2024 Dakar Rally: Repeat hopes for Al-Attiyah, van Kasteren fade in Chrono Stage

As the sun prepared to peek out Friday morning, everyone cleaned up their meager encampments and resumed the Chrono Stage. On paper, many of the leaders only needed to complete roughly 110 kilometres after covering most of the ground during the first day of the 48-hour stage on Thursday. Of course, that was easier said than done.

Nasser Al-Attiyah‘s aspirations of a third consecutive Dakar Rally dried up when a steering arm broke on his left rear wheel hub at the KM 530 mark. By the time he and Mathieu Baumel resolved the matter, they had already lost over two hours and forty-five minutes, sending the Stage #5 winners barrelling down the order. They were able to reach the stage finish, unlike overall leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi who crashed out on Thursday, but in twenty-seventh which dropped them from second to sixteenth.

With the top two out, Carlos Sainz inherits the overall lead and holds a twenty-minute advantage over Audi team-mate Mattias Ekström. Al-Attiyah will now use the second half of the rally to support his Prodrive ally Sébastien Loeb, who won the Chrono Stage—reaffirming his sandbagging strategy in Stage #5 to get a lower starting position was the right call—and sits third.

“On the last fifty kilometres, we broke the steering and we couldn’t do anything to repair,” explained Al-Attiyah. “We waited for our assistance truck to come, we fixed it and then got to the finish. Everything is not finished, but now we’ll try to play for the World (Rally-Raid) Championship. I will also try to help Seb, to be behind him. At least he can win this Dakar. I will do my best for him to win because we are a team.”

Janus van Kasteren finished nearly three hours behind Martin Macík Jr. because of a mechanical failure at KM 436, leaving him 2:37:53 back of Macík in the Truck overall and slimming his hopes of repeating in the class. Macík also now has an hour and sixteen minutes on Aleš Loprais, the largest gap between first and second in a class so far.

Challenger is the only other category where the leader and runner-up are separated by over an hour as Eryk Goczał notched his fifth stage win to lead Mitch Guthrie by 1:02:18.

“It was the most difficult special stage of my life. I don’t know how it will sound, but it was the most beautiful hell I have ever been to,” remarked Goczał. “I have never experienced so much in two days in my life. So many emotions, the good ones, but also pain and sadness, because unfortunately my dad (Marek Goczał) and Maciek (Marton) have huge problems with the car. We hope that they will join us soon and will be able to continue competing in the rally.”

Mason Klein never had a chance to even start the second half after the battery on his bike failed, despite attempts by Al-Attiyah, Guerlain Chicherit, and Harith Noah to help him restart it. His retirement ends a tumultuous début with Kove Moto that began with the bike being stuck in the UAE, was highlighted by a podium, and plagued by many other technical problems.

Despite losing Skyler Howes to a mechanical, Monster Energy Honda still leads the RallyGP overall with fellow American Ricky Brabec atop the standings while Adrien Van Beveren won the stage. On the Rally2 side, Jean-Loup Lepan assumes the top spot overall after Romain Dumontier, who dominated the first half of the rally, ran out of fuel on Thursday and finished twelfth.

Stage #6 winners

Leaders after Stage #6