“A lot of stress” after navigator mistake dents Dakar hopes

Nasser Al-Attiyah has revealed he is left with a “lot of stress” after a navigation error on Stage 10 dented his hopes of scoring a sixth career victory in the Dakar Rally.

The Dacia star opened the road on Wednesday’s first visit to the gruelling Empty Quarters of Saudi Arabia, but a mistake by co-driver Edouard Boulanger meant they lost their way just 9km into the stage.

They subsequently dropped 13 minutes heading towards the first checkpoint and, with little chance to make up lost ground in a stage that ran for just 120km, recorded their worst finish of Dakar 2025 in 30th.

Baffled by not being able to find the correct route in the dunes, the 54-year-old admitted that the events of Thursday had dampened his spirits ahead of the final two stages of the rally-raid.

“From the start we got lost, Edouard took the wrong route and we made a big mistake, more than 20 kilometres,” Al-Attiyah said. 

“I’m disappointed, but we can’t do any more. I don’t have a good feeling, it’s never happened to me before, I’ve never been lost in the dunes, but, I don’t know.

#200 The Dacia Sandriders Dacia: Nasser Al-Attiyah

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“I need to talk and see what happened, because now there’s a lot of stress, we need to talk.”

He added: “I’m very disappointed, but what can you do? We could have had a great stage, but we’ll see what position we’re in and what we can do tomorrow.

“Every day is very important, and we had a good pace, but we lost a lot of time. This is the most disappointing day of my life.”

Al-Attiyah’s long-time co-driver Boulanger took full responsibility of the error and explained what happened at the start of the stage that caused him to lose his bearings.

“It wasn’t hard over the whole day, it was hard because I made a big mistake at kilometre 10,” he said.

“There were two drawings, two identical boxes [on the roadbook], and I simply jumped a line.  So I made a real mistake at kilometre 10, taking the wrong direction for more than three kilometres.

“After that, I was focused on following my cap because there was a waypoint to catch up behind. By the time I realised my mistake, I don’t know how much time we lost. But the day wasn’t hard, it’s just that I made a mistake.”

#200 The Dacia Sandriders Dacia: Nasser Al-Attiyah, Boulanger Edouard

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

With two relatively short stages left in Dakar 2025, Al-Attiyah is fourth in the standings and faces a gigantic 30-minute deficit to overall leader Toyota driver Henk Lategan.

Even to finish on the podium, he must recover almost four minutes to Ford rival Mattias Ekstrom in Shubaytah, where the last two stages are being held.

Having previously expressed a lot of confidence about his chances in Dakar this year, Al-Attiyah is now a lot more apprehensive about his ability to salvage a win.

“I don’t know, we’ll see what we can do tomorrow,” he said of his victory hopes. “There’s a long, long way to go, we’ll see what we can do, we’re waiting for Henk Lategan to see.

“I’m always confident, every day, but if we make a mistake like this, it’s not the game, I have to fix the problem.”