Taking a lead right after the second Waypoint, Yazeed Al-Rajhi took the Stage 10 win making it two for the Saudi Arabian this year. Spanning the Stage 10 from Neom to Alula, the local hero finished with a time of 3:03:57. But the real bout was witnessed between two Dakar legends as Nasser Al-Attiyah took over the leaderboard championship Stephane Peterhansel by a whisker of just 49 seconds.
Even after struggling initially, defending champion, Carlos Sainz managed to take the fourth place finish in Stage 10 behind Peterhansel. Displaying great performance this year, Jakub Przygonski for Overdrive team finished fifth, ahead of Giniel de Villiers.
Century Team’s Vladimir Vasilyev was seventh followed by Mathieu Serradori and Brian Baragwanath at eighth and ninth place, respectively. Sole BRX runner and Dakar legend Nani Roma completed the top 10 standings in the Stage 10.
Moving on to Stage 11, it was Nasser Al-Attiyah’s fifth Stage win this year. Despite the Stage win, the Qatari wasn’t able to reduce a gap in Peterhansel’s overall lead who finished second maintaining his top spot in the overall leaderboard. His teammate and defending champion Carlos Sainz managed a third just 30 seconds adrift of with a diminished chance of winning the title once again.
After his second Stage win, Yazeed Al-Rajhi opened the Stage but dropped down to fourth 3:35 minutes adrift of Attiyah. Following him was five-time bikes winner Cyril Despres who managed his another best finish of 2021 in fifth.
