Dakar Rally Stage 9: Al Attiyah wins in Cars, Benavides on Bikes

Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah won stage 9 of the 2025 Dakar Rally as Saudi Yazeed al-Rajhi took the lead in the drivers’ standings. 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.

Cars

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

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“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.

“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.”

South African Henk Lategan was dethroned having dominated the standings since stage 2 and is now 7min 09sec behind the Saudi driver Yazeed al-Rajhi 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.

It is not the most important statistic for Nasser Al Attiyah, who is especially focused on a very hypothetical 6th triumph on the Dakar.

He is forced to accomplish an amazing feat between here and Shubaytah if he wants to overtake Henk Lategan and then Yazeed Al Rajhi, the top two in the general rankings, by winning a 50th stage in the Empty Quarter, a result that would put him level with Ari Vatanen and Stéphane Peterhansel for the record of specials won in the car category.

For the time being, he is in fourth place but is the only driver to have won stages in 18 consecutive editions of the Dakar.

By offering a first stage success to Dacia on the Dakar, he has also won behind the wheel of an eighth different vehicle and with Edouard Boulanger as his sixth co-pilot after Alain Guéhennec, Tina Thorner, Timo Gottschalk, Lucas Cruz and Mathieu Baumel.

Bikes

Luciano Benavides won the fifth special of his career on the Dakar and climbs to fourth place in the general rankings. The Argentinean beat Adrien Van Beveren by 1m54s. The Frenchman has reduced the gap on Tosha Schareina, who is still in second place despite falling at the beginning of the special.

Daniel Sanders, 3rd today 3m04s behind the winner, still boasts a solid lead of 14m45s in the general rankings. Ricky Brabec (5th, 33m31s behind) and Skyler Howes (6th, 38m39s back) are still in the reckoning for the podium, but the gaps are starting to open up.

2025 Dakar Rally Stage 9 Results – Cars

2025 Dakar Rally Overall Standings after Stage 9 – Cars

2025 Dakar Rally Stage 9 Results – Bikes

2025 Dakar Rally Overall Standings after Stage 9 – Bikes