South Africa’s Henk Lategan LOSES Dakar Rally lead

Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah hit the gas to win stage 9 of the Dakar Rally as Saudi Yazeed al-Rajhi took the lead in the drivers' standings.

Jan 14, 2025 - 15:00

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South Africa’s Henk Lategan LOSES Dakar Rally lead

Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah hit the gas on Tuesday to win stage 9 of the Dakar Rally as Saudi Yazeed al-Rajhi took the lead in the drivers’ standings.

South Africa’s Henk Lategan was dethroned having dominated the standings since stage 2 and is now 7:09 behind the Saudi driver with three days to go.

“It was a messy, messy, messy day for us but it’s not the end of the world, we’re still in it,” said Lategan.

Five-time champion al-Attiyah covered the 357km special between Riyadh and Haradh in 2:52:59, to keep in touch with a sixth Dakar title.

“It was a good stage. I can be happy with the result. There are three days left, we really have to focus, everything is open,” said Dacia driver al-Attiyah, who is fourth over 25 minutes behind al-Rajhi.

The Qatari finished 2:47 ahead of Belgian Guillaume de Mevius’s Mini and 3:12 ahead of al-Rajhi’s Overdrive.

“We did a great job like we planned to,” said al-Rajhi.

“It won’t be easy, but we will fight to the end. Everything is going well for us.”

Having had to open the road following his victory in stage 8, Lategan crossed the line in his Toyota in 11th place on the day, 16:02 off the pace.

“It’s a bit of disaster to be honest,” said Lategan.

“It was really a mess, about 13km in and we got lost. We thought we missed the way point but we actually had it. It wasn’t great and when we got lost we got one puncture and then towards the end we got another one and the wheel is actually flat.”

Swede Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) is third overall at 24:50, less than a minute ahead of al-Attiyah.

Benavides on the double

On the bikes, Argentine Luciano Benavides (KTM) claimed his second straight stage win as Australian Daniel Sanders finished third to hold the overall category lead.

KTM’s Benavides finished 1:54 ahead of French driver Adrien Van Beveren (Honda) after the 357m special.

Sanders crossed in third 3:04 off the pace to extend his lead on second-placed Spaniard Tosha Schareina (Honda) to 14:45.

***Australian rider Daniel Sanders in action at the Dakar Rally 2025 © Valery HACHE / AFP***

Benavides started first after winning the eighth stage and opened the road, also benefitting from a bonus of 4:51 for a time of 3:15:38.

The 29-year-old Argentine achieved the fifth Dakar stage win of his career and is now fourth overall, 27:44 behind his team-mate Sanders.

“Honestly, it was super hard to open,” said Benavides.

“There were many points with tricky navigation. It wasn’t easy but I’m really happy with the rhythm I had opening because today I had to pay extra attention to the notes.”