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 11th crew to take on the dunes of the Empty Quarter, while his title rival Yazeed Al Rajhi started 33rd 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)
| 1 | Y. Al Rajhi/T. Gottschalk | Overdrive Toyota Hilux | 51:53:36 | |
| 2 | H. Lategan/B. Cummings | Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux | +6:11 | |
| 3 | M. Ekstrom/E. Bergkvist | Ford Raptor | +22:34 | |
| 4 | N. Al-Attiyah/E. Boulanger | Dacia Sandrider | +26:50 | |
| 5 | M. Guthrie/K. Walch | Ford Raptor | +59:26 | |
| 6 | M. Serradori/L. Minaudier | Century Racing CR7 | +1:10:08 | |
| 7 | J. Yacopini/D. Oliveras | Overdrive Toyota Hilux | +1:58:13 | |
| 8 | J. Ferreira. F. Palmeiro | X-Raid Mini JCW | +2:15:59 | |
| 9 | S. Quintero/D. Zenz | Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux | +2:19:47 | |
| 10 | B. Baragwanath/L. Cremer | Century Racing CR7 | +2:53:26 |
