Ricky Brabec’s strategy paid off perfectly. Yesterday, he intentionally gave up the overall lead to Luciano Benavides so that he could start today’s stage six minutes behind his main rival, with only a 23-second gap between them. This move allowed Brabec to use his strong technical skills to his advantage and attack safely.
The plan worked exactly as intended. Brabec won his 13th career stage and his second stage win this year, quickly erasing the 23-second deficit and building a solid 3 minutes 43 seconds lead over Benavides. With this result, Brabec is now very close to securing his third overall Dakar title, and the final loop around Yanbu is already being jokingly called “Brabec Boulevard.”
Although a comeback by Luciano Benavides is still mathematically possible, it looks very unlikely. He will start the final stage 3 minutes behind Brabec and has only 105 kilometres to make up the time. On top of that, Brabec will benefit from opening bonuses worth up to 1 minute 23 seconds, meaning Benavides would need an exceptional ride to turn the standings around.
Meanwhile, Skyler Howes and Adrien Van Beveren opened the stage but later let the title contenders fight it out. Both Honda riders finished well behind the leaders, yet Howes still moved up to 4th overall. This was helped by Daniel Sanders’ struggles, as the injured Australian dropped to 5th place. Adrien Van Beveren sits just behind in 6th, eight minutes further back.
In the Rally 2 category, Tony Mulec strengthened his overall lead, extending his advantage to 6 minutes 12 seconds over Preston Campbell.