Saudi driver Yazeed Al Rajhi led at the midway point of the marathon 48-hour second stage of the Dakar Rally on Sunday as two big names suffered a wretched day in the dunes.
Carlos Sainz lost 40 minutes after his Ford Raptor flipped while Sebastien Loeb's hopes of winning his first title cooled with a fan issue on his Ford.
Defending champion Sainz was shaken up at having his world unexpectedly turned upside down on a Sunday drive in the desert.
"It's not ideal. We turned the car on its head on a dune. The car's a bit battered, and so are we," said the Spaniard who is now almost 50 minutes off the lead.
Half a 🚗 missing for @CSainz_oficial and @LucasCruz74?
— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 5, 2025
Yeah, that's no problem 💪#Dakar2025 pic.twitter.com/U8K1k7ijWc
Veteran former world rally legend Loeb's mechanical gremlins left him over half an hour behind virtual leader Al Rajhi.
"We normally have three fans but we lost the first one, the front fan, so it started to heat up and go into degraded mode," said Loeb.
"We dragged ourselves along like that but then we lost a second fan, so that's when things really started to heat up.
"We managed to drag ourselves along, stopping on each dune and waiting for it to cool down so that we could build up some momentum and climb the next one. Then, all of a sudden, a second fan started up again."
Al Rajhi can sympathise at his rivals' misfortunes after having to abandon the Dakar during this very stage 12 months ago.
Introduced for the first time in 2024 the intrepid Dakar competitors on four wheels and two will cover almost 1000km over the two days.
The 48-hour stage is held in the kingdom's Empty Quarter, a vast sea of sand with dunes as far as the eye can see.
Sunday's first segment came to a close when the clock struck 1700 in Saudi Arabia, the time for all competitors to head to their nearest break zone and try to get some sleep under the stars before Monday's conclusion, setting off at sunrise.
🔝 Some of the TOP MOMENTS from the Ultimate class on day 1 of this epic 48 hour chrono ⏱
— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 5, 2025
Presented by @CatrionGlobal #Dakar2025 pic.twitter.com/lgHXlaVwl2
Unlike last year's first two-day stage the routes for the bikes and cars have been separated, meaning drivers will be unable to follow the trails set by the faster bikes.
As the drivers headed off to get some well earned sleep Al Rajhi, third in 2022, was 1min 19sec clear of Nasser Al Attiyah, and also provisionally heads the Qatari five-time winner in the overall rankings.
In the bike race Australia's Daniel Sanders, winner of the first stage, leads American defending bike champion Ricky Brabec by 2min 23sec.
Awesome action in today's Bikes' TOP MOMENTS instalment as the riders took on more than 600km in the first part of the 48 hour chrono 🏍 🔝
— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 5, 2025
Presented by @CatrionGlobal #Dakar2025 pic.twitter.com/rpesYg7dgn