Dakar 2025 – Stage 5: Penalized, Nasser Al-Attiyah gives up the stage victory to Seth Quintero by one second

Nasser Al-Attiyah is a man in a hurry. Perhaps in a hurry to reach the Hail bivouac to enjoy the rest day planned for tomorrow. After his misadventures the day before, he showed a very enthusiastic young guard this year that the desert fox was still around.

Behind the wheel of a highly efficient Dacia Sandrider despite its recent development, the Qatari and his co-driver Edouard Boulanger dominated this long stage of 492 kilometers, including 428 of special stage. With the best time from the very first timed sectors, Al-Attiyah crossed the finish line with a time ten minutes faster than his closest competitor, the American Seth Quintero.

Short-lived joy unfortunately for the Franco-Qatari crew who thought they had secured Dacia’s first stage win in a Dakar. For having lost a spare wheel during the stage, the five-time winner of the event received a ten-minute penalty, which caused them to lose the victory by… one second!

Toyota thus continues its flawless performance in this 2025 edition of the world’s largest rally raid, and Quintero wins his second stage this year. The Japanese pickup and the Romanian prototype are ahead of Mattias Ekström’s Ford and the top two in the overall standings, Henk Lategan and Yazeed Al Rajhi.

So make way for a well-deserved rest day tomorrow before a second week of rallying that promises to be just as intense as the first, with the highly anticipated and dreaded passage through the Empty Quarter, the world’s most arid desert.

Stage 4 Ranking

Overall ranking