2025 Dakar Rally penultimate stage 11 results where Honda’s tactics disappear in the fog and Daniel Sanders keeps the pace to place one hand on the Tuareg winner’s trophy.

2024 Dakar Rally Stage 11 in a nutshell – Shubaytah > Shubaytah Special: 152km Liaison: 232km sand and dunes, that’s it.

• D-day. D for decisive that is as the 2025 Dakar hit its final real test for riders and bikes in the sandy southeast of Saudi, among the vast dunes of the infamous Empty Quarter.
• They say fortune favours the brave and if anyone, let’s say the race leader Daniel Sanders for example, was nervous then they had plenty of time for the butterflies to flap about as fog delayed the deployment of the all-important helicopters and racing was three hours late getting started on a half-distance course.
• A wise man also once said you make your own luck in sport and in reality KTM’s lead rider made this Dakar his by being on it from the first day of the rally, a lead which the Australian has never let go.
• In a nutshell the result of stage 11 was in part (Honda will certainly say) down to the start delay and subsequent shortening of the stage (due to hours/daylight/helicopter recovery/medics etc.) which meant half the kilometres were raced. A fact which helped the leader’s cause, offering less time for those behind to play catch up from their later start positions.
• Worth pointing out the decision to cut the stage short came from the riders with only a couple objecting, including Adrien Van Beveren. All other major GP class riders are said to have agreed, even if it benefitted some more than others.
• Honda’s army of Tosha Schareina (2nd overall), Van Beveren (3rd) and Ricky Brabec (4th) were banking on bigger gains today from a full-length stage but that vanished with the fog and in part because they wasted time sand bagging yesterday.
• They didn’t account enough on Sanders not really backing off either. He placed a solid sixth on the stage and though it ain’t over till it’s over, the final results of the 2025 Dakar are all-but assured.
• Schareina duked it out with Luciano Benavides and Van Beveren for the stage 11 win with the Spaniard grabbing it by 30 seconds from Luciano and Van Beveren third, a further 30s or so behind.
• The overall classification stands a race lead for Sanders of nine minutes over Schareina and 15 minutes ahead of Van Beveren. There’ll still be a lot of red on the podium but this one’s Chucky and KTM’s, barring disaster.
• The short 61km stage tomorrow is a little like the final stage of the Le Tour de France cycling race (less of race), means today was the D-day decider. Short of Brabec taking one for the team and t-boning Sanders tomorrow that is...although we don’t want to put ideas in any Honda heads.
• Rally 2 was complicated by so many of the riders clocking in the top 10 yesterday but Mathieu Doveze topped the category today – another win for the BAS KTM team – ahead of Toni Mulec and Konrad Dabrowksi.
• Class contenders Edgar Canet and Tobias Ebster kept their ships steady and the gap for the overall is still heavily in favour of the Spanish youngster by 35 minutes. Romain Dumontier is comfortable in third.
• Tomorrow the riders hit a mass start in rows of 15 with the top 15 going last in a sprint back to the bivouac. “I’m not sure how it’ll work out but get out front, get the holeshot, that’s the plan,” says Sanders... The closing ceremony which you can watch on the Dakar YouTube channel.

2025 Dakar Rally stage 11 results (provisional, will update):

2025 Dakar Rally provisional classification after stage 11 (provisional):

*Results will update in full once official

Photo Credit: A.S.O. Julien Delfosse | Flavien Duhamel + Florent GFooden DPPI | Red Bull