ALULA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — South African driver Henk Lategan crushed the first half of the marathon stage out of AlUla in the Dakar Rally on Wednesday.

Lategan, last year's runner-up, celebrated his fifth career Dakar stage win after leading the 452-kilometer special with sandy canyons and stony plateaus from the 57-kilometer time check.

He started 23rd in the morning and his Toyota overtook 11 cars. He built a lead of 8 1/2 minutes and eventually won after nearly five hours by a massive seven minutes over Nasser Al-Attiyah's Dacia.

Five-time champion Al-Attiyah also moved to second overall behind Lategan, 3:55 behind. The only other driver within 13 minutes of the leader in the general standings was Ford's Mattias Ekström.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps resigns after over 20 years with the organization.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Sergio “Checo” Pérez says being a teammate of Max Verstappen was "the worst job there is in Formula 1."

Pérez was beside Verstappen for four years at Red Bull before being dropped at the end of 2024 with two years left in his contract. Pérez is returning to F1 this year with new team Cadillac.

“I was on the best team but it was complicated because being Max’s teammate at Red Bull is the worst job there is in F1. I knew what I was up against,” Pérez told a podcast with Oswaldo Trava that was posted on YouTube on Sunday.

“At Red Bull everything was a problem; if I was faster than Max it was a problem, a very tense atmosphere was created; it was a problem if you were faster than Max," Pérez said. “If you were too slow and Max was slow then everything was a problem.”