Stage 9 – Wadi Ad Dawasir – Marathon Bivouac Refuge 410km, liaison 122km
There was high drama in the desert on stage nine, the first leg of the second marathon stage.
21-year-old Eryk Goczal and co-driver Szymon Gospodarczyk won stage nine in their privately entered Energylandia Toyota Hilux, the Polish driver’s maiden win in the Ultimate category. Uncle Mical and his co-driver Diego Ortego came home in second place on the day in another Energylandia Hilux.
Toby Price and Armand Monleon claimed third on the stage in their TGR W2RC Hilux – the Australian’s first car podium, 22 seconds ahead of Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer in their Century Racing CR-7.
Guillaume de Mevius/Mathieu Baumel brought their X-Raid Mini JCW home in fifth place, three quarters of a minute ahead of Christina Guttierez/Pablo Moreno’s Dacia Sandrider.
Seventh and eighth went to Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz, a slender five seconds ahead of their Ford Racing Raptor teammates Nani Roma/Alex Haro.
Lionel and Lucie Baud took ninth on the stage in another X-Raid Mini JCW while the Chinese pairing of Gaoxiang Fan, making his Dakar debut this year, and co-driver Kai Zhao rounded out the top ten in their JJ Sport JJ3 T1+ which is powered by a Ford 3.5L GTD V6 EcoBoost engine.
It was that kind of stage. Notice anyone missing from today’s top ten results?
The stage started benignly enough with the usual suspects going at it hammer and tongs. Sebastien Loeb led Lucas Moraes in their Dacia Sandriders, followed by Mitch Guthrie and Joao Ferreira while Guy Botterill and Oriol Mena made the biggest leap from 18th to eighth.
From km 78 to km 271, Moraes led the charge with Botterill in the TGRSA Hilux hounding him every step of the way. Guthrie held third until km 147 before dropping back when Michal Goczal turned up the wick to run third. That didn’t last long either, as Eryk G took third, then second then the lead at the 351km mark with Uncle Michal several minutes behind.
Moraes dropped eight minutes around the 309km mark, dropping to 12th while Baragwanath happily sailed on to the final step of the podium, four seconds ahead of Price.
The fight over the final step of the podium raged between Price and Baragwanath while Romain Dumas and Denis Krotov kept the leaderboard humming over the first 180 or so km.
Of the rally favourites, Henk Lategan had a bad day. He and Brett Cummings got lost near the start of the stage, then picked up a puncture. The Hilux lost power steering 40km before the decontrolled pit stop area where the offending unit was replaced. They got lost again, had another puncture then lost their windscreen after hitting a bush while stuck in Loeb’s dust. They stopped to kick it out and put on goggles.
“We have a long list of bad days, but this one is going to be top of the list,”, Lategan said at the end of the stage.
Al-Attiyah and Mattias Ekstrom both got lost around the 280km mark, Ferreira stopped at km 337 after hitting a rock and set about to repairing the damage.
After the mayhem, Carlos Sainz, the virtual overall leader after 309 km, 351 km and 380 km, lost the lead of the rally to none other than his team-mate Nani Roma after receiving a 1’10” speeding penalty. The Catalan took the top spot for the first time since his triumph in 2014, 57 seconds ahead of Sainz and 1’10’’ in front of Al Attiyah. Lategan is not far from the leading trio (in fourth, 6’13’’ behind) while Mattias Ekstrom has dropped into fifth place (11’19’’ behind).
“We could have made a good move today,” reported Loeb at the finishing line. The Frenchman was fifth on the stage after 222 km, before losing his power steering. “We had to do 180 kilometres like that, it was impossible to drive,” he stated. He salvaged the day with 19th place but failed to capitalise on his rivals’ navigation mistakes the overall standings. Still in sixth place, Loeb is 21’ 6” behind the new leader Roma.
The RallyGP bikes weren’t spared from the carnage, or should that be ‘bike-nage’?
The day started with Spanish Rally GP rookie Édgar Canet leading Michael Docherty, Tosha Schareina and Ross Branch while overnight leaders, 2025 Dakar winner 450 Rally Factory KTM riders Luciano Benavides and World Champion Daniel Sanders languished in 52nd and 34th respectively, and Honda riders, Adrien van Beveren and Ricky Brabec struggled in 34th and 11th.
On another cruel day for early leaders Edgar Canet and Ross Branch, Daniel Sanders fought back from 34th earlier in the day to end up second behind Honda rider Tosha Schareina and move back into the overall lead for KTM.
It is going to be a long night for those with mechanical problems to fix on their own, using whatever they, or their teammates carry with them.
Image credits: A.S.O/Red Bull Content Pool
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