AL HENAKIYAH > YANBU
His plan worked. Yesterday, Ricky Brabec deliberately gave up the lead in the overall rankings to Luciano Benavides. It was not a crazy move but simply a strategic one, allowing Brabec to start six minutes behind his rival this morning, with the gap in the overall rankings limited to 23 seconds. With the American's technical mastery, this was actually the safest way to secure a comfortable lead before the final stage, making it possible to rechristen tomorrow's loop around Yanbu ‘Brabec Boulevard’. And that is exactly what happened: with his 13th stage victory and his second this year, the Honda rider not only swallowed up the 23 seconds in question like a shot of Monster energy drink but increased his lead to 3'43’’ over Benavides, meaning a third title is in sight for Ricky.
The possibility of Luciano Benavides making a comeback on the final stage cannot be ruled out entirely. His brother Kevin achieved this feat in 2023 but at the time he was only 12 seconds behind Toby Price. Tomorrow, the Argentinean will start 3 minutes behind the new leader, but he will only have 105 kilometres available in which to catch up, a distance during which Brabec will pocket opener’s bonuses (up to 1'23’’ in total). The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider would therefore need to be supersonic to overturn the overall rankings in his favour.
Skyler Howes and Adrien Van Beveren opened the way this morning but soon let the duellists battle it out at the front. The two Honda riders were clocked at over 24 and 13 minutes down respectively. The American slowing down did not prevent him from climbing one place in the rankings (to 4th), benefiting from Sanders' poor form, due to suffering from a shoulder injury, with the Australian now finding himself in 5th. The Frenchman is immediately behind Sanders, in 6th place, trailing by eight minutes.
In the Rally 2 class, Tony Mulec took the overall lead yesterday and increased it further today to distance Preston Campbell by 6’12’’.