Dakar 2025: Rally moves north as Sebastien Loeb rolls 

Dakar 2025: Rally moves north as Sebastien Loeb rolls 

8th January 2025 0 By Kamron Kent

Dakar moved regions for stage three of the event, moving from Bisha to Al Henakiyah, as the 2025 rally crawls up the western coast of Saudi Arabia. 

Feature image credit: Kin Marcin / Red Bull Content Pool

The third stage of the Dakar Rally consisted of 327km of terrain for the remaining crews to tackle as they moved northwards away from Bisha to Al Henakiyah, which was reduced from 496km due to storm warnings in the region. 

After Carlos Sainz was withdrawn from the event on safety grounds, following a roll on the first day of the 48 Hour Chrono, his fellow WRC world champion Sebastien Loeb completed a similar feat. Loeb rolled after his car became unsettled with a hard hit on the sand at 12km. 

Although he was able to continue on Loeb had further problems with a broken steering rack, dropping to 16th overall, losing an hour in the stage. 

Daniel Saunders, Red Bull KTM, is yet to relinquish his Dakar lead as the Australian continues out front for the Bike category. However, American Skyler Howes of Monster Energy Honda has cut down the gap as Ross Branch, Hero Motorsports Team, remains third. Both Howes and Branch remain just six-minutes off the pace of Saunders. 

Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings of Toyota Gazoo Racing lead the overall Car standings ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger. Mattias Ekstrom and Emil Bergkvist completed the top three in the car class with nine minutes separating the top three.

Sebastien Loeb Racing’s Xavier de Doultrait continues to lead the SSV category with crewmate Martin Bonnet alongside.

Fellow teammates of Soultrait and Bonnet, Brock Heger and Max Eddy, remain in second giving the team a provisional 1-2 whereas Old Friends Rally’s Alexandre Pinto and Bernardo Oliver complete the top three, in third, over an hour behind. 

Defending Dakar Rally winners of the Truck class, Martin Macik, Frantisek Tomasek and David Svanda of MM Technology continue to lead the way but Instatrade Loprais Team have cut down the deficit, in second.

Second-placed Ales Loprais, David Kripal and Darek Rodewald completed the 48 Hour Chrono eight minutes behind but they have gained on the class leaders to finish just three minutes off. Skuba Team’s Vaidotas Zala, Paulo Fiuza and Max Van Grol continue to round out the top three in the Truck class. 

On stage four of the event, Dakar will continue its journey along the western coast up towards Alula before crossing over to Hail.

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Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

CategoryDakar Rally News Rally Raid Rallying

About the author

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

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