Results of the ninth stage of the 2024 Dakar Rally, where Honda teamwork paid off with victory for Van Beveren ahead of teammates Ricky Brabec and Pablo Quintanilla for a fully red daily podium – Brabec opens a gap of seven minutes ahead of Ross Branch in the general classification.

2024 Dakar Rally Stage 9 in a nutshell – Ha’il > Al Ula  Special: 463km Liaison: 222km

• The 2024 Dakar Rally has now entered its final stretch with stage nine today of 639 kilometres in total, 436km of the special raced in 100% sand. The day began with strong gusts of wind early in the morning in a first part favourable for sprinters but complicated by tricky navigation as the kilometers passed.
• When a stage of the Dakar appears relatively easy on paper, it always raises suspicions among the riders where the organisers warn to remain attentive in terms of navigation – even more so with the rally entering its final stages.
• After their historic result taking the first two positions yesterday, the brothers Kevin and Luciano Benavides entrusted themselves "to do a good job today", opening the track to benefit from the time bonuses of 1 second per kilometer for those who lead the special.
• Their pursuers soon gave chase and, at km 68, Adrien Van Beveren had already begun to shoulder the burden of navigation, with Kevin giving up 9 minutes and Luciano 8 compared to the Frenchman's best time of the special at that point, followed at 30 seconds by his teammate Brabec, and with Toby Price and Ross Branch two minutes away. It looked like a real sand race out there.
• Following the team strategy, the Honda rider continued to push hard to increase his advantage and add the maximum bonus time before Ricky Brabec, seventh yesterday, got his act together to contact his teammate at the front. of the. He did it at approximately km 200 and, from there, both opened the track side by side, with Brabec setting the best time. While, behind him, his other teammate, Pablo Quintanilla, also did his homework and placed second, placing three machines from the HRC team commanding the timesheets.
• Ricky Brabec reach the finish line with a time of 4h9m15s, giving him the best time of the day but not the stage victory, since AVB collected 5m36 in bonuses for opening the track. Van Beveren wins his second stage of this Dakar that is truly being claimed as Honda’s own with today three riders in the podium positions along with Brabec and Quintanilla. Price and Branch were fourth and fifth respectively, both almost seven minutes behind the stage winner.
• With only three days left, the overall leader Brabec increases his lead at the top of the table with 7m9s ahead of Branch. The one from Botswana is currently the only Hero team driver left in the race, so he is alone against the large Honda team.
• Meanwhile, former Dakar winners like Price and Benavides are running out of time to once again raise the Touareg trophy thanks to Honda's tight control of the classification. The Argentine rider is the best placed of the Red Bull KTM team, fifth, accompanied by Price in sixth place, although both respectively 28m2s and 35m12s behind the leader. Luciano Benavides at 49m9s, Daniel Sanders at 50m47, followed more than an hour by Svitko and Michek complete 'the top 10' of the general classification.
• Finishing 10th on the stage, Bradley Cox claims the Rally 2 class victory for the day and helps his chances of getting back on the podium in class. Romain Dumontier was second on the day by 1:31 but now leads overall by 10:56 ahead of Jean Loup Lepan with Harith Noah third scratch in class, 6 minutes ahead of Cox.

2024 Dakar Rally Stage 9 results (provisional, will update):

*Results will update when they become official

Provisional overall classification after stage 9:

*Results will update when they become official

Photo Credit: Rally Zone + ASO/DDPI (E.Vargiolu/J. Deldosse/Vicent/ C. López/ Le Floc'h/M. Kin)