Dakar modifies Stage 7 route on safety grounds

The Dakar Rally has announced that the route for Sunday’s Stage 7 has been modified to ensure the safety of competitors taking part in the event.

With rain expected to hit the Al Duwadimi region where the seventh stage of 2025 is scheduled, organising body the ASO has decided to delay the start of the running as well as shorten the route.

This would ensure that safety helicopters can be deployed on time at their designated positions before the action kicks off.

Sunday will see bikes and cars take completely separate routes, as opposed to following the same course like in most other stages.

“The helicopters deployed for race safety have been called into action many times in stage 6, so they will have to remain on the course of the special this evening,” read a statement from Dakar.

“As a result, the start of stage 7 will be delayed a little to provide enough time for the helicopters to reach their positions tomorrow morning. The entrants will follow a 188km road section to the new starting location (CP2 of the previous course), where the first competitors are expected at 8am (FIM) and 8:30am (FIA).

“The motorbike special will stretch for 411km. The cars and trucks will race for 418km.”

Crashes for Bradley Cox and Ross Branch in the bikes category, as well as a rollover for X-raid Mini’s Guerlain Chicherit, meant that safety helicopters had to be called in during the middle of Stage 6. Cox and Branch then had to be airlifted to the hospital.