After the rest day, stage seven returned the riders to the heart of the Dakar action with a demanding 877 km route starting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital city. A 278 km liaison set the field on its way before a gruelling 459 km special stage, followed by a further 140 km run to the finish at Wadi ad-Dawasir in the south of the country.
Navigation proved crucial throughout the day, with fast valley tracks designed to lure riders off course. Dunes, narrow passages and rocky terrain further added to the challenge, making for a long and physically demanding day on the bikes.
Adrien Van Beveren bounced back strongly after a torrid first week, re-establishing himself among the frontrunners. Following suspension adjustments to his Honda CRF450 RALLY, the Frenchman was immediately on the pace and clearly enjoying the dunes. A third-place stage finish lifted his spirits at his 11th Dakar and although he still has nearly 56 minutes to make up overall, Van Beveren will now focus on chasing stage victories with his renewed confidence.
Skyler Howes also endured an eventful opening week, particularly during the marathon stage where tyre management and feeling under the weather tested his resilience. After recovering on the rest day, the American returned to full fitness and delivered another consistent performance to finish fifth on the stage. That result moves him up to fifth overall, 33’34 from the lead.
A ten-minute penalty on stage five disrupted Tosha Schareina’s Dakar momentum, but the Spaniard’s determination remains undimmed. After finishing runner-up on Friday, he continued his fight back with a strong ride on a very dusty stage. Schareina caught Ricky Brabec on the road, and although both were later reeled in by Daniel Sanders, he still claimed 2’50 in bonus time to finish sixth in Rally GP, despite a small navigation error after refuelling. The gap to third-placed Luciano Benavides has now grown to over ten minutes, and Schareina will hope a later start position tomorrow allows him to claw some of that time back.
With just 45 seconds separating him from the top spot overall, stage six winner Ricky Brabec faced the unenviable task of opening the stage. It quickly became a tough assignment, as Schareina and then Sanders caught him, both chipping away at the available bonus time. Brabec secured 5’36 in bonuses, but it wasn’t enough and he finished ninth, 9’15 down on stage winner Luciano Benavides. The two-time Dakar champion remained unfazed, knowing that a deeper start position tomorrow could work in his favour as he looks to reduce the overall deficit of 4’25.
The new week begins tomorrow with a loop stage from Wadi ad-Dawasir. Returning to the city today for the first time in four years, known as the gateway to the Empty Quarter it will host the longest timed special of the rally, with 481 km awaiting Monster Energy Honda HRC. Once again, it promises to be a stern test for the riders.
Ruben Faria – General Manager : « It was a long stage with really fast pistes, some tricky road book notes and also a big liaison. Ricky opened the road today, but he made two quite big navigation mistakes, so Tosha managed to catch him. Tomorrow, I think he is in a good position to start what will be a long stage again. Setting off in second, Tosha also made some mistakes, it was enough for Sanders to catch him and near the end of the stage he made another mistake with Ricky. It was really tough out there because of the dust. I think he too has a good starting position tomorrow. Skyler rode a strong stage, although he got a bit lost near the beginning of the stage which lost some time, but he did a good pace and arrived at the end with a strong fifth position. Adrien felt much better after the rest day as he had time to recover from his crash in the first week. He started further back today but rode a consistent stage to finish in third. Tomorrow is a long stage, it’ll be a mix of terrain and also fast. Let’s see if they can recover time as we continue to fight. »
Ricky Brabec #9 – Stage: 9th Overall: 2nd : « It was not so tricky of a day but we did lose a little bit of time. No stress on my end, I mean tomorrow we’re in a really good position to claw back some time. For now, we’re doing all we can, we’re riding, having fun, we’re navigating, but hopefully tomorrow we can do a good job and make a good push and then we have the marathon camp, which takes its toll on tyres and things like that. Tomorrow’s looking good for us, we’re in a good position to have a solid day on what I think is one of the biggest stages of the rally, so for me it’s better to start at the back. »
Skyler Howes #10 – Stage: 5th Overall: 5th : « It was a full gas day, we were on the throttle stopper pretty much the majority of the stage. I had a couple of bits of tricky navigation, one of which I did a super strange thing, turned around to get a waypoint I’d already got. I had to get the juices going after rest day, as I definitely needed it. »
Adrien Van Beveren #42 – Stage: 3rd Overall: 7th : « It was a much better day, mainly because I enjoyed my riding. It was a very very fast stage, like towards the end it was only flat out, straight, full gas. At the beginning we had some nice dunes, some sand sections and I’m happy, mainly because I enjoyed that more than for the result itself. I’m thankful to the team for the job we’ve done on the rest day, we had some discussions with the engineers on how we could adapt the bike. We did some different suspension settings and it helped me a lot to feel better, so I’m looking forward to the coming days, getting into the same rhythm with the same feeling. »
Tosha Schareina #68 – Stage: 6th Overall: 4th : « Today was not easy, we had 460 km of special and it was so so fast, we did it in like 3 hours 20. It was so windy, I tried to push from the beginning to catch up to Ricky around the 120 km mark. It was so dusty today too. After the refuelling I caught him and I did the second section out front to grab as much bonus time. But after the second refuelling a made a little mistake and Daniel was catching us. He passed us and then we were riding in the dust again. We made some navigation mistakes, so it wasn’t such a good day, but we have a good position for tomorrow. »
Rally GP Result – Stage 7
1. Benavides Luciano (ARG) – KTM Factory Racing Team, 04:00:56
2. Canet Edgar (SPA) – KTM Factory Racing Team, + 04:47
3. Van Beveren Adrien (FRA) – Monster Energy Honda HRC, + 04:57
4. Sanders Daniel (AUS) – KTM Factory Racing Team, + 05:35
5. Howes Skyler (USA) – Monster Energy Honda HRC, + 06:46
6. Schareina Tosha (SPA) – Monster Energy Honda HRC, + 08:45
7. Evan Branch Ross (BWA) – Hero Motorsports Team Rally, + 08:47
8. Cornejo Florimo José Ignacio (CHI) – Hero Motorsports Team Rally, + 09:10
9. Brabec Ricky (USA) – Monster Energy Honda HRC, + 09:15
10. Klein Mason (USA) – Hoto Factory Racing, + 11:37 …
Rider Standings
Rally GP Provisional Standings After Stage 7
1. Sanders Daniel (AUS) – KTM Factory Racing Team, 28:47:31
2. Brabec Ricky (USA) – Monster Energy Honda HRC, + 04:25
3. Benavides Luciano (ARG) – KTM Factory Racing Team, + 04:40
4. Schareina Tosha (SPA) – Monster Energy Honda HRC, + 15:06
5. Howes Skyler (USA) – Monster Energy Honda HRC, + 33:14
6. Cornejo Florimo José Ignacio (CHI) – Hero Motorsports Team Rally, + 33:25
7. Van Beveren Adrien (FRA) – Monster Energy Honda HRC, + 55:57
8. Evan Branch Ross (BWA) – Hero Motorsports Team Rally, + 01:39:22
9. Klein Mason (USA) – Hoto Factory Racing, + 02:39:39
10. Cox Bradley (RSA) – BAS Dakar KTM Racing Team, + 03:08:51…