DAKAR 2025

Dakar, Nasser Al Attiyah: “It was a difficult stage”...Nasser Al Attiyah finished second in the day's special, 41 seconds behind winner Mattias Ekstrom and was unable to gain time on the Swedish rider who remains ahead of him in the overall standings. The five-time Dakar winner is 26min50sec behind Yazeed Al Rajhi and is 4min16sec off the final podium. Al Attiyah found the stage difficult, and even had to deal with two punctures. After that, the stage went by without any major problems, but the goal of finishing on the podium seems to be slipping away:

“It was a difficult stage. At the beginning we had two flat tires due to a big impact and we stopped for five minutes to change both wheels. After that we tried to accelerate again… We finished today without any other problems, the car was working very well and we are quite satisfied. It's great to have the new car and be fighting for the podium. We are happy, we had a good performance, but a new car always needs time.”

Dakar trucks...Czech driver Martin Macik(image above) continued his dominant run in the Dakar truck category, taking his fifth stage victory. Macik completed the stage with the fastest time, beating Kees Koolen by just seven seconds in a thrilling finish. With this victory, Macik further solidifies his position at the top of the overall standings, now holding a lead of over 2 hours and 25 minutes over Mitchel van den Brink.

Macik set the early pace at the first time check, leading by 4min40sec over van den Brink, his closest competitor in the overall standings. However, as the stage progressed to the 39km mark, Vaidotas Zala, navigated by Paulo Fiuza, took control, pushing Macik to over six minutes behind. Teruhito Sugawara moved up to second place, while van den Brink and Ales Loprais both lost more than ten minutes.

At the 68km midpoint, Macik responded strongly, regaining the lead with a 2min41sec advantage over Kees Koolen and 4min19sec over Zala. Meanwhile, yesterday's stage winner Ales Loprais found himself trailing by more than eight minutes.

Macik maintained his strong pace throughout the rest of the special, eventually crossing the line seven seconds ahead of Koolen, with Zala just over two minutes behind.

With this latest success, Macik reinforces his lead in the general classification, increasing his advantage over van den Brink to more than 2 hours and 25 minutes. Van den Brink, in turn, managed to gain more than 1min30sec over Loprais, maintaining third place in the overall classification with a small advantage of five minutes over the Czech driver. Koolen, in fourth, is more than 3h38min behind fourth place.

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