ALULA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Seth Quintero won the second stage of the Dakar Rally and missed out by seconds on taking the overall lead on Monday.
Meanwhile, motorbike defending champion Daniel Sanders dominated the 400-kilometer special from Yanbu across the Hedjaz Mountains to AlUla to win the stage and replace KTM teammate Edgar Canet as the overall leader.
Quintero, 18th on stage one, found the second more to his liking. The American driver took the lead by the 143-kilometer waypoint and after four hours won by 1 minute, 42 seconds from Toyota Gazoo teammmate Henk Lategan, the Dakar runner-up last year. A third teammate, Toby Price, was fourth.
“If you’re battling your teammates for a win then you’re having a good day,” Quintero said. “We’re in a good way. We’ve done a lot of strategizing so if I can have an okay day tomorrow and be in mid pack at the start of the marathon (on Wednesday) then I’ll be a happy camper.”
Defending champion Yazeed Al-Rajhi was third after an awful stage one in which he finished nearly 29 minutes off the pace. He’s cut that to 24.
Eighth place on the day was good enough for Nasser Al-Attiyah to lead overall for the first time since his fifth and last Dakar title in 2023.
Overall, Al-Attiyah was seven seconds up on Quintero, with stage one winner Guillaume de Mévius third. The top seven drivers were separated by less than three minutes.
“The key of the Dakar will be tomorrow because I think it will be hard navigation,” Al-Attiyah said. “This area is not easy.”
Tuesday’s stage is a 422-kilometer loop near AlUla without many landmarks to help navigation.
Canet opened the way for the motorbikes for the first 100 kilometers until the novice winner of the first two specials was caught by Sanders. The teammates rode together to the end, picking up bonus times and finishing one-two on the stage and overall.
Sanders won the stage by 1 minute, 35 seconds and replaced Canet as leader by 30 seconds. Ricky Brabec was third on the stage and overall.
“We didn’t push or do anything crazy,” Sanders said. “(Edgar) just sat behind and watched, followed and learned. I’m sure he had some fun back there in the dust. He was there to fix a couple of mistakes and it was good fun riding with him.”
Adrien van Beveren, third in 2024 and 2025, hit a tree after the pitstop but finished the stage and was 14 minutes down.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing