Overview
- Benavides took the overall motorcycle victory over Ricky Brabec by just two seconds after Brabec erred about seven kilometers from the finish of the final Yanbu stage, which Edgar Canet won.
- Brabec had engineered a favorable start position and won Stage 12 to turn a 23‑second deficit into a 3m20s lead entering the last day before the late reversal.
- Tosha Schareina completed the bike podium for Honda, with Skyler Howes fourth and Daniel Sanders fifth after continuing the rally with a broken collarbone.
- Nasser Al‑Attiyah won the penultimate 311km car stage to stretch his overall advantage to about 15 minutes on Nani Roma and matched the car‑category record with his 50th Dakar stage win.
- Mattias Ekström overtook Sébastien Loeb for third in the car standings by 29 seconds, leaving the final podium spot to be decided on Saturday’s short Yanbu loop.