Stage #10 took the Dakar Rally into the Empty Quarter, where things got a bit weird. Being the first stage in the massive desert, the leaders opted for more conservative approaches to better prepare themselves for Thursday, resulting in some very unexpected stage winners.

It was probably obvious that Wednesday would not be your average Dakar stage when everyone had to travel 520 kilometers from the bivouac into the Empty Quarter to begin the timed section, itself only 115 km long. With how high the dunes are, flags are mandated for all vehicles to better spot each other. Even then, there were still incidents like Paul Spierings, who was third in Challenger, having to retire because the driveshaft broke halfway through the liaison.

Once the Selective Section began, despite the short length, one could not afford any misstep. Lorenzo Santolino could attest to this when he ran out of fuel just 1.3 kilometers from the finish and had to push his bike to the end, costing him nearly an hour; Javi Vega and David Casteu helped push him across the line. According to Sherco team manager Jordan Curvalle, Santolino’s fuel tank was likely short by about 0.5 liters.

Dakar Classic driver Henry Favre also ran dry 20 km from the refuel zone, leaving him stranded in the desert well into the night.

Dave Klaassen’s air conditioning blew up just ten kilometers into the SS. Tessa Klaassen recalled feeling her and Dave’s feet get warm before smelling a strange odor, which was followed by smoke underneath the hood. They did not notice anything unusual upon stopping to check, which lost them ten minutes before rejoining the race. The Klaassens continued at a slower pace before picking up, finishing 42nd in Ultimate.

Mitch Guthrie lost his AC during the stage as well, so he improvised by leaving the door open while driving.

Ecurie Frères d’Armes, a Classic team of French military veterans, had a rough day. Ludovic Failly’s Peugeot P4 endured a fire stemming from an electrical harness and got trapped in the sand, forcing teammate Sandra Riviere to come tow him out in her Renault Kerax. The truck didn’t fare much better either with a radio failure and the central tire inflation system malfunctioning.

Even with the leaders holding back, somebody still had to win. While the bike leaderboard is often dominated by RallyGP riders, only three finished in the top ten while first-placed Daniel Sanders was 11th. Rui Gonçalves led the way in RallyGP, yet he wasn’t the fastest bike that day.

That honor belonged to the Rally2 of Michael Docherty, who is the first rider from the class to win a Dakar stage outright since Danilo Petrucci won Stage #5 in 2022. Even then, Petrucci’s win came because of a penalty for the initial winner Toby Price whereas Docherty clinched his on raw pace, even if his win came because of everyone else sandbagging.

Docherty’s win was the second by a Rally2 competitor under W2RC sanction after he won Stage #1 of the 2024 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. Bradley Cox achieved the feat later that year at the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid, but had it wiped away by a penalty.

“I felt good from the beginning so I pushed hard till the finish line,” Gonçalves said. “Was a good stage physically, I felt good with the bike as well. I finished P2 today, I am happy with that and we will be focused already on tomorrow to recover and have another long stage tomorrow.”

In contrast, Nasser Al-Attiyah pushed himself with the hope getting himself back in contention for the overall. However, a navigation mistake caused him to fall behind and finish a dismal 61st overall and 21:29 back of stage winner Nani Roma.

“I’m very disappointed, but what can you do? We could have had a great stage, but we’ll see what position we’re in and what we can do tomorrow,” said Al-Attiyah. “Every day is very important and we had a good pace, but we lost a lot of time. This is the most disappointing day of my life.”

Roma scored the maiden Dakar stage win for the Ford Raptor, and his first at Dakar since 2015. It is his 26th stage victory in the Dakar, with 13 each coming on two wheels and four wheels.

“I’m happy for the team because of all the hard work they have been putting in,” commented Roma. “Today, we saw a positive outcome for all we have been doing to improve the car during this rally.”

Besides Rally2 upstaging RallyGP, Challenger cars had also been quicker than their Ultimate counterparts for much of Wednesday. Yasir Seaidan set the fastest time through the first 50 kilometers before stopping to address a broken wishbone, dropping him to 62nd overall and 13th in class. Classmate and fellow Saudi driver Dania Akeel scored her first Dakar stage win, finishing third overall behind Roma and Lucas Moraes.

Even the SSVs had a field day with Francisco López Contardo placing fifth for all FIA cars, Xavier de Soultrait in seventh, and Jeremías Gonzalez Ferioli eighth. Sara Price just missed out on the top ten as she was 18 seconds behind Juan Cruz Yacopini.

After losing it in Stage #9, Henk Lategan reclaimed the FIA lead from Yazeed Al-Rajhi after finishing 29th to the latter’s 58th.

Stage #10 winners

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	227	Nani Roma	Ford M-Sport	2:06:34
Challenger	3	305	Dania Akeel	BBR Motorsport	2:08:14
SSV	5	404	Francisco López Contardo*	Can-Am Factory Team	2:10:45
Stock	82	500	Akira Miura*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	2:39:37
Truck	48	601	Aleš Loprais*	InstaTrade Loprais Team De Rooy FPT	2:22:41

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	2	19	Rui Gonçalves*	Sherco Rally Factory Team	2:01:23
Rally2	1	22	Michael Docherty	BAS World KTM Racing Team	2:00:03

Other

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Points
Dakar Classic	700	Carlos Santaolalla	Factory Tub	7
Mission 1000	1030, 1040	Yoshio Ikemachi, Jordi Juvanteny	HySE, KH-7 Ecovergy Team	20

Leaders after Stage #10

FIA

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Time
Ultimate	1	211	Henk Lategan	Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa	47:29:57
Challenger	14	301	Nicolás Cavigliasso	BBR Motorsport	4:24:12
SSV	18	425	Brock Heger*	Sébastien Loeb Racing	5:55:34
Stock	88	501	Ronald Basso*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	26:57:04
Truck	17	600	Martin Macík Jr.*	MM Technology	5:09:26

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Time
RallyGP	1	4	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	49:53:59
Rally2	8	73	Edgar Canet	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	51:24:47

Other

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Points
Dakar Classic	700	Carlos Santaolalla	Factory Tub	561
Mission 1000	1040	Jordi Juvanteny	KH-7 Ecovergy Team	220

Featured image credit: Julien Delfosse / DPPI