Al-Rajhi wins Dakar for the first time

Yazeed Al-Rajhi drove a tactically astute race to win the 2025 Dakar ahead of Henk Lategan

DAKAR 2025 – PROLOGUE

Overdrive Racing’s Yazeed Al Rajhi has won the Dakar Rally for the first time, after coming through the final 61km stage in Saudi Arabia’s vast Empty Quarter unscathed.

Having tactically sacrificed the overall lead on stage 10, the Toyota Hilux crew moved back to the top of the standings on the penultimate day and took a near-seven-minute lead over Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings into the last stage.

Lategan, who led the majority of the 47th edition, edged back towards Al Rajhi and navigator Timo Gottschalk on the final Shubaytah loop to finish just 3m57s adrift at the end – the second closest finish in Dakar history – but it wasn’t enough to deny his Toyota stablemate, who became the first-ever Saudi winner of the Dakar.

“I am very, very happy, we have made history for Saudi Arabia,” said a jubilant Al Rajhi at the finish podium.

“We are very proud of our achievements, me being the first Saudi driver to win the Dakar…and we also were the private team to win the Dakar.

“Overdrive is really the best team, they have a lot for me and an amazing job. Also for Timo, he has a lot of experience, 17 years on the Dakar and he has helped me a lot too and I want to thank him and the team for their support.”

Throughout the 2025 edition, Al Rajhi and Gottschalk had played the strategic game to perfection. They stayed close enough to the front of the field while never opening the road until the right moment. They also managed what many other favorites failed to do and stayed out of mechanical trouble for the duration of the 14-day marathon.

The surprise package of the Dakar, Lategan looked every bit a future winner having missed the 2024 edition with a broken shoulder. But the South African champion knew his weakness lay in his lack of experience in the dunes, Al Rajhi’s bread and butter, and so it proved to be the case.

DAKAR 2025 - STAGE 9

Al-Rajhi's margin of victory (3m57s) was the second closest in event history

Nevertheless, Lategan hailed an “unbelievable” Dakar comeback following two major shoulder surgeries in the past three years.

“It’s been an unbelievable race, to finish second by that close of a margin stings a little bit but we had an awesome race,” said Lategan.

“But Yazeed drove an amazing race, didn’t make any mistakes so well done to him. But we will keep pushing and come back stronger. We’ve shown that we have the pace so I will keep working hard and try to do it.”

This year’s Dakar Rally was tipped to be one of the closest ever. While the winning margin didn’t quite match the 2m12s time of the 2010 edition, it was just as exciting from start to finish.

With new factory efforts from Dacia Sandriders and M-Sport Ford Performance taking on the established benchmark of Toyota – a mixture of official Toyota Gazoo Racing works Hiluxes and a swathe of quasi-privateer cars from Overdrive Racing – and a resurgent reinvented Mini JCW, it was the battle many had been waiting for.

Leading the Dacia charge alongside Sébastien Loeb was five-time winner Nasser Al-Attiyah who described the 2025 event as a “Dakar in reverse” due to the scheduling of the epic two-day 48-hour chrono stage taking place on just the second day. With an overnight camp in one of six remote bivouacs and no outside mechanical assistance, keeping it clean was the name of the game.

But day two was where one of the main contenders for victory exited the rally. M-Sport’s Carlos Sainz, last year’s winner with Audi, rolled his Ford Raptor T1+ and was forced out of the event by the FIA on safety grounds; his roll cage deemed too damaged to continue.

The same fate befell Loeb who, after suffering electrical issues during the chrono, suffered a high-speed roll during the third stage.

Both Sainz and Loeb were on early flights back home, but the rally continued with unabated pace: at the head of the field was Lategan whose clean drive left him with a rest day lead over Al Rajhi of over 10 minutes.

Although it didn’t set the ultimate scratch time every day, the opening week was dominated by Toyota which won all five stages before the rest day. Seth Quintero won two for TGR, while Saood Variawa became the youngest stage winner in the Ultimate class on stage four, a day after his overall chances ended following a head-on collision with TGR South Africa teammate and 2009 event winner, Giniel de Villiers.

Al Rajhi won the 48-hour chrono which, at the time, moved the Saudi driver into second in the overall classification. He only fell lower than that once – on stage three – for the remainder of the Dakar. Lategan continued his strong run after the rest day by winning stage eight and extending his lead but a navigation error on stage nine – while still preserving his lead – brought Al Rajhi closer to the overall lead.

With Sainz out of the rally and Nani Roma suffering an engine failure on the first part of the chrono, M-Sport’s hopes rested with Mattias Ekström and Mitch Guthrie Jr (navigated respectively by Emil Bergkvist and Kellon Walch) in the overall. Ekström, now a Dakar specialist, took the fight to Al-Attiyah and spent much of the second week fighting for the final place on the podium. Al-Attiyah had closed the gap to just 31-seconds after giving Dacia its first stage win on day nine, but a navigation error on stage 10 and two punctures on stage 11, which Ekström one all but ended his chances.

Challenger graduate Guthrie Jr sacrificed a chunk of time on the chrono helping teammate Sainz but rallied well to end the Dakar in an impressive fifth overall, taking a best stage result of third on stage seven.

Two-time winner Roma was the driver to give M-Sport its first-ever Dakar stage win on the 10th stage, proving the Raptor’s outright pace.

Combined with the out-of-the-box performance from Dacia, which was denied its maiden stage win by Al-Attiyah on stage five due to a technicality – Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger were missing their spare wheel which had come loose – it bodes well for the remainder of the World Rally-Raid Championship season.

Final Classification (after stage 12)

1 Yazeed Al Rajhi/Timo Gottschalk (Overdrive Racing Toyota) +52h52m15s
2 Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +3m57s
3 Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist (M-Sport Ford) +20m21s
4 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Edouard Boulanger (Dacia Sandriders) +23m58s
5 Mitch Guthrie Jr/Kellon Walch (M-Sport Ford) +1h02m10s
6 Mathieu Serradori/Loïc Minaudier (Century Racing CR7) +1h12m04s
7 Juan Cruz Yacopini/Dani Oliveras Carreras (Overdrive Racing Toyota) +1h57m47s
8 João Ferreira/Filipe Palmeiro (X-raid Mini JCW) +2h15m57s
9 Seth Quintero/Denniz Zenz (Toyota Gazoo Racing) +2h20m04s
10 Brian Baragwanath/Leonard Cremer (Century Racing CR7) +2h59m26s

DAKAR 2025 - STAGE 2

American Heger takes SSV win for Polaris

Off the back of a breakthrough victory in 2024 with Xavier de Soultrait, Sébastien Loeb Racing Polaris came into the Dakar with high hopes. De Soultrait was the reference point throughout the opening week and held the lead over his teammate after three stages.

Mechanical strife then hit de Soultrait on stage four, dropping the former biker turned four wheel driver over an hour. Similar issues for their main rivals at Can-Am [a fuel issue for Sara Price and Francisco “Chaleco” López Contardo getting stuck in the dunes] meant the two Polaris’ were still first and second.

While Heger kept it clean at the front, consolidating his lead, de Soultrait fought tooth and nail – in vain as it turned out – to stay in the podium positions. He was forced to drive large parts of the dunes on stage 10 without the use of his power steering, before a broken front differential caused them to pull out of the penultimate stage.

For Can-Am, after their early setbacks on the first FIA sanctioned event with the new Maverick R, it was an impressive fightback. In total, the brand won 10 of the 12 stages, with López Contardo securing second at the finish.

Sara Price, so nearly a Dakar winner in 2024, won three stages alongside navigator Sean Berriman and reached the end of the rally, albeit 28th in the final standings.

DAKAR 2025 - STAGE 3

Cavigliasso and Pertegarini get first Dakar win in Challenger

The Challenger class of the Dakar Rally looked a lot different compared to the 2024 edition, with a number of notable absences. The top three finishers from 2024, Cristina Gutiérrez, Rokas Baciuška and Mitch Guthrie Jr all moved up to the Ultimate category while the Goczał family (Eryk, Marek and Michał) elected to skip the 47th edition.

That didn’t dampen the contest though, as 2019 quad class winner Nicolas Cavigliasso and wife Valentina Pertegarini – who became the first FIA W2RC co-driver champion last year – came out on top in their BBR Team Taurus T3 Max.

The Argentinian duo started the second week in a largely comfortable position but faced a strong challenge from Gonçalo Guerreiro in his Red Bull Off-Road Junior Taurus, just 25 minutes back. A mechanical drama for Guerreiro on stage 10 relieved the pressure on Cavigliasso, who came through the final test to add a second Dakar win – and first for Pertegarini – to his resumé.

Guerreiro and navigator Cadu Sachs were second, with Pau Navarro and Lisandro Ezequiel Sisterna Herrera third.

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