [those] 17 minutes, but everything is possible.”
Overall positions (provisional)
| 1 | H. Lategan/B. Cummings | Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux | 47:03:33 |
| 2 | Y. Al Rajhi/T. Gottschalk | Overdrive Toyota Hilux | +2:27 |
| 3 | M. Ekstrom/E. Bergkvist | Ford Raptor | +26:46 |
| 4 | N. Al-Attiyah/E. Boulanger | Dacia Sandrider | +30:21 |
| 5 | M. Guthrie/K. Walch | Ford Raptor | +54:05 |
| 6 | M. Serradori/L. Minaudier | Century Racing CR7 | +59:41 |
| 7 | J. Yacopini/D. Oliveras | Overdrive Toyota Hilux | +1:33:30 |
| 8 | S. Quintero/D. Zenz | Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux | +1:36:45 |
| 9 | J. Ferreira. F. Palmeiro | X-Raid Mini JCW | +2:08:35 |
| 10 | B. Baragwanath/L. Cremer | Century Racing CR7 | +2:17:06 |
