Rallying is unlike any other motorsport. It doesn’t unfold on pristine circuits with predictable curves.

Instead, it roars across desert dunes, frozen mountain passes, narrow forest trails, and winding coastal roads. The raw, unpredictable nature of rally events makes them a feast for motorsport fans—and an intriguing challenge for sports bettors.

This excitement has even inspired rally-themed casino games, where the thrill of the race meets the chance to win big—sometimes boosted by a rainbow riches bonus or other special features.

If you’re looking to dive into the exhilarating world of rally racing or trying to get smarter about your bets, this article will guide you through the most unmissable rally races on the planet, along with practical betting insights to help you read the road ahead.

The rallies you can’t miss

1. The Dakar (Saudi Arabia)

The Dakar is the epitome of rally endurance. Originally held from Paris to Dakar, the race now unfolds across the vast, unforgiving terrains of Saudi Arabia. Covering thousands of kilometres through sand dunes, rocky outcrops, and desolate plains, it pushes both machine and driver to their limits.

Why it’s special: It combines navigation, physical endurance, and mechanical resilience like no other event.

Betting insight: Navigation mistakes are common—favour experienced riders/drivers with strong navigator co-drivers. Mechanical consistency often beats raw speed.

2. WRC Rallye Monte-Carlo (Monaco/France)

This iconic event opens the FIA’s World Rally Championship (WRC) season each year and is notorious for its unpredictable weather. Drivers often transition from dry tarmac to ice-covered roads within a single stage.

Why it’s special: The mix of high-speed tarmac and ice makes tire choice and timing absolutely critical.

Betting insight: Watch the weather forecast. Drivers with strong tarmac and mixed-surface experience, like Sébastien Ogier, often have the edge.

3. WRC Safari Rally Kenya

Once a fixture in the old WRC calendar, the Safari Rally returned in recent years, and it’s as brutal as ever. Long stages, wildlife encounters, deep mud, and heat define this rally.

Why it’s special: It’s a test of survival as much as speed. Drivers face truly wild conditions.

Betting insight: Prioritize reliability over flair. Cars with high durability (think Toyota Gazoo Racing) and drivers with off-road grit tend to outperform here.

4. WRC Rally Finland

Nicknamed the “Grand Prix on gravel”, this rally is known for its smooth, fast gravel roads and enormous jumps. Drivers can hit nearly 200 km/h through the forest.

Why it’s special: It’s a high-speed ballet through narrow roads, demanding confidence and pinpoint precision.

Betting insight: Local drivers often dominate. Finland’s Kalle Rovanperä, for example, grew up on these roads and knows them intimately.

5. WRC Rally Sweden

As the only full-snow event in the WRC calendar, Sweden’s rally is a white-knuckle ride through icy forests. Studded tires give the cars incredible grip, making for spectacular drifts.

Why it’s special: It’s pure snow rallying, with frozen lakes and blizzard-like stages.

Betting insight: Nordic drivers tend to excel. Check past performance in snow conditions and keep an eye on tire supplier updates.

Smart betting on rallies: What to know

Betting on rally isn’t like betting on a football match. It’s about long-term planning, surface familiarity, and understanding how even small changes—like tire choice—can turn the race upside down.

Here are the essential strategies to boost your odds:

1. Study the surfaces

Each rally is unique—some are on snow, some on tarmac, many on gravel, and a few on mixed conditions. Before betting, understand the track composition of the rally and match it to driver strengths.

Tip: Don’t just check who won last. Look at how the driver performed on similar surfaces throughout the season.

2. Don’t ignore the weather

Rally outcomes are often decided by sudden weather changes. A dry gravel stage can turn into a slippery mess in minutes. In Rally Monte-Carlo or Wales Rally GB, rain and fog can completely alter the field.

Tip: Follow live rally weather updates. Some betting sites allow mid-rally bets—those aware of weather changes can gain an edge.

3. Experience vs flashiness

Fast isn’t always best in rally. Many young drivers crash out pushing too hard. Veterans, especially those with loyal co-drivers, often take a steady approach that wins the rally—not just stages.

Tip: Research not only the driver but also the co-driver pairing and how long they’ve worked together.

4. Constructors matter

The performance gap between WRC constructors—Toyota, Hyundai, M-Sport Ford—is real. Some years, a team brings a clear mechanical advantage. Mid-season car upgrades can drastically change competitiveness.

Tip: Check if any major mechanical updates or penalties have been issued pre-rally.

5. Use stage betting wisely

Some platforms allow betting on individual stages. This is where you can back a strong stage specialist, even if they’re not favourites for the overall win.

Tip: Stage wins often go to aggressive drivers; consider them for these bets, but not for overall rally results.

Rallying is one of the most exciting motorsports on earth—unpredictable, raw, and full of character. Each race is a story of man versus nature, machine versus terrain. Whether you’re a motorsport fan or a data-driven bettor, there’s real value in studying the variables that make or break a rally.

From the epic dunes of the Dakar to the icy sprints of Sweden, every event brings a new adventure. Betting on rally is a blend of analysis, instinct, and sometimes, a little luck. But one thing’s for sure: once you dive in, rally will never let go.

So buckle up, pick your stages carefully, and may your bets be as steady as a seasoned co-driver’s voice in the chaos of gravel, mud, and snow.

The post Rallies around the world: The ones not to miss – and tips to bet on appeared first on Motorsport Week.

Don’t miss out on the latest edition of Motorsport Monday which centres on Yazeed Al Rajhi and his remarkable victory at the 2025 Dakar Rally.

READ THE LATEST ISSUE OF MOTORSPORT MONDAY FOR FREE

After 11 attempts, Al Rajhi took his first Dakar victory, and on home soil to boot! David Ledbitter has your report.

Getting back to rallying, David looks ahead to the 2025 FIA World Rally Championship opener in Monte Carlo. Will Thierry Neuville retain his title? The Belgian’s defence starts with Hyundai.

Meanwhile, 2025 will mark the first FIA Formula 1 season since 2012 where Valtteri Bottas hasn’t competed in the opening race. Taylor Powling sat down for an exclusive interview with the Finn to discuss his Sauber exit, his desire to get back on the grid and his Mercedes return.

The past week also saw wild speculation that Aston Martin is plotting a move to sign reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen. Despite Aston’s denial, Taylor discusses why potential interest appears inevitable.

READ MORE – Yazeed Al Rajhi wins Dakar, Daniel Sanders takes the bike title

Among the rookies making their debut will be Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes, with the Italian’s 2025 preparations beginning with laps in a 2020 car at Jerez last week. This week’s Start Your Engines sees Taylor delve into how a restriction on in-season testing is impacting the F1 teams.

In the Sportscar world, Mo Rehman spoke exclusively with Connor Zilisch to discuss his 2024 campaign and his ambition to achieve repeat success at the 24 Hours of Daytona.

The FIM MotoGP launch season has begun and Aprilia was among the teams to unveil its latest livery. With reigning champion Jorge Martin arriving, Eden Hannigan previews the Italian outfit’s newest era.

Elsewhere, Claire Millins gives advice to the drivers who are embarking upon fresh adventures with new sides in Carla’s Corner.

And, as always, we have all the usual news, views and stories in this week’s edition of the most widely read weekly motorsport magazine in the world!

SUBSCRIBE TO MOTORSPORT MONDAY

The post Motorsport Monday: Yazeed Al Rajhi wins 2025 Dakar Rally appeared first on Motorsport Week.

Stage 12: Shubaytah – Shubaytah  stage 61km, liaison 70km

On home soil, or rather sand, Yazeed Al Rajhi has become the first Saudi driver to win the Dakar in the Ultimate class. Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk won their first Dakar Rally, much to the delight of the Saudi fans. With a lead of 6’11” going into the Dakar’s final short stage, no heroics were expected from the home hero and none were forthcoming.

Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings gave their all but ran out of mileage to claw back their deficit and had to settle for second overall, giving Toyota a dominant one-two result.

Mattias Ekstrom and Emil Bergkvist brought their Ford Raptor home in third, giving the new entrant a debut podium.

Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger ended fourth overall in their Dacia Sandrider with Mitch Gutherie and Kellon Walch making it two Fords in the top five.

Mathieu Serradori and Loic Minaudier powered their Century Racing CR7 to sixth in the final standings – their best ever Dakar result –  with Juan Yacopini in seventh, followed by a superb drive from Joao Ferreira/Filipe Palmeiro in their diesel-powered X-Raid Mini JCW who ended eighth.

Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz made it four Toyotas in the top ten with Brian Baragwanath/Leonard Cremer rounding out the overall top ten in their Century Racing CR7.

Five different manufacturers were represented in the final order with Toyota the dominant force having led the event from the prologue until the final kilometer.

The final stage was won by Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Brazilian driver Lucas Moraes and co-driver Armand Monleon, who fended off the attentions of Al-Attiyah in his Dacia.

The final stage was won by Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Brazilian driver Lucas Moraes and co-driver Armand Monleon, who fended off the attentions of Al-Attiyah in his Dacia.

Lategan was third in his Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux, one second ahead of Ekstrom who in turn was just under a minute ahead of the German/South African pairing of Daniel Schroder/Henry Kohne  in their WCT Amarok.

Yacopini, in his Overdrive Hilux, ended sixth with Nani Roma having another solid run two seconds behind and five seconds ahead of Guillaume de Mevius/Mathieu Baumel’s Mini JCW.

Ferreira bagged ninth in his diesel Mini JCW, just two seconds up on Al Rajhi who took a gentle drive to tenth.

Daniel Sanders has become the second Australian biker to win the Dakar after Toby Price (in 2016 and 2019). Sanders has also given KTM its 20th triumph on the race. The Austrian firm was unbeaten between 2001 and 2019 and also achieved first place in 2023.

Overall Results:

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Stage 11: Shubaytah – Shubaytah  stage 275km, liaison 232km

Strategy came into play on the penultimate stage of the 2025 Dakar Rally.

Dunes and fog are not a good mix when the riders, drivers and crews have to start a special on the Dakar. The Empty Quarter was full of dense mist, preventing the helicopters from taking off to ensuring the race’s safety, which delayed the start of the stage, adding to the tension amongst the competitors.

Wednesday’s overall leader Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings were the 11^th crew to take on the dunes of the Empty Quarter, while his title rival Yazeed Al Rajhi started 33^rd and the overall gap between first and second was a slim 2:27…

Lategan caught the front runners and had to slow so as not to open the road, while Al Rajhi could pick off cars at leisure – and at speed. He and Nasser Al-Attiyah set a blistering pace.

At the first waypoint, the Overdrive Toyota crew was just 44 seconds off the South African’s time and by km 94, the gap was just four seconds!

By the time they all passed the third waypoint at km 138, the Saudi driver had a virtual overall lead of 1’24” which grew over the remainder of the stage to 6’11” by the time they all trooped back into the Shubaytah bivouac. With just 61 km of racing left on the final day, Al Rajhi is almost home and dry.

Having conceded his lead, Lategan said: “We did all we could today. Here and there we could have maybe pushed a bit harder, but the car is in one piece, we didn’t miss any waypoints, and we got up the majority of the dunes the first time. It has been a very good day for us and an awesome race. I just think that today’s road position counted against us a little bit. We couldn’t have finished much quicker as we came in right behind Lucas who was opening the road, so if we had overtaken him, we would have been opening the road.”

The stage belonged to the Swedes Mattias Ekstrom and Emil Bergkvist, giving the Ford Raptor back-to-back stage victories. Ekstrom blasted past the first waypoint 59 seconds behind Al-Attiyah who was on a mission to take third in the overall standings off the Ford pair. By the next waypoint, Ekstrom led from Al Rajhi with Al-Attiyah down in fifth in the stage ranking.

Bergstrom held off a late attack from the Qatari’s Dacia, taking the win by 41 seconds with Al Rajhi coming home with the third fastest time, 61 seconds behind the reigning W2RC Champion.

Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch brought their Ford Raptor home in fourth after another impressive drive on their Ultimate class debut.

Lategan brought his Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux home in fifth position, 50” behind the second Ford.

Sixth went to the Portuguese pair of Joao Ferreira/Filipe Palmeiro in the diesel-powered X-Raid Mini JCW, 18” ahead of Rokas Bascuiska/Oriol Mena’s Overdrive Toyota Hilux.

Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier was the leading Century Racing CR7 home, over seven minutes ahead of Guillaume de Mevius/ Mathieu Baumel in their X-Raid Mini JCW.

Rounding out the top ten was Jean Bergounhe/Pascal Larroque in their nimble 4×2 MD Optimus, the second top ten finish for the marque.

On a stage whose distance was reduced by half for the bikes as a result of the delayed start, Tosha Schareina struck a big blow by regaining 7’31’’ over Daniel Sanders, reducing the gap between the two men in the overall rankings to 9 minutes. The Spaniard reinforced his second position before the final 61-km stage which will feature a reverse order grouped start with 15 bikes leaving at a time. Adrien Van Beveren, 3rd in the general rankings, battled to defend his position against Luciano Benavides. Although the Argentinean finished ahead of the Frenchman by 24’’ on this special, he remains in 4th in the general, 6’26’’ from the podium.

In Rally 2, Mathieu Dovèze won by 20’’ ahead of his team-mate Toni Mulec. At the top of the general standings, 35 minutes separate Edgar Canet from Tobias Ebster. Canet is therefore set to win the Rally 2 class on his first attempt.

Overall standings (Provisional)

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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 36^th 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 11^th 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 11^th place, Al Rajhi in 27^th and Al-Attiyah in 30^th. 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)

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Stage 9: Riyadh – Haradh  stage 357km, liaison 232km

Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger won stage nine, becoming the eighth different winner to date and earning the Dacia Sandrider its first stage win of the rally.

The Qatari lead from start to finish save for a brief spell where he fell 10 seconds behind Mattias Ekstrom at km 81. In the overall standings, he remains in fourth position, 25 minutes off the lead with three stages to go.

Guillaume de Mevius and Mathieu Baumel enjoyed a strong stage, bringing their X-Raid Mini JCW home in second place, 25 seconds ahead of Al Rajhi’s Overdrive Toyota.

It was a bad day for the South African Toyota Gazoo Racing team. Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings opened the road but made a small navigation error close to the start and picked up a puncture as well, losing the lead they’d held since stage two after finishing 11th on the stage. “A very difficult day for us. It was not supposed to be so bad but we made an error right near the beginning, got lost and while we got lost we had a puncture. Really bad from our side, I’m a little bit disappointed. Not a great day. That was one of our worst days of this Dakar. It’s not over, there’s still a long way to go, a lot of race miles to go but that was not great”, said a disappointed Lategan at the end of the stage.

Worse for TGRSA though, Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy suffered a high-speed, 6^th gear, end-over-end crash which stretched over a distance of 500m,  leaving their Hilux a twisted wreck in the desert. Fortunately, both driver and navigator emerged unhurt. “That was huge, that was a big accident’”, said Botterill.

Mattias Ekstrom and Emil Bergkvist brought their Ford Raptor home in fourth place, well ahead of Rokas Bascuiska/Oriol Mena’s Overdrive Toyota.

Mitch Guthrie/Kellon Walch kept up their steady pace, taking sixth in their Raptor and comfortably ahead of Simone Vitse/Max Delfino who brought their Chevvy V8-powered MD Optimus 4 x 2 home inside the top ten for the first time.

Marcelo Gastaldi/Adrien Metge top-scored for Century Racing, bringing their CR7 home in eighth with 19 seconds in hand over Cristina Guttierrez/Pablo Moreno’s Dacia Sandrider.

Joao Ferreira/Filipe Palmeiro made it two Minis in the top ten, just 22 seconds behind the Dacia pair.

Daniel Sanders extended his lead by 3’42’’ over Tosha Schareina, his closest pursuer in the general rankings. The bike category leader has strengthened his position and now leads the Spaniard by 14’45’’. Third-placed Adrien Van Beveren regained 1’10’’ on the Australian and has moved to within 20’21’’. Luciano Benavides and Ricky Brabec complete the top 5 in the general rankings, respectively 27’44’’ and 31’31’’ behind.

The French Monster Energy Honda team rider Adrien van Beveren finished the stage with the day’s second-best time behind Luciano Benavides and has closed into within 6 minutes of 2nd place in the general rankings, which is still occupied by Tosha Schareina: “It was a very tough stage, less eventful than yesterday but more complicated for the navigation. It wasn’t a transition stage, to be honest, and I had to turn round three or four times today. I was riding with Luciano and we rode at a fast pace. In such a case, the navigation becomes complicated. On some stages, you have to accept to make some small mistakes. Perhaps, Tosha was not on top form but he still managed to ride quickly”.

Overall Positions (Provisional)

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Stage 8: Al Duwadimi – Riyadh  Stage: 488km  liaison 250km

Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings put their disappointment from Sunday, where their overall lead was cut from over 23 minutes to 21 seconds behind them to grab stage eight by the scruff of its neck and lead the way home to a 7’41” gap over their nearest title rivals. The Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa duo has lead the Dakar since stage two and while their overall advantage might be described as slender, it’s still all to play for over the final four stages.

A two-minute speeding penalty (!) cut their advantage to 5’41” in the overall standings. Lategan also became the seventh different winner on this year’s Dakar Rally. The downside to Lategan’s stage win is that he will open the road on Tuesday; however, he will have bike tracks to lead the way which should mitigate some of the pain he is likely to suffer.

Second on the day, having started 29^th, was Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy in another TGR SA Hilux, 1’47” off the lead after suffering a slow puncture over the last 150km. The young South African driver had to stop to-re-inflate the tyre to ensure it stayed on the rim over the large dunes in the final 30km of the stage heading into Riyadh.

The day started with Botterill opening the way at km 54, 12 seconds ahead of Daniel Schroeder and Henry Kohne in their WCT Amarok.

Stage six winner Guillaume de Mevius took the lead after km 78 but was forced to stop for over an hour at km113 to repair an issue on the left-rear corner of his Mini JCW.

From then on, it was Lategan all the way to Riyadh with Botterill close behind – the gap was 9” at the 200km mark – and earned Toyota Gazoo Racing SA their first one-two.

Third across the stage was another South African crew of Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer in their factory Century Racing CR7, at least it was until the final section, when his French teammate Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier pipped them to the last step of the podium by five seconds! It was Century Racing’s best performance to date with their new CR7 machine.

Nani Roma/Alex Haro was the leading M-Sport Ford pair, bringing their Raptor safely home in fifth place, three seconds clear of Yazeed Al Rajhi/Timo Gottschalk in their Overdrive Toyota Hilux.

Martin Prokop/Viktor Chytka (Jipocar Ford Raptor) was involved in a fierce battle with the Brazilians Joao Ferreira/Filipe Palmeiro in their X-Raid Mini JCW diesel with the nod going to the Czech pair by 23”.

Ninth was Rocas Bacuiska and Oriol Mena in their Overdrive Toyota Hilux with Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz rounding out the top ten in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux.

Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger ended 11^th, dropping 12 minutes to Lategan in the overall standings and while still holding fourth on the leaderboard, the Qatari is 34’14” away from the lead. The W2RC champion said: “It was a very tough day. Sometimes when we were opening it was very difficult. Yazeed had a good line and when he passed we just followed him, until the dunes when we passed him, but it was really difficult. I am happy to finish this day. We still have four days left and we’ll see. The navigation was very hard”.

Overall standings (Provisional)

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Al Duwadimi – Al Duwadimi  stage 419km, liaison 297km

Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon became the sixth different winner from seven stages in what turned out to be a chaotic stage from a timing point of view, hence the word “provisional” as standings could well change before the sun sets over Saudi Arabia.

The Brazilian said: “Yeah, to be honest, since we started so far behind, we were lucky because we definitely got all the tracks for us. So yeah, we didn’t have nothing to lose today, so we pushed a lot. And nice to win one more stage in the Dakar. These things are really hard to get, so happy to score some points for the championship as well. And got to keep fighting. I think now it’s going to be, maybe tomorrow it’s going to be just like this one today and then we’re going to start reaching the Empty Quarter. And there will be some strategy of course playing to not open the bigger one that we have there. But otherwise, so far so good and happy with the win.”

An official notice said “An incorrect road book note for km 158 of the special has caused several drivers at the front of the field to lose their bearings. A segment of about 20 km before and after this point will therefore be delimited at the finish of the car special at the bivouac in Al Duwadimi, erasing any gains or losses made in this part of the stage.”

Dakar leader Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings found the correct route and opened a gap while the others drove around in circles; Al Rajhi lost 14 minutes and Al Attiyah some 20 minutes, while the Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa pair found themselves opening the road. Once the chasing pack found their tracks, he bled time to his closest rivals Yazeed Al Rajhi, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mattias Ekstrom.

After the times had been adjusted, the 30-year-old South African’s lead was just 21 seconds ahead of Al Rajhi. They were, in essence severely penalized for not getting lost! “It’s a bit of a mess with the times. I’m not sure what’s going on. The official timing is showing something different. They took some of the section out of the stage. We’ll see what happens, we hope it doesn’t stay like this. It would be quite unfair because you cannot be penalized for finding the road first. It would not be right”, said Lategan.

At the time of writing, Moraes restored Toyota’s dominance, winning the stage by 7’41” from the Swedish Ford team of Mattias Ekstrom/Emil Bergkvist with Mitch Guthrie/Kellon Walch taking third in their M-Sport Raptor.

Nasser Al-Attiyah/Edouard Boulanger claimed fourth in their Dacia Sandrider on corrected time with Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz racing their Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux to within 23 seconds of their Qatari rival.

Cristina Gutierrez/Pablo Moreno earned a top six finish in their Dacia, 12 minutes off the lead and 48 seconds ahead of Al Rajhi/Timo Gottschalk in their Overdrive Hilux.

Saood Variawa/Francois Cazalet scored another top 10 finish in their Toyota Gazoo South Africa Hilux, comfortably ahead of the Argentinian Juan Yacopini and his Spanish co-driver Daniel Oliveras in another Overdrive Toyota.

The Brazilian Marcelo Gastaldi and Adrien Metge were the top Century Racing finisher in tenth after Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier- who ran as high as second at the 138km mark – suffered power steering problems and dropped back after stopping to top up with oil.

Ignoring the incorrect instruction at the halfway mark of the stage, the top ten teams had all started the day 16^th or lower, while yesterday’s winner Grégoire de Mevius ended 14^th after setting out first on the road. In the stage results, seven of the top ten started 11^th or lower down the order.

Opening a stage on the Dakar Rally is not for the feint-hearted!

In the bike race, Australian Daniel Sanders maintained his grip on the overall standings with another stage win. The Australian master of the Dakar took his fifth stage win of the season and built up a comfortable lead for the rest of the race, 15′33″ ahead of his closest rival, Tosha Schareina: “It was pretty fast, very fast. Technical at the start, we had a lot of rain. But it was only at the start, so it was a pretty wet line to see in front and just had us kind of correct and not follow the mistakes with the navigation. The speed was good, head was good, so it was a much better day.”

In other news, Moraes was given a suspended disqualification after his co-driver accepted a cell phone from a random stranger for 43 seconds in the neutralization zone on stage five. The DQ Sword of Damocles was replaced with a one-hour penalty.

Autosport reports that Al-Attiyah is incensed by the FIA disqualifying Sainz and Loeb, and more so about his ten-minutes penalty for losing a spare wheel after the supporting cradle broke. Stating his intention to write a letter to the president of FIA Mohammed ben Sulayem about the sanction, he said: “I don’t understand it. To lose the tyres with the support [structure] and then the spectator finds the tyre with the support and you get ten minutes. I don’t accept it. “But I’m working to fix that whole problem because that’s not sport, we have to be fair. If I do it the wrong way and drop the tyres, OK, I get ten minutes penalty, but we didn’t realise, we have to be fair, but I will make a good letter to the [FIA] president, to avoid all that.”

Overall standings (provisional)

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Toby Price and Sam Sunderland have withdrawn from the Dakar Rally in near identical circumstances to those of Giniel de Villiers yesterday.

On Stage 5, Sam suffered a concussion, which worsened on Saturday following a new impact. In order to protect the co-driver’s health, the crew has decided to withdraw from the race.

The Australian and British duo transitioned from two to four wheels this year and were 24^th in the overall standings after stage 6

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Giniel de Villiers, the winner of the 2009 Dakar Rally and boasting 21 consecutive finishes on his record, has been forced to retire from the Dakar.

A team spokesperson said; “Dirk von Zitzewitz, co-driver for Giniel de Villiers in the #206 GR Hilux EVO experienced neck pain during Stage 6. The pain became severe as the stage progressed, and after a medical examination, the medical staff deemed it unsafe for Dirk to continue, bringing an end to their race. This is an unfortunate finish to the pair’s illustrious Dakar career spanning 14 races. The team wishes him a speedy recovery.”

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