Nine-times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb is out of the Dakar Rally after he rolled his Dacia in the Saudi desert on Tuesday as the race continued to take a toll of the big names after the exit of 2024 winner Carlos Sainz.

Stage 4 of the 2025 Dakar Rally sees KTM win another stage while Dacia's Loeb was asked to retire after an unfit car.

Loeb, who has finished second three times in the Dakar Rally, ended the stage in 4 hours 20 minutes 12 seconds, more than an hour behind the day's winner, 19-year-old South African Saood Variawa.

Stage 4 of the 47th edition of the Dakar rally saw competitors head across the sands of Saudi Arabia from Al Henakiyah to Alula, covering a total of 588km. At the end of the stage, it was KTMs Daniel Sanders and Overdrives Yazeed Al Rajhi who ended up as the winners.

He was forced to pull out of the race for a third time and follows defending champion Carlos Sainz, who crashed the previous day. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Nineteen-year-old Saood Variawa of South Africa became the youngest top-class driver to win a stage in the Dakar Rally

Lithuanian driver Rokas Baciuška has proved he’s a contender in the Dakar Rally after winning the longest stage in the Saudi Arabia desert.

Local driver Yazeed Al Rajhi stormed back into the Dakar Rally's leading threesome when he dominated the fourth stage in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. Al Rajhi started 18th in Al Henakiyah and was in front by the first time check in volcanic terrain and never headed on the 415-kilometer (258-mile) course north through canyons to AlUla.