The fifth stage of the 2024 Dakar Rally delivered yet another winner in the shape of Nasser Al-Attiyah. The Qatari threw caution to the wind and went flat out for 118 km. Read more about the stage here. This meant he’d be first on the road today. Unlike his rivals, Nasser Al Attiyah (Prodrive Hunter) relishes leading out from the start of a stage: “I don’t mind opening the road. Even if I lose time, what matters to me is finishing these 600 kilometres,” he said. 2024 Dakar stage 6a was the first of two-parts known as the 48 Hr Chrono.

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This new innovation saw teams head into the Empty Quarter. At 16:00 the stage was paused, and teams had to proceed to one of several different overnight camps. There was no outside assistance allowed at these overnight stops, but teams could help each other. Keep in mind that rivals and not teammates may be the sharing the overnight camp. Teams will set off for the conclusion of stage six from 07:00 on Friday morning.

Big Drama

It was supposed to be a slightly less frantic stage, thanks to a lack of overnight servicing, but 2024 Dakar Stage 6a delivered its first drama early on. Overall race leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Overdrive Toyota) had one intent when he set off today: We’ll attack and see what happens,” he declared. Unfortunately this didn’t work out as planned. The Saudi driver’s GPS tracker stopped moving just one 50 km into stage six.

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News followed that the race leader had crashed. He said after his return to the start line: “After 51 kilometres, everything was ok on a very flat chott and we were at full speed when I hit something. The car did a barrel roll and now it is damaged”. The driving pair were okay, but their car is damaged and all hopes of winning the 2024 Dakar are lost. His team will try to repair the Hilux so he can restart from stage seven. You can see the aftermath of his crash below.

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Big Moves

Audi trio of Carlos Sainz, Stephane Peterhansel and Mattias Ekstrom topped the timesheets early on. The hybrid Audis and their drivers seemed to enjoy the large dunes. Another driver on the hunt today was Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive Hunter). He set times that kept him in the top three throughout the day. Hilux driver Seth Quintero must be annoyed that he had to take a new engine two days ago and the time penalty that went with, as was also setting competitive times today.

Peterhansel suffered a blow with hydraulic issues on his Audi. This meant the onboarding jack and power steering system of the car were inoperational. Guerlain Chicherit seemed to be suffering from dune sickness had to reduce his pace “It’s like being hungover,” he admitted at the refueling point.

Camping Buddies

Nasser Al Attiyah, Mattias Ekström, Guerlain Chicherit, Martin Prokop, Giniel de Villiers and Carlos Sainz were the only drivers to have made it past point E. These six will spend the night at rest point F after 476 km. Sainz was setting the pace all day today and is looking to be a good candidate for the stage win.

New Leader

The clocks are paused overnight as the stage only concludes tomorrow. The means that the stage win is still up for grabs and the overall standings remain unchanged. However, with Al-Rajhi out of the race there will be a new leader come tomorrow afternoon. Right now the Audis are looking good but one never knows with the Dakar.

Overall Standings after 2024 Dakar Stage 5

  1. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Overdrive Toyota) 17 hr 24 min 04 sec
  2. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Prodrive) +9 min 03 sec
  3. Carlos Sainz (Audi) +11 min 31 sec
  4. Mattias Ekstrom (Audi) +22 min 58 sec
  5. Mathieu Serradori (CRT) +31 min 00 sec
  6. Stephane Peterhansel (Audi) +34 min 12 sec
  7. Vaidotas Zala (X-Raid) +37 min 07 sec
  8. Guillaume de Mevius (Overdrive Toyota) +41 min 51 sec
  9. Sebastien Loeb (BRX)  +43 min 03 sec
  10. Lucas Moraes (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +54 min 47 sec