Dakar 2025: Problematic roadbook note affects crews

Dakar 2025: Problematic roadbook note affects crews

13th January 2025 0 By Kamron Kent

A problematic roadbook spurred issues for the competitors as they completed a south-west loop of Al Duwadimi for the seventh stage of 2025 Dakar Rally. 

Feature image credit: DPPI / Red Bull Content Pool

The Dakar competitors completed yet another loop in this year’s edition of the iconic event with a total 709km covered looping south of Al Duwadimi. However, the competitors had issues with the road book which forced the organizers to remove the problematic section from the route. 

As many competitors were affected, the organisers removed and reset the clock negating any advantage or disadvantage from the problem. However, Toyota’s Gazoo Racing’s Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings were one of the heavily affected runners as they saw their eight-minute lead over Overdrive’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk drop down to just 21 seconds. 

Having secured the stage win, Daniel Sanders has extended his Dakar lead to 15 minutes and 33 seconds. The Australian has been untouchable all event as he hasn’t moved away from first since this edition of the Dakar started. He is joined by Monster Energy Honda’s Tosha Schareina and Adrien Van Beveren who take up the remaining podium places in second and third. 

As previously discussed, Lategan and Cummings’s advantage was slashed from eight minutes to 21 seconds over Al Rajhi and Gottschalk. However, Ford M-Sport’s Mattias Ekstrom and Emil Bergkvist remain in third to complete the podium, 10 minutes behind. 

The top three remain unchanged in the SSV class following the antics of stage seven. Brock Heger and Max Eddy remain the SSV leaders for Sebastien Loeb Racing ahead of their fellow teammates Xavier de Soultrait and Martin Bonnet. Only one hour and 35 minutes separate the two crews. Francisco Lopez Contardo and Juan Pablo Latrach remain third, nearly two hours off the leading time. 

The Dakar is MM Technology to lose for the truck category, with only five stages left to complete. Martin Macik, Frantisek Tomasek and David Svanda remain the class leaders and the Czech trio cruised out in front to take third overall in the stage whilst extending their overall lead to two hours over Eurol Rally Sport’s Mitchel van den Brink, Moises Torrallardona and Jarno van de Pol. 

Ales Loprais, David Kripal and Daek Rodewald remain in third for the truck class with Instatrade Loprais Team. 

The event is expected to cross a total distance of 733km as the Dakar moves from Al Duwadimi to Riyadh for stage eight, on Monday. 

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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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