Overdrive Racing’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi made history by becoming the first Saudi Arabian driver to win the Dakar Rally. Although the Toyota Hilux driver, with co-driver Timo Gottschalk, only won one stage, he led after the ninth day for the first time and then steadily moved ahead to victory with a narrow margin of 3 minutes 57 seconds. This puts him in early lead in the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) which is in its fourth year.
“What to say? Two and three years ago, one and three; last year second; and this year, one and two. I am so happy. It’s a dream of life that you are winning Dakar. But this one was another test and Overdrive has won the Dakar. It is unbelievable. We are leading the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ Championships. It’s a beautiful day,” said a delighted Jean-Marc Fortin, Overdrive Racing’s team principal.
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings led from the second stage to the eighth and then moved back to the front again after the 10th stage. However, the South African could not prevent Al-Rajhi earning the biggest win of his career and securing a second victory after a 14-year wait following his success with Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah in South America in 2011.
The Japanese team had controlled the race from the start, winning the Prologue and eight of the 12 stages to seal a fourth Dakar success after previous wins in 2019, 2022 and 2023.
The Ford M-Sport Team picked up a podium finish and 2 stage wins after a successful 2 weeks for the new Ford Raptor. The Swedish pairing of Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist topped the times on stage 11 on their way to third place, while team-mates Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch finished fifth.
Joan Roma won a stage in the third Raptor but was out of contention after a first-week engine block stage and ongoing delays, while defending champion Carlos Sainz (in yet another vehicle and brand) retired before the rest day with accident damage to his truck.
Sandwiched between the two Fords in fourth place was the 5-time winner Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and his French navigator Edouard Boulanger on the first Dakar appearance of the new Dacia Sandrider. The Qatari was in contention for a top result throughout the 2 weeks but a costly navigational error and little delays proved expensive and he missed out on a podium finish.
Dacia team-mate Sebastien Loeb got disqualified during the first week after a crash had damaged the roll-cage and Cristina Gutierrez played a supporting role to the Qatari in the third car after her own delays and subsequent time penalties during the first week.
The French pairing of Mattieu Serradori and Loic Minaudier achieved a career-best sixth-place finish in their Century CR7 and were well clear of Juan Cruz Yacopini and Dani Oliveras, who guided the second of the Overdrive Racing Toyotas to seventh.
A spirited second-week performance from the current FIA World and European Baja Cup champions, Joao Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro, lifted the Portuguese duo from 11th to eighth in the lead diesel-engined X-raid Mini JCW Rally, despite punctures. Their cause was helped by delays and time lost in the sand for the ninth-placed TOYOTA GAZOO Racing duo of Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz. The 22-year-old American led the event after stage one and picked up a second stage win before the rest day.
Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer topped a successful two weeks for the Century Racing Factory Team by rounding off the top 10, but they were not registered for the W2RC. The Czech Ford F-150 crew of Martin Prokop and Viktor Chytka fended off a challenge from Overdrive Racing’s Rokas Baciuaka and Oriol Mena to grab 11th.
The second week was a disappointing one for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon. They had been in contention for the podium until they lost over two and a half hours with technical issues on stage 6 and were also penalised an hour for a ‘mobilephone infringement. Moraes finished 15th but had the consolation of winning stages seven and 12.
Argentina’s Nicolás Cavigliasso and Valentina Pertegarini held a lead of just under 30 minutes after the first week and held on to secure a memorable victory in the Challenger category in their Taurus T3 Max.
The husband and wife won 3 stages during the first week but managed to finish over an hour ahead of Portugal’s Gonçalo Guerreiro and Brazil’s Cadu Sachs after several of their rivals hit trouble during the course of a demanding second week of racing in southern Saudi Arabia. Cavigliasso had won the quad category back in 2019.
The Sebastien Loeb Racing-RXR Factory Racing duo of Brock Heger and Max Eddy dominated the SSV category from the fourth stage to the finish to secure a comfortable win by a 2-hour margin. Once their team-mates and early rally leaders, Xavier de Soultrait and Martin Bonnet, had incurred a 1-hour time penalty and suffered front-end assembly and resultant transmission problems, debutant Heger was able to cruise to the finish to earn the win in a Polaris RZR Pro R Sports to follow up De Soultrait’s success for the brand in 2024.