The 43-year-old racing in his home country completed the 967km special stage, spread over two days, in 10hr 56min 54sec, despite a two-minute penalty for speeding.
He was followed by South African Henk Lategan at 4min 16sec with Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, who overtook Al Rajhi briefly to hold the lead for 142km, finishing third.
Lategan tops the provisional standings, 4:45 ahead of Al Rajhi, with Al-Attiyah in third. Sebastien Loeb is sixth, 18:56 off the lead.
"We looked after the car for the stage because we knew it was really, really long," said Lategan.
This story is from the January 07, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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This story is from the January 07, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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