After the Chrono Stage and two marathon stages, everyone needed to catch their breaths. That’s why the rest day exists, essentially dividing the Dakar Rally into halves (unevenly though, it’s a five-seven split).

Despite its name, everyone was still busy as ever. The Ha’il bivouac was alight with activity as teams made repairs and adjustments to their vehicles while competitors got a day to heal up. Even stewards from the FIA were hard at work as they processed penalties from the first half. Unlike penalties handled by the Clerk of the Course, which are done daily and mainly consists of infractions like speeding, the stewards’ investigations involved individually summoning each offender to explain themselves.

The FIA was particularly bugged by how many drivers did not put their cell phones in pouches before stages. Adam Kuś, Ahmed Al-Kuwari, and Guoyu Zhang all received 30-minute penalties for Stage #4 along with suspended disqualifications for this reason. A suspended disqualification means they would still be allowed to continue the race, but would be scratched from the results if they do it again.

Article 9.1.7 of the FIA Cross-Country Rally Sporting Regulations stresses that “FIA priority crews, as well as the first 10 crews in the classification of the previous Stage, must place all their mobile phones and watches (unless those authorised as per Art. 9.1.6), which must be switched off, in a pouch provided and sealed by the organiser at the first TC DSS of the Stage. At the stop point of the last ASS of of the Stage, the Crew must ask an official to remove the seal. The pouch may be stored in the vehicle’s cockpit.”

It might sound like a silly reason to punish a team, especially by threatening to disqualify them, but the FIA is strict on what devices can be present and accessible in the cockpit. Watches, for example, were a hot-button topic in 2024 because some models like smartwatches could be used for satellite navigation, thereby providing an unfair advantage.

Al-Kuwari’s team promptly apologized for the infraction. Kuś’ navigator Dmytro Tsyro presented his and Kuś’ pouches to the stewards, explaining they did not open them since there was no wi-fi in the marathon stage bivouac so they did not request a new one for Stage #5; they were told in kind that they had to get new pouches for each stage.

In Zhang’s case, it seemed to be a misunderstanding due to the language barrier as most of his crewmen only speak Chinese. With an interpreter to explain their side of the story to the stewards, the crew asserted they did not receive a pouch from race officials and speculated the FIA might have missed his car since he started so far back. Zhang, on the other hand, said he did get one. The stewards flatly responded that a “lack of language proficiency” does not justify breaking the rules.

While not a watch, Martin Prokop was called by the stewards because he changed his gloves during Stage #4 from an approved pair to one that is not. He received a €250 fine ($256.39).

Century Racing, whose vehicles had bizarre mechanical troubles throughout the early stages, added another one when Wang Min Lei received a ten-minute penalty for Stage #3. His CR7 had exceeded the maximum turbo pressure of 30 millibars per second (mBars/s) 774 times during the stage. The team explained they changed the engine between Stages #2 and #3 because of technical problems, though issues such as the turbo overboosting still persisted.

Fellow Century driver Brian Baragwanath was busted for tightening his wheels while inside the neutralization zone, which is under parc fermé rules. It would have been permitted had his team asked for permission, but they admitted they did not realize this until they finished making the fix. Baragwanath had two minutes added to his time as a result.

A quartet of Toyota Hilux drivers—Rokas Baciuška (30 seconds), Guy Botterill (40 seconds), Giniel de Villiers (50 seconds), and Juan Cruz Yacopini (90 seconds)—were penalized because their navigators did not wear their seatbelts properly while their cars were in motion.

Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari got 30 minutes added to his Stage #5 time for fixing a downed right-rear tire in the neutralization zone. According to Al-Kuwari, the tire had gone flat before entering neutralization and his jack was struggling to work on gravel, so he went into the paved neutralization zone to do so. Nonetheless, he apologized and admitted he was unfamiliar with the rule since this was his first Dakar.

In spite of their despotic actions, the stewards knew when to be lenient to their subjects too. Baragwanath (15 minutes), Stefan Carmans (13 minutes), Wei Han (7 minutes), Dave Klaasen (18 minutes), Hunter Miller (11 minutes), Gintas Petrus (8 minutes), and Xavier de Soultrait (1 minute) had time removed from their Stage #4 results due to a delay in the refuel area.

Featured image credit: Marcelo Maragni / Red Bull Content Pool