With his lowliest performance since the beginning of the first leg of the world rally-raid championship, Al-Attiyah has allowed Loeb, the day’s winner, to draw back level on points. While it is obvious that the battle between the two men for the crown in Jeddah has been on the cards since several days ago, it seems like the wider contest is set to carry on for the rest of the year! They both have 18 points each after 5 days of the championship. Behind them, with half as many points, Al Rajhi and Alvarez are providing backup to Nasser for the constructor’s title which currently looks set to go to Toyota. However, Nani Roma is 5th with 8 points, ready to assist Loeb in putting Prodrive in the reckoning. In the T3 class there is another duel at the summit of the race hierarchy. Seth Quintero for the OT3 Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team has succeeded in redressing the balance after drawing a blank on stage 2. He has regained the lead with a score of 20 points, against 19 pour Francisco López of EKS South Racing. Behind them, there is an identical scenario to the T1 class. Two of the leader’s team-mates have boxed in “Chaleco” thanks to the performances of Cristina Gutiérrez and Guillaume de Mévius. In the T4 class, Austin Jones, the South Racing Can-Am Factory driver, has still not picked up the 5 points awarded for a stage victory. Poland’s Michał Goczał, driving for the Cobant-Energylandia Rally Team, boasts two stage wins and 17 points in total against 16 for the American who is instead relying in his consistency, tied with South Racing Can-Am driver Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira. In the T5 class, Martin Macík from Big Shock Racing has pocketed a fourth stage victory out of 5 specials and now boasts 23 points under his belt against 18 for Kees Koolen, who is flying the flag for Project 2030. In the bike category, although we will have to wait until the end of the Dakar to award points to drivers and constructors, GasGas continues to sit atop the virtual rankings with Sunderland still leading the race, followed by the current world champion, KTM’s Matthias Walkner. Daniel Sanders, just behind the Austrian in the championship, has reinforced the position of the Gerona based constructor. In the Rally 2 class, rookies Mason Klein and Bradley Cox are still holding out against the best French representative on the Dakar 2021, Camille Chapelière.
