It was the shortest special, only 118 km, but it was feared as the most insidious of this start of the Dakar, at least for the truck category due to the sand and, above all, the dunes which made a route difficult which put serious difficulties for the two crews who seemed to be competing among the bison on the road. Janus Van Kasteren, who set off as usual by dictating the pace of the caravan with his Iveco Powerstar, lost almost half an hour at the 80 km mark.
The Dutchman from the Boss Machinery team De Rooy FPT was able to count on the help of Michiel Becx, his teammate who races with the colors of his team, to restart, while four kilometers earlier the Praga V4S DKR of Ales Loprais had stalled , second overall, which left us almost forty minutes on the ups and downs of soft sand.
The stage preceding the 48-hour one, harder than the marathons of previous years, should have been preparatory for the great difficulties of tomorrow and, instead, he made a tough selection, shuffling the cards: Martin Macik with the Iveco Powerstar of MM Technology he seemed doomed to stay out of the battle for success, but with today's brilliant success he is back in the running, becoming Van Kasteren's first pursuer, as Loprais slipped to third place albeit only for five minutes.
The match is becoming very interesting given that Pascal De Baar with the best Tatra Phoenix of the Buggyra team has also shortened the gap from the top, dropping to 48 minutes, a margin that could still reopen scenarios if stages like today's are repeated.
The special promoted the regularity of Claudio Bellina (Iveco Powerstar), seventh at the checkered flag ahead of Anja Van Loon (Iveco Powerstar): De Rooy's pink crew managed to climb into the Top 10 of trucks for the first time, a sign that the learning phase for the three Dutch girls is perhaps over, and seeing them again in prestigious positions cannot be ruled out.
Dakar 2024 – General classification Trucks
Stage 5: Al-Hofuf – Shubaytah
Special: 118 km; Transfer: 527; Total: 645 km
| POS. | Pilot/Mechanic/Navigator | Truck | Time/detachment |
| 1. | Van Kasteren-Snijders-Rodewald | Iveco Powerstar | in 20.22'33″ |
| 2. | Macik-Svanda-Tomasek | Iveco Powerstar | at 21'33″ |
| 3. | Loprais-Valtr jr-Stross | Prague V4S DKR | at 26'05″ |
| 4. | De Baar P.-Sikola-Vershoor | Tatra Buggyra | at 48'56″ |
| 5. | Van den Brink M.-De Pol-Torrallardona | Iveco Powerstar | at 1.06'21″ |
| 6. | Valtr-Kilian-Kilian | Tatra Buggyra | at 1.25'03″ |
| 7. | Becx-Kuijpers-Van Ginkel | Iveco Powerstar | at 1.42'10″ |
| 8. | Huzink-Buursen-Roesink | Renault C460 Hybrid | at 2.13'16″ |
| 9. | Bellina-Gotti-Arnoletti | Iveco Powerstar | at 3.04'23 |
| 10. | Versteijnen-Van der Sanede-Van Dal | Iveco Powerstar | at 3.33'34″ |
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