ALULA, Saudi Arabia: Australia’s defending Dakar Rally motorbike champion Daniel Sanders moved into the overall lead after winning Monday’s second stage in Saudi Arabia.

The 31-year-old covered the 518km route from Yanbu to AlUla in 4hrs 13mins 37 seconds to cross the line 1min 35s clear of KTM teammate Edgar Canet, who lost time with a couple of minor crashes.

American Ricky Brabec, the 2024 winner, completed the day’s podium for Honda.

With this 10th stage win in motorsport’s toughest challenge, Sanders climbed to the top of the bike standings by half a minute from Canet, winner of the prologue and opening stage, with Brabec 2min 18s back in third.

“The navigation was really tricky in some places but we fixed a couple of mistakes quickly and didn’t lose too much time,” said Sanders, who has been competing in the Dakar since 2021. 

The rider, who lists beekeeping as one of his hobbies and is known as ‘Chucky,’ added: “I caught Edgar after around one hundred kilometers. It was so hard to catch him and pass him before.

“After that, there was some really tricky stuff and he (Canet) just sat behind and watched, followed and learned.”

Canet was thankful to complete an eventful stage unharmed.

“Well, the stage is completed,” said the 20-year-old Spaniard.

“The truth is that it has been a long stage, 400 km opening the track for the first time.

“I had a few crashes, as you can see, but hey, these things happen. There are some rocks that you can’t see when you’re looking at the roadbook,” he added.

In the car category, American Seth Quintero beat his South African Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate Henk Lategan by 1:42 with the Saudi reigning champion Yazeed Al-Rajhi in third.

Qatar’s five-time Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah heads the standings driving for Dacia by just seven seconds from Quintero after coming in eighth in the stage.

Tuesday’s third stage is a 422km special starting and ending in AlUla.