DAKAR 2025

"The dune, overheating, broken glass and a puncture: the day went from bad to worse"

Carlos Sainz suffered his first serious setback of the Dakar, in the first part of the 48-hour day, and with an hour lost to the leading group, and above all, to his great rival, Nasser Al-Attiyah.

Upon arriving at Camp E, the four-time Dakar champion and reigning champion quickly got to work to get the Raptor in racing condition, although Ford had already warned that "fortunately the damage seems more cosmetic than real or structural to the car."

Sainz recounted today's events in a brief manner: "Today was a fairly complicated stage. After rolling over on a cut dune, we were able to continue thanks to the help of our teammate Mitchell," said the Madrid native, after the spectacular rescue rollover by the Ford driver.

"But then we had more problems, the car was overheating, we couldn't see well because of the broken window and we got a puncture. The day went from bad to worse," concludes Carlos, who aims to finish this long and eventful stage tomorrow.

Schareina and Canet shine and Sanders aims for a hat trick

The format, the type of terrain or the characteristics of the stage don't matter. The king of the motorcycle category is called Daniel and his surname is Sanders. The Australian KTM rider continues to give his rivals no chance and today he has dominated the 48-hour stage again in its initial part.

Among the Spaniards, Tosha Schareina (Honda) was again the standout with a brilliant fourth place, without any mistakes. Edgar Canet also recovered from his difficult initial stage, taking a great seventh place 11:25 behind his teammate, as the winner of the day in Rally 2 and in the rhythm of the Rally GP.

Australian Sanders finished the first part of the 48 Hours stage in the lead. KTM

Things didn't go so well for Lorenzo Santolino (Sherco), who finished a little further back, 22:20 behind the leader, and outside the provisional top 10 so far in the stage.

The stage was very static and somewhat dull. Just past the 200-kilometre mark, the positions had already been established, with Sanders in command, and Brabec and Branch always within reach... but always behind. The Aussie finished the day with a 40-second lead over Brabec (the defending champion who seems determined to open his account of victories) and 3:51 over the world champion, Ross Branch. Schareina, 5:09 behind, has a more difficult time in order to qualify for the stage.

Tomorrow, this second stage of the 2025 Dakar will be completed with the rest of the route. For the leading riders, it will be 330 kilometres.

Provisional classification for stage 2 on bikes

Dakar 2025:

Daniel Sanders (KTM) - 7h 41:56

Ricky Brabec (Honda) at 40

Ross Branch (Hero) at 3:51

Tosha Schareina (Honda) at 5:09

Skyler Howes (Honda) at 8:38

Michael Docherty (Honda) at 10:22

Edgar Canet (KTM) at 11:25

Pablo Quintanilla (Honda) at 12:39

Luciano Benavides (KTM) at 12:46

Adrien Van Beveren (Honda) at 14:15

Enrique Naranjo