Overview
- Nani Roma moved to the top of the cars classification after Stage 9, leading Carlos Sainz by 57 seconds with Nasser Al-Attiyah third at 1:10 and Henk Lategan fourth at 6:13.
- Eryk Goczal won the cars special, while significant navigation errors cost Al-Attiyah roughly 26 minutes and dropped Mattias Ekström to fifth overall at 11:19.
- Sainz and Roma received FIA speeding penalties of 1:10 and 1:00 respectively, a factor that preserved Roma’s narrow overall advantage despite Sainz running strongly on the stage.
- In motorcycles, Tosha Schareina took the 418 km special ahead of Daniel Sanders and Michael Docherty, with Ricky Brabec fourth and Luciano Benavides nearly 12 minutes back.
- Sanders reclaimed the overall bike lead by 6:24 over Brabec and 7:05 over Benavides, who acknowledged an early navigation mistake, as competitors manage their machines without assistance before the marathon’s concluding leg to Bisha.