Lategan's late trouble gifts Dakar Rally stage seven to Ekström

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WADI AD-DAWASIR, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Henk Lategan was cruising to the stage win and overall lead in the Dakar Rally on Sunday until he hit trouble in the last section.

Lategan led at the final checkpoint 40 kilometers from the end of the 459-kilometer special between Riyadh south to Wadi ad-Dawasir by nearly two minutes and had the provisional lead in the general rankings by more than two minutes.

But 10 kilometers later he was at a standstill for 10 minutes to replace a broken rear damper. Lategan said they were lucky to be carrying a spare.

“Disappointing to stop the push there,” he said. “We were really enjoying ourselves and having a very good day.”

Stage seven was gifted to Ford driver Mattias Ekström, the first repeat car winner, and Lategan's Toyota tumbled to 13th place, 8 1/2 minutes back.

After nearly four hours of racing, Ekström beat Toyota's João Ferreira home by 4 1/2 minutes, followed by Ford teammate Mitch Guthrie. Less than two minutes covered second place to 10th after the fast, flat sandy track.

Lategan demolished Nasser Al-Attiyah's provisional six-minute overall lead after about 350 kilometers but ultimately Al-Attiyah's Dacia stayed in front, Ekström replaced Lategan in second and clipped Al-Attiyah's lead to 4:47.

Nani Roma's Ford was elevated to third, 7:15 behind and six seconds ahead of Lategan, after Roma’s 1:10 speeding penalty on stage five was scrubbed by FIA stewards late Saturday during the rest day. It gave Roma his 14th car stage victory, one more than he achieved on a motorbike.

Lategan slipped to fourth, down by seven minutes, and four-time champion Carlos Sainz rounded out the top five.

Luciano Benavides blazed the motorbike track, leading at every checkpoint for his second stage win in this Dakar. Soon after, older brother Kevin earned his maiden stage win in the challenger class for buggies. For the first time in the Dakar, siblings won stages on the same day in different classes.

“It's an historic day for the Benavides brothers,” said Kevin, a two-time motorbike champion. “I'm very, very happy.”

Edgar Canet overcame an early navigation error to rally from 46th place to second and give KTM an unexpected 1-2 finish. Canet was nearly five minutes behind Benavides and Adrien van Beveren was third.

Defending champion Daniel Sanders' KTM was fourth on the stage but he padded his overall lead over two-time champion Ricky Brabec from 45 seconds — the smallest halfway lead in 10 years — to 4:25. Benavides in third improved to only 4:40 behind while Tosha Schareina fell further back to 15 minutes. Nobody else was within a half-hour of Sanders.

As the Hondas of Brabec and Schareina swept the track, Sanders closed in on them. He finally caught the leaders with about 150 kilometers to go. Schareina said he and Brabec made a mistake. Sanders said they waited for him. In any case, Sanders pulled away so he would take the time bonuses and deny the Hondas.

“We lose a little bit today,” Brabec said, “but I think for tomorrow we're in a lot better position than them (KTM) because (the stage) it's a little bit more difficult.”

Stage eight will be the longest of the race at 481 kilometers, a loop outside Wadi ad-Dawasir with plateaus and canyons.

Sanders wasn't fazed: “If they want to slow down in the race for tomorrow because it's a bigger day then that's their strategy. (I'm) just getting warmed up. I feel good.”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing