Dakar 2025, Level 2: Al-Rajhi wins 48h check, Lategan takes lead and Sainz loses time

Yazeed Al-Rajhi got here out on height within the 48-hour chrono level on the Dakar Rally as Henk Lategan took over the entire lead.

Toyota privateer Al-Rajhi completed with a time of 10h32m54s, 4m29s up on Dacia’s Nasser Al-Attiyah after the duo pulled transparent at the first day of the mammoth level.

Manufacturing unit Toyota motive force Lategan took over from Seth Quintero on the height of the entire scores after completing 6m16s down at the level winner.

Day some of the level noticed one of the crucial rally protagonists hit bother, with Carlos Sainz rolling his Ford Raptor over and Sebastien Loeb affected by fan issues, permitting Al-Rajhi and Al-Attiyah to stretch transparent.

Competition had been tasked with finishing as a lot of the path as imaginable all through the primary day of the level, with a cutoff of 5pm native time splitting the level into two portions.

After tenting at their finishing issues in a single day, the main duo had 341km left to commute to finish the level on day two, with Mattias Ekstrom placing directly to a top-three position. Whilst Al-Rajhi won two mins over Al-Attiyah from the day’s beginning gaps on the 782km mark, Spaniards Nani Roma and Cristina Gutierrez hit bother, the latter compelled to retire to the bivouac and finish her possibilities of victory. She is going to be capable to rejoin the rally to improve the opposite Dacia drivers.

Reigning W2RC champion Al-Attiyah was once in a position to chop the distance to Al-Rajhi again to only over a minute with slightly 100km left within the level – and at one level sooner than that had slashed the merit to only 26 seconds – however would lose out within the remaining levels to complete over 4 mins again. Lategan took the rally lead together with his third-place end at the level, even though that become 2nd when bonuses had been carried out.

#201 Overdrive Racing Toyota: Yazeed Al Rajhi, Timo Gottschalk

Picture via: A.S.O.

Juan Cruz Yacopini was once fourth, 6m46s down at the stage-winning time however over 3 mins up on fifth-placed Mathieu Serradori. Rokas Baciuska could not dangle his sturdy fourth-position status from early within the day and completed 6th forward of Loeb, who was once in a position to consolidate his rally role in spite of his problems.

Ekstrom misplaced time on day two of the Chrono to slide to 8th, whilst Toby Worth was once 9th after minor problems with his personal. Mitch Guthrie Jr finished the highest 10 for the level, whilst navigation problems past due on noticed Sainz drop over an hour in rally time in general, completing the level twenty third.

Lategan leads the rally via 4m45s over Al-Rajhi, with Al-Attiyah nearly seven mins additional again in 0.33, with Worth fourth, Ekstrom 5th and Loeb 6th, all inside 20 mins of the entire lead.

The following problem for the competition would be the 0.33 particular level, with 495km of timed operating and 352km of untimed commute from the Bisha bivouac to Al Henakiyah.

Footage from Dakar Rally Level 2