When Francis Bacon coined the phrase “knowledge is power”, he wasn’t wrong.
Because whoever had it would gain name, fame and strength. After coming through the final stage of a gruelling 14-day marathon, Yazeed Al Rajhi’s name is now etched in the Dakar Rally history books as the local driver became the first Saudi to win the classic rally raid.
Like all forms of endurance racing, playing a good tactical game is often the easiest way to win. Nothing says endurance like the Dakar; indeed, while these days the Le Mans 24 Hours is more akin to 24 one-hour sprints, the Dakar remains one of the few long-distance events where it sometimes pays to take it slowly.
That strategy was not lost on Al Rajhi and Gottschalk who, without the sort of teammate back-up that Carlos Sainz benefitted from to take victory for Audi last year, was left to sort it out themselves.
If Dakar is akin to a game of chess, Al Rajhi played this year's edition like a seasoned grandmaster
“For this Dakar, the key was knowing not to push every day and understand the difficulty of the stages,” Gottschalk told DirtFish.
“Knowing when to push and when we could push, even more than we did, and when to back off and let the others go. In the end, it was the right strategy.
“The stages were very long this time and also very demanding and rough, lots of stones and difficult terrain where you can’t push, so you need to accept sometimes that you have to slow down to avoid any punctures, knowing that some of the others will go faster.
“But in the end, it’s to your advantage if you have to change one tire less than them. That was more or less the key to understanding the difficulty of the stages.”
Having spent 11 years trying to conquer the Dakar, Al Rajhi’s maiden triumph is thoroughly deserved. Perhaps even more satisfying for the former World Rally Championship driver was being crowned in the very region of Saudi Arabia, the Empty Quarter, where his victory assault came to an abrupt end during the 48-hour chrono in 2024.
The difference when we got back together was a big step forward in his self-confidence.Timo Gottschalk, Al-Rajhi's navigator, on reuniting after two years apart
Much of the pre-Dakar talk centered around the ambitions of the star names of Sébastien Loeb, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Carlos Sainz and their respective Dakar debuts with the Dacia Sandriders and M-Sport Ford machines.
Those challenges failed to materialize, perhaps predictably so given the relative lifespans of those cars versus the tried-and-tested and near-bulletproof Toyota Hilux of Al Rajhi. Indeed, four of the top 10 cars overall were Overdrive-built machines, with works-backed Henk Lategan his primary adversary in the second week.
Mattias Ekström, a stage winner for Audi in the past, scored the best result among the newbies with a superb third place for Ford, while five-time winner and cross-country rallying’s reference driver Al-Attiyah still managed fourth after an up-and-down event.
When asked by DirtFish what made the difference at the end of the rally, Al-Attiyah said: “I don’t know, maybe it’s the fact that it is a new car, but the car was very strong, except for one day where we lost a lot of time.
Nasser Al-Attiyah was one of the clear favorites after winning on his Dacia debut at Rally du Maroc late last year – but his bid for victory never really gained serious traction
“Without this issue, I think we could have fought for the win in this Dakar, but I am happy to finish P4 also with the new car.”
Reliability and good fortune certainly can – and arguably did – play a key role in the outcome of the 2025 Dakar, but the local knowledge Al Rajhi has of the region cannot be underestimated either.
While many of his rivals were amping themselves up for the Dakar, packing their suitcases or even getting ready for the holiday season, Al Rajhi was still competing. Entered in the Jeddah Rally, the final round of the Saudi Toyota Championship, he and Gottschalk were busy pounding round the same sort of terrain that he and 400-odd other competitors would be tackling a mere fortnight later.
Al Rajhi dominated the Saudi championship, winning every event en route to his fourth title. He was fresh, at ease with the surface and his Overdrive Hilux a well-oiled machine.
“Yazeed has really moved forward in his ambitions and his driving style. When I remember in the past, we were together for five years and then had a two-year break, the difference when we got back together was a big step forward in his self-confidence.
“Also, in his way of driving, knowing what to do and understanding where to keep calm, so he has really changed a lot in the right direction.”
In Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Lategan, Al Rajhi found a worthy adversary. The triple South African Rally-Raid champion took the lead at the end of the second stage and held it until stage nine when Al Rajhi moved ahead.
Though Lucas Moraes and Seth Quintero were Toyota's primary factory drivers, it was TGR South Africa's Lategan who put up the strongest fight against Al-Rajhi
Lategan, who won one stage plus the prologue, reclaimed the lead on stage 10 but faced an uphill battle in the dunes to usurp Al Rajhi on the final day despite reducing the deficit at the finish to just 3m57s.
Faced with a terrain relatively unknown to him, Lategan knew that the dunes of the Empty Quarter were always going to favor local driver Al Rajhi in the scrap for the win.
“There’s not much more we could have done,” Lategan said after losing the lead on stage 11. “I’m definitely not the sand and dunes expert.”
With some of the bigger names faltering for one reason or another, Lategan was the surprise package of the Dakar and showed that he had the speed to fight up at the front.
“We’ve sort of known that we have the pace and capability but it’s one thing to think it, and another thing to prove it so I’m happy we were able to get there,” Lategan told DirtFish.
Lategan coped well with the dunes despite suffering from "dune sickness" and a lack of mileage compared to Al-Rajhi
“We tried to do a strategic race this year, it didn’t go 100% according to plan, as the strategy got thrown out of the window a little bit, but we’ve had an amazing time.
“This is really motivating, to lose out by that small a margin, I can’t think of a better motivation, and we’ll push harder next year.”
Added motivation, there will surely also be in the Sainz and Loeb camps. The 2026 Dakar Rally is already looking pretty mighty.