Watch daily extended highlights from the 2025 edition of the Dakar Rally each morning via our - plus a daily 15-minute mini recap and more from January 4 to January 18 (AEDT).
Sanders battled Honda’s Tosha Schareina in drizzly conditions and traded the upper hand until the Red Bull KTM rider found a gap with 120 kilometres remaining.
Schareina wound up finishing third on the stage, 3’47” down on Sanders, with Edgar Canet finishing in second place (3’36”).
The win takes Sanders’ tally to five for the 2025 edition, a total Price previously achieved en route to his overall victory in 2016 – the first of two titles in the bikes classification.
Stream free On Demand
Dakar Rally 2025
series • motorsport
series • motorsport
Now, it’s another Australian who could take the title, with Sanders 15’33” ahead of Schareina in the outright standings.
“It was very fast, technical at the start and we had a lot of rain, but it was only at the start, so there was a pretty wet line to see in front, and I just had to kind of correct and not follow the mistakes with the navigation,” Sanders said.
“So it wasn’t too bad. The focus was good, speed was good, head was good, so it was a much better day compared to yesterday.
“We made a couple of little clickers on the suspension, that made it a bit stiffer for the sand, so that helped a lot today, made it a little easier to ride, so it was a pretty cruisey day.
“We’re here to try and win, and we’re trying to do everything we can to put ourselves in the best position for that.”
With Price forced to withdraw from the rally due to a severe concussion suffered by British navigator Sam Sunderland, and Andrew Houlihan breaking his ribs, scapula and collarbone, Australia’s contingent has been reduced to four participants with five stages remaining.
Toby Hederics finished an eventful day in 11th position out of the Rally 2 riders and moved up to 9th overall in the process.
As for brothers Peter and Christopher Schey, the pair had a challenging day in the dunes but recovered to finish in 22nd place and increase their overall ranking in the Classic classification to 15th.
