Sanders ‘feeling good’ as Dakar finish approaches
The end of the 2025 Dakar Rally is approaching and Australia’s Daniel Sanders is “feeling good” with a historic victory in sight.
Sanders did not push too hard in the taxing 635km Stage 10 from Haradh to Shubaytah, the first in the Empty Quarter of Dakar, finishing 11th, 8m22s behind winner Michael Docherty.
However, the Aussie KTM star did what he needed to do, being calculated and staying out of trouble in a journey full of sand dunes to protect his precious overall lead ahead of the final two stages.
Sanders holds a 16m31s lead over Tosha Schareina, who is the only rider within 20m.
As a result Sanders said his main aim is to survive tonights penultimate stage where he should benefit from a later starting position to his rivals.
“It’s pretty much survival tomorrow and just getting through,” he said.
“Hopefully there’s some faster guys coming out the back to open the track tomorrow. But yeah, I think we’ll be all right.
“We’re feeling good and even the first 40-50km felt really rough in the sand because it’s completely different softer sand here compared to where we have been previously.
“But in the end, I felt really good in the nav and I was opening a little bit and then yeah, it felt nice, so ready for tomorrow.
“If I did the perfect race I would have executed a very good position yesterday and unfortunately I didn’t get to execute yesterday’s stages as well as I would have liked to but that’s rally.
“You can never have a perfect race unless you do a motocross race or something really short and simple but you’re always chasing perfection but that’s the goal.
“One day to get it, it would be nice.”
In more good news, fellow Australian Toby Hederics retained his grip in the top 20, sitting 19th and half an hour ahead of his nearest rival.
This was evident after finishing 36th and just shy of 24m away from the ultimate pace today.
Nani Roma got his first Dakar stage win since 2015 driving for Ford M-Sport Team. Image: Red Bull Content Pool
The battle for victory on four wheels continues to be hard to predict as a dramatic Stage 10 saw Henk Lategan retake the lead.
As many found the sand of the Empty Quarter challenging, the experience of Nani Roma shined as the Ford driver took his first stage win at Dakar in a decade.
In a hard fought affair, Roma managed to get his Raptor ahead just at all three checkpoints to take the honours by 18s.
This was enough for him to deny Toyota driver Lucas Moraes, who made significant ground in the final 23km.
In the fight for overall honours, Lategan reclaimed the lead by squeezing himself into the top 10.
His drive saw him overturn a 7m deficit to Al-Rajhi to a 2m27s lead.
Meanwhile, his rivals had a difficult time in the dunes as Mattias Ekstrom and Yazeed Al-Rajhi slipped outside the top 20 and beyond 20m adrift.
All eyes turn to the penultimate stage that is one for the dune surfers being a 308km blast through the Empty Corner.
Main image: Marcelo Maragni / Red Bull Content Pool
2025 Dakar Rally bikes leaderboard after Stage 10
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