HARADH, Saudi Arabia Wednesdays Dakar Rally Stage 10 in the Empty Quarter Desert saw remarkable comeback stories as local favorite Dania Akeel rode up front with former bike and car class winner Nani Roma to give themselves a boost, after they had been ruled out of title contention earlier in the 47th edition.

Saudi driver Akeel suffered a broken wishbone on her vehicle that saw her Challenger class podium quest slip away, however she hit back to pull off one of the most incredible results in the entire history of the Dakar as she not only won the stage but her Taurus T3 Max was the third fastest four-wheeled machine as she beat all but two Ultimate class cars.

Akeel, who earned five precious World Rally-Raid Championship points, said, I saw the board at the end of the stage and it said we were third overall! The dunes were so much fun, it was a bit like sailing a boat on the sea.

Akeel was joined on the Challenger podium by fellow Taurus T3 Max drivers Pau Navarro and Gonçalo Guerreiro with Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team driver Guerreiro cutting Nicolas Cavigliassos lead to 26 minutes with two stages left.

This was our first big dunes of the rally, Guerreiro said. I think we have the pace to do better.

Spaniard Roma, who won the 2004 Dakar on a bike and 2014 race in a car, picked up his first Ultimate stage win this year his first Dakar stage win since 2015 and a first-ever for Ford M-Sport. The 52-year-old, who finished 18 seconds ahead of Brazilian Lucas Moraes.

Im happy for the team because of all the hard work they have been putting in, Moraes said. We saw a positive outcome for all we have been doing to improve the car.

Time is running out for Mattias Ekström and Nasser Al-Attiyah to make a play for the Ultimate title as they still lie third and fourth respectively around half an hour behind new leader Henk Lategan of South Africa.

The target was not to win today, but to have a good starting position for tomorrow, Ekström said. Finishing on the podium would be nice, but theres still two tough days.

Chilean Francisco Chaleco López picked up his fifth SSV stage win, but he will need Brock Heger and Xavier de Soultrait to lose considerable time on the final two days if he wants to improve his third position overall.

The sun was so bright, so that complicated things, López said. We pushed as much as we could and were happy with our result.

Australian Daniel Sanders increased his bike lead to 16 minutes, 31 seconds in his bid to win a first Dakar title with Argentine Luciano Benavides needing to take seven minutes out of third-placed Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren to get on the podium too come Fridays finish.

It was a hot and hard and tricky stage, Sanders said. The sand was super soft and the stage was very technical. Now were ready for a big day tomorrow.

Everything is still up for grabs on Thursdays penultimate Stage 11, the unpredictability of Empty Quarter Desert sand dune racing meaning that big time gaps can soon be wiped out by one false move.