Sanders survives crash, edges closer to history

Daniel Sanders on the edge of glory being one stage away from becoming the second Australian to win the famous Dakar Rally.

Having performed across the first 7,695km Sanders is only 131km away from history.

He enters the final stage with a solid 9m advantage over Tosha Schareina after a dramatic 384km penultimate stage in the Empty Quarter.

Sanders survived a crash, but still pushed hard to minimise the time loss to nearest rival Schareina, who gave it everything to keep his rally alive.

Schareina won the stage and gained a significant 7m31s on Sanders.

However, the Australian KTM rider was simply happy to still finish the stage sixth after it did not go to plan.

But critically he remains in a strong position to join Toby Price in an exclusive club of Australian Dakar Rally winners.

Daniel Sanders taking on the dunes. Image: Kin Marcin / Red Bull Content Pool

“Today the stage didn’t start until later than scheduled because of the amount of fog present limiting visibility,” he said. 

“I had a crash today during the sand dunes and I’m feeling pretty rough today. 

“I still have an overall lead of 9 minutes and we have one stage left of 61kms. Let’s bring it home!”

Schareina is simply happy to be in contention as a final stage showdown looms.

“I’m happy, I’ve been racing the Dakar for three years now and today I’m battling for overall victory,” the Honda rider said. 

“This morning, all the riders agreed, apart from two of them, to stop after the refuelling point for safety reasons, especially visibility in the dunes, because it would be late when we got to them. 

“It could have been detrimental to me, but I already calculated yesterday that I would have needed to start two positions further back to be able to hope to catch Daniel Sanders.”

The other Aussie on two wheels, Toby Hederics, had another clean day, being 25th which was enough to retain 19th overall.

In the battle for victory on four wheels, Yazeed Al-Rajhi strengthened his case for victory as the overall lead continued to change hands.

Toyota driver Henk Lategan entered the penultimate stage with a 2m27s lead, but he now sits 6m11s adrift of Al-Rajhi.

Al-Rajhi finished second behind Mattias Ekstrom, but was part of a lead group that stormed through the dunes and pulled almost 10m clear of their nearest rivals.

Al-Rajhi was delighted to make such a massive mark on the rally stating  “I know I can do it. I trusted myself, I attacked and enjoyed.”

Meanwhile, Lategan lamented his struggles in the sand, but was not too hard on himself.

“We were a little bit too far ahead on the road, we finished right behind the opener,” he said. 

“To be honest, there’s not much more we could have done today. 

“I tried my best and at the end we were looking for tracks and opening some of the way with Lucas. 

“I tried… that was about what we could manage today. 

“I’ve never been a sand or dune expert but I’m happy to come through the stage. The car is still in one piece. 

“We made it, now there’s just one more short day and then we will be at the finish. It’s amazing. 

“We’ve had a really good Dakar with some ups and downs. Some things went our way, others didn’t. 

“Overall, I’m happy with how it went and how it’s going. 

“We still have one more day to go until we get to the finish. It’s been a really good race.”

The deciding final stage is a short 70km blast through the bivouac to complete another Dakar where another Australian could itch his name into history.

Dakar Rally bikes leaderboard after Stage 11

Main image: Flavien Duhamel / Red Bull Content Pool

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