Rajhi leads marathon Dakar second stage as big names hit trouble

Saudi driver Yazeed Al Rajhi led at the midway point of the marathon 48-hour second stage of the Dakar Rally on Sunday as two big names suffered a wretched day in the dunes.

Carlos Sainz lost 40 minutes after his Ford Raptor flipped while Sebastien Loeb’s hopes of winning his first title cooled with a fan issue on his Ford.

That left the veteran former world rally legend over half an hour behind virtual leader Al Rajhi, who can sympathise at his rivals’ misfortunes after having to abandon the Dakar during this very stage 12 months ago.

Introduced for the first time in 2024 the intrepid Dakar competitors on four wheels and two will cover almost 1000km over the two days.

The 48-hour stage is held in the kingdom’s Empty Quarter, a vast sea of sand with dunes as far as the eye can see.

Sunday’s first segment came to a close when the clock struck 1700 in Saudi Arabia, the time for all competitors to head to their nearest break zone and try to get some sleep under the stars before Monday’s conclusion, setting off at sunrise.

Unlike last year’s first two-day stage the routes for the bikes and cars have been separated, meaning drivers will be unable to follow the trails set by the faster bikes.

As the drivers headed off to get some well earned sleep Al Rajhi, third in 2022, was 1min 19sec clear of Nasser Al Attiyah, and also provisionally heads the Qatari five-time winner in the overall rankings.

In the bike race Australia’s Daniel Sanders, winner of the first stage, leads American defending bike champion Ricky Brabec by 2min23sec.

Meanwhile, television loves the Dakar Rally with its crisp, dramatic images of cars, motorbikes and trucks ploughing through the blood-red sands and dunes of Saudi Arabia.

But television doesn’t show the whole picture, veering its lens away from the camp of 3,500 people, six planes, 11 helicopters, 100 trucks and 70 buses - the gigantic logistical machine that moves a mini-city in the desert from stage to stage and keeps the show, figuratively, on the road.

Set up under tight security on a 25-hectare (250,000 square metre) sand plain in the Bisha region in the south-west of the country, the Dakar start bivouac was in full swing in these early days of the 2025 edition. Night and day, generators chunter away next to white tarpaulin structures as large as aircraft hangars. Trucks fill the cisterns of the 200 or so toilets and showers, while others sprinkle water on the roads to settle the dust raised by the constant stream of vehicles.

Agencies