Sanders in prime position heading into penultimate Dakar stage TechTricks365

2025 Dakar Rally

Stage 10 – HARADH > SHUBAYTAH

Riders departed the bivouac for Stage 10 at 0415 on Wednesday morning to tackle a gruelling 520-kilometre liaison on route to the relatively short 115 kilometres special leading to Shubaytah, the final bivouac of the 2025 Dakar. Sand expert and Rally2 rider Michael Docherty took the stage win.

Michael Docherty – P1

“I’ve been waiting for the dunes for all the Dakar. I enjoyed being back in the dunes. That’s kind of what I’ve been waiting for all Dakar, is the dunes. Even though it was a short one, it was nice to get back to it. I had one crash, which hurt my shoulder a little bit more, but I just pushed through and was just trying to make my best time today.”

A Rally 2 rider snatching a stage win from the Rally GP bigwigs is a rare occurrence, although the top competitors are no doubt setting themselves up for the penultimate rally stage on Thursday, a stage win would mean opening the way on Thursday over 300 kilometres of sand dunes, a risky strategy at this late juncture. The top runners mainly finished just outside the top 10 on Wednesday as they played a strategic game.

Rui Goncalves was second 1m20s off pace, with Tobias Ebster third +2m21, Stefan Svitko fourth five-minutes in arrears and Rally2 rider Edgar Canet fifth. Skyler Howes was the first of the heavy hitters home in sixth, mirroring his place in the standings, followed by Arunas Gelazninkas, Benjamin Melot and Mathieu Doveze while Toni Mulec completed the top-10.

Daniel Sanders remains perched atop the outright rankings with an increased 16′31″ lead over Tosha Schareina, and 22′24″ over Adrien Van Beveren.

Sanders had adopted a calculated approach to the day’s special, focusing on minimising navigation errors and securing a favourable start position for Thursday. Setting competitive times at both checkpoints of the short special, he strategically eased off in the final section to avoid opening the longer 308-kilometre stage 11 on Thursday. Despite finishing the day 11th, Sanders was only eight-minutes behind the leader in the tightly contested special, strengthening his overall rally lead.

Daniel Sanders – P11

“That’s stage 10 done here in the Empty Quarter! It was a shorter stage but full of sand dunes. We had a massive 500-kilometre liaison this morning which meant a super early start. I’m happy with my result, it’s where we wanted to be ahead of tomorrow’s longer stage. I also extended my lead today so I’m pretty happy with that too.”

Edgar Canet leveraged his mid-pack start position to deliver a strategic ride through the towering dunes, recording a top-10 time at the first checkpoint and went on to finish the demanding stage in an impressive fifth place. The young Spaniard continues to lead the Rally2 category and lies eighth overall.

Edgar Canet – P5

“Stage 10 done and we only have two left now. It was a tough stage today – after riding for hours on the road, the 115 kilometres raced against the clock were made up almost entirely of dunes. I’m really pleased with how I rode and have a good feeling for tomorrow, so I’m happy.”

Skyler Howes emerged as the top Monster Energy Honda HRC rider following his incident free pinpoint run through the dunes as he made sure to avoid unnecessary risks. This paid dividends for the America as he crossed the line as the third fastest Rally GP rider on the day and sixth overall.

Skyler Howes – P6

“We had like eight hours on the seat today and only one hundred kilometres of racing, so that’s a long day. It’s good to be down here in the Empty Quarter though, the weather is much nicer and the dunes are fun to ride. I didn’t really push today, didn’t take any risks, just rode out there and wanted to make sure I got through the stage. I had a good day with no incidents, I know a lot of the other guys are playing games to have a good starting position for tomorrow, so it is what it is. I’m looking forward to just getting through this race, nice and clean, so we’ll see how we go.”

Ricky Brabec kept within touching distance of the quickest rider in what was a warm up for tomorrow’s truly huge dune bashing.

Ricky Brabec – P13

“It was an early morning, we got up at three o’clock to start the liaison at four. It was a six and a half hour highway ride on a dirt bike so experiencing the vibrations, cold weather and the sunrise, it was cool but it was a long morning. The special was only 100km, 100% of that was dunes, so not much to do today, it was more or less for the gameplay and we participated a bit in that. Tomorrow is the final push and we’ll see what happens, the podium is still kind of within reach but the first week hindered us a little bit. At the end of the rally we’ll just know we did our best.”

Fresh off his stage nine victory, Luciano Benavides faced the unenviable task of leading out on stage 10. Despite the difficult terrain and navigation, the Argentinian delivered an impressive performance, opening the stage from start to finish and securing the 16th-fastest time. Luciano’s effort solidifies his fourth-place position in the overall standings, perfectly setting him up to attack tomorrow’s penultimate stage as he aims to close the gap to a podium finish, sitting almost 30-minutes off the lead, seven-minutes off an overall podium and with Brabec nipping at his heels.

Luciano Benavides – P16

“Today was stage 10 in the dunes of the Empty Quarter where I opened the whole way. I think I did a good job, it was really difficult to see the dunes with the sun right overhead and I felt a bit nauseous too. I did my best and we’ve finished in a good position to attack tomorrow as it the last day I will have to make up a large chunk of time and go for a podium finish.”

Tosha Schareina bounced back from his crash yesterday and although he had some arm pump issues he only gave 1’46” to overall leader Sanders at stage’s end. More importantly he’ll start behind him on tomorrow’s pivotal stage eleven with the Spaniard still believing he’s in with a chance of overthrowing the Australian for his first Dakar Rally victory.

Tosha Schareina – P17

“It was pretty good in the beginning, I had a bit of arm pump but we were so cold after 500km of liaison. It was a good warm up in the dunes though. I tried to push a bit but I wanted to be ready for the big adventure tomorrow, over 300km of dunes to come, but we’re going all in and we will fight.”

Adrien Van Beveren has won the Enduropale Le Touquet beach race three times so the Empty Quarter suits the sand specialist, however, as the second rider out on the special it proved a bit trickier for the Frenchman and he could only manage 19th. He’ll look to benefit from a lower start position to make up some time tomorrow and hold on to his provisional third place on the Dakar podium.

Adrien Van Beveren – P19

“Today we had again a really long 520km liaison. I woke up at 3am so it’s been a long day, the small stage though was a good warm up for tomorrow.”

Australia’s Toby Hederics dropped to 36th for the stage, but retained a top-20 standing in the overall, now 19th with a 30-minute buffer in either direction to 18th and 20th.

Next – Stage 11

Tomorrow’s penultimate stage of this year’s Dakar Rally is the big one: 308 km of dunes against the clock through the vast expanse of dunes that is the Empty Quarter that is larger than the size of France and covers Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman.  It is home to dunes rising as high as 200 metres and is the largest sand surface in the world so the sand specialists will take advantage of the terrain on a day where there are sure to be dramatic changes in the overall standings.

2025 Dakar Rally Stage 10 Results

2025 Dakar Rally Standings after Stage 10

2025 Dakar Rally Route/Schedule