The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia plays host to the Dakar Rally for the sixth time from January 3rd-19th. Fifty registered FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) contenders spearhead a massive entry on what promises to be one of the most difficult ever Dakar rallies and the fourth to be the opening round of the W2RC.
Starting with a Prologue stage near Bisha on January 3rd, competitors will tackle 12 gruelling desert stages that incorporate 5,145 competitive kilometres in a punishing route of 7,753km.
Toyota Gazoo Racing are the defending W2RC Manufacturersā champions but face the might of Dacia and the Ford M-Sport teams on this occasion with X-raid Mini concentrating on the Driversā Championship. BBR Motorsport (Taurus), the G Rally Team and X-Raid will battle it out for honours in the Challenger category and the Can-Am Factory Team faces competition from Polaris in the SSV class.
Three Dacia Sandriders, four Ford Raptors and X-Raid Minis and seven Toyota Hiluxes top the list of 24 entrants eligible for the Ultimate W2RC category with MD Optimus and Century Racing also in the mix.
Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah is a five-time winner of the event and the defending W2RC champion. He and co-driver Edouard Boulanger made the switch to the new Dacia Sandrider towards the end of 2024 and the Qatari clinched a third successive title ā and a first with Boulanger – with victory at the Rally of Morocco on the carās debut.
Nine-time WRC champion SƩbastien Loeb has yet to fulfil his ambition of winning the event and drives a second car with Cristina GutiƩrrez driving the third car. Loeb and navigator Fabian Lurquin finished second to Al-Attiyah in Morocco last October.
Defending the W2RC Manufacturersā title for a fourth time could be even more challenging for Toyota Gazoo Racing on this occasion. Yazeed Al-Rajhi finished as the runner-up to Al-Attiyah in 2023 and 2024 and is joined by Brazilian Lucas Moraes and American former Challenger champion Seth Quintero to spearhead the Japanese manufacturerās challenge with the latest version of the Toyota Hilux. The trio continue to team up with their regular navigators, Timo Gottschalk, Armand MonleĆ³n and Dennis Zenz.
Fine tuning and ongoing work has been carried out with the Toyotaās suspension in recent weeks and Al-Rajhi clinched an emphatic win in Jeddah shortly before Christmas in the final shakedown of the car before Dakar. Overdrive Racingās Juan Cruz Yacopini and Rokas BaciuÅ”ka are also registered for the Driversā Championship. The latter triumphed in the SSV category in 2022 and 2023 and stepped up for more success in Challenger last year.
Toyota Gazoo Racing also fields a DKR Hilux for Henk Lategan and a Hilux IMT Evo for Saood Variawa. Veteran South African Giniel de Villiers won the event outright with Volkswagen in 2009 and is also entered in an IMT Evo, but is not registered for the W2RC.
The X-Raid Mini JCW Team enjoyed a successful 2024 campaign across a wide range of Bajas and has a strong line-up to challenge for honours in 2025. Team principal Sven Quandt was a major part of Team Audi Sportās Dakar success in 2024 and has worked on the development of a petrol engine for the Mini JCW Rally this year.
Guillaume de MĆ©vius (second overall in 2024) and Denis Krotov will drive the two petrol-engined Minis, while the FIA World and European Baja Cup champion JoĆ£o Ferreira and Frenchman Lionel Baud will persevere with the diesel engine. Guerlain Chicherit may well challenge for overall honours in a third petrol machine but is not personally registered for the W2RC.
The Ford M-Sport Team have developed the Ranger and then the Raptor away from the spotlight of the W2RC for much of 2023 and 2024. But the team has registered for the 2025 W2RC and will be challenging for both the Manufacturersā and Driversā Championships.
Carlos Sainz is a four-time event winner and the defending champion after his memorable success last January with Team Audi Sport. He again teams up with Lucas Cruz and will be joined by former Audi team-mates Mattias Ekstrƶm/Emil Bergkvist and Mitch Guthrie/Dennis Zenz in the three cars registered for Manufacturersā points. Guthrie makes the step up from the Challenger class.
Joan āNaniā Roma has won the Dakar on two wheels and in a car and crews the fourth Raptor with fellow Spaniard Alex Haro. He carried out much of the test and development work over recent months and tackled select events last year, including topping the times at the Hungarian Baja in August.
Other W2RC registered drivers likely to push for the top 10 include Mathieu Serradori (Century CR-7) and Martin Prokop (Ford Raptor).
Overdrive Racing is also running a Toyota for former Dakar motorcycle winners Toby Price and Sam Sunderland. Australian Price will drive with Briton Sunderland navigating on their first real taste of four-wheel competition, but they are not registered for the W2RC.
To make the competition as fair as possible in the flagship Ultimate category, a series of proposals have been approved in the FIA Cross-Country Rally Sporting Regulations to finalise the deployment of the FIA torque meter for the first time in 2025.
This will be the primary system for monitoring and controlling powertrain performance in Ultimate group cars. Sporting penalties of 10 seconds per infringement will be imposed for up to five, 30 seconds for six to 10 or a fixed penalty of 10 minutes per stage for more than 10 infringements.
The Cross-Country Rally Commission carried out an assessment in 2024 and has restructured the points-scoring system. For the Dakar, the points scale of 50, 40, 30, 26, 23, 20, 17, 13, 11, 9, 7, 6, 5 and 4 is in situ and the event will also see four points awarded for classified competitors from 16th place onwards and two points awarded to unclassified competitors.
Team BBR, the G Rally Team and X-Raid set for Challenger battle
With Can-Am switching its attention to the SSV category from the start of 2025, Team BBR, the G Rally Team and X-raid-built Yamaha YXZs start as the favourites to tussle for honours in the Challenger category.
Sixteen crews have registered for the W2RC and the defending SSV champion Yasir Seaidan of Saudi Arabia switches to Team BBR and leads the way with his French navigator Michael Metge in the first of a dozen Taurus T3 Max machines registered for the class.
Argentinaās Nicolas Cavigliasso, the recent FIA Middle East Baja Cup winner Dania Akeel and the talented Spaniard Pau Navarro will be aiming for the top spot on the podium. Cavigliasso again teams up with the defending Challenger champion navigator Valentina Pertegarini.
Nasser Racing fields a Taurus for the FIA World Baja Cupās Challenger champion Edouard Pons, while Qatarās QMMF Team has entered a couple of T3s for Al-Attiyahās brother Khalifa Saleh Al-Attiyah and the 2024 FIA Middle East rally champion Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari.
Argentinaās David Zille, last yearās Jordan Baja winner Khalid Al-Jafla, Portugalās GonƧalo Guerreiro, American Corbin Leaverton and Pole Adam Kus complete the line-up of registered Taurus drivers. Both Guerreiro and Leaverton will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Quintero and Guthrie, as they represent the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA by BFG.
Puck Klaassen and Rui Carneiro fly the flag for the G Rally Team in their OT3s and Mario Franco and Pedro GonƧalves will be aiming for honours in their X-Raid-developed YXZ 1000Rs.
Can-Am Factory Team looks for SSV success in new Maverick R
Eight of the 10 registered SSV crews will drive Can-Ams and the Canadian manufacturer will also give a competitive debut to its new Maverick R. The machines were permitted to run in an Experimental class towards the end of 2024 but were not eligible for FIA Championships.
The Can-Am Factory Team and the South Racing Can-Am Team will be hoping to continue their remarkable run of success at the Dakar. The American duo of Sara Price and Sean Berriman start as the favourites to claim maximum W2RC points in the new machine, while Fernando Alvarez (last yearās winner of the FIA World Baja Cupās SSV category) and Manuel AndĆŗjar will drive new Mavericks under the South Racing banner.
Registered competition comes from a pair of Polaris RXRs in the hands of the Italian duo of Enrico Gaspari and Michele Cinotto, a South Racing Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR for Diego Martinez and private Can-Am entries for Claude Fournier, Alexandre Pinto, Carlos Vento and Roger Grouwels. Pinto won the Road to Dakar Challenge at the Rally of Morocco back in October.
It is quite likely that the outright winner of the SSV section will be a driver who is not registered for the W2RC. Multiple Dakar champion Fernando Lopez and American team-mate Hunter Miller wheel out a pair of factory Maverick Rs, while former French biker Xavier de Soultrait has entered in a Polaris and the talented Gerard FarrƩs and Sebastian Guayasamin drive a pair of Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RRs.
The route
The route for the 47th running of the worldās most famous off-road event is foreboding, challenging and features hundreds of kilometres of sandy tracks and dune crossings.
The event is based out of a start camp in Bisha in the southwest of the Kingdom for the first time and finishes in the remote town of Shubaytah, deep in the Empty Quarter of Saudiās Eastern Province close to the frontier with the UAE.
A 29km Prologue, near Bisha, will determine the starting order for the opening 412km Bisha loop stage on January 4th.
The first part of the race features the 48hr-chrono stage of 965km on January 5th and 6th and this leads towards a Marathon stage without service assistance between Al-Henakiya and Al-Ula, en route to the rest day in Haāil.
After the rest day on January 10th, action resumes with the sixth stage of 606km between Haāil and Ad-Duwadimi and another punishing 481km loop through the deserts around Ad-Duwadimi on January 12th.
The Dakar caravan then heads to the Saudi capital of Riyadh and on to Haradh for a further two specials of 487km and 357km before arriving in Shubaytah on January 15th after a short run of 119km through the demanding dunes.
A final sting in the tail will be the 11th stage of 280km around Shubaytah on January 16th before the final Power Selective Section forms part of the last stage of 134km that brings the survivors to the finish celebrations in remote Shubaytah. Points will be awarded for the fastest three crews in each category on the new Power Selective Section.
2025 Dakar Rally ā leading entries (W2RC registered only):
| Ultimate | |
| 200. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Edouard Boulanger (FRA) | Dacia Sandrider |
| 201. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) | Toyota Hilux Overdrive |
| 203. Lucas Moraes (BRA)/Armand MonleĆ³n (ESP) | Toyota GR DKR Hilux |
| 204. Seth Quintero (USA)/Dennis Zenz (DEU) | Toyota GR DKR Hilux |
| 207. Jean-Luc Ceccaldi (FRA)/Delphine Delfino (FRA) | MD Optimus |
| 209. Mathieu Serradori (FRA)/Loic Minaudier (FRA) | Century CR7 |
| 210. Rokas BaciuŔka (LTU)/Oriol Mena (ESP) | Toyota Hilux Overdrive |
| 211. Henk Lategan (ZAF)/Brett Cummings (ZAF) | Toyota GR DKR Hilux |
| 212. Cristina GutiƩrrez (ESP)/Pablo Moreno (ESP) | Dacia Sandrider |
| 215. Guoyu Zhang (CHN)/Yicheng Wang (CHN) | Toyota Hilux |
| 216. Juan Cruz Yacopini (ARG)/Daniel Oliveras (ESP) | Toyota Hilux Overdrive |
| 217. Denis Krotov (KGZ)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (ANA) | Mini JCW Rally 3.0i |
| 218. Saood Variawa (ZAF)/FranƧois Cazalet (FRA) | Toyota Hilux IMT Evo |
| 219. SĆ©bastien Loeb (FRA)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL) | Dacia Sandrider |
| 221. Martin Prokop (CZE)/Viktor Chytka (CZE) | Ford Raptor RS |
| 222. Guillaume de MĆ©vius (BEL)/Mathieu Baumel (FRA) | Mini JCW Rally 3.0i |
| 224. Lionel Baud (FRA)/Lucie Baud (FRA) | Mini JCW Rally 3.0D |
| 225. Carlos Sainz (ESP)/Lucas Cruz (ESP) | Ford Raptor |
| 226. Mattias Ekstrƶm (SWE)/Emil Bergkvist (SWE) | Ford Raptor |
| 227. Joan āNaniā Roma (ESP)/Alex Haro (ESP) | Ford Raptor |
| 228. Mitch Guthrie (USA)/Kellon Walch (USA) | Ford Raptor |
| 240. JoĆ£o Ferreira (PRT)/Filipe Palmeiro (PRT) | Mini JCW Rally 3.0D |
| 242. Daniel Schrƶder (DEU)/Henry Kƶhne (DEU) | Volkswagen WCT Amarok |
| 262. Dave Klaassen (NLD)/Tessa Klaassen (NLD) | Red-Lined Revo T1+ |
| Other Ultimate entrants (not W2RC registered) | |
| 202. Guerlain Chicherit (FRA)/Alex Winocq (FRA) | Mini JCW Rally 3.0i |
| 206. Giniel de Villiers (ZAF)/Dirk von Zitzewitz (DEU) | Toyota Hilux IMT Evo |
| 213. Christian Lavieille (FRA)/Valentin Sarreaud (FRA) | MD Optimus |
| 231. Toby Price (AUS)/Sam Sunderland GBR) | Toyota Hilux Overdrive |
| Challenger | |
| 300. Yasir Seaidan (SAU)/Michael Metge (FRA) | Taurus T3 Max |
| 301. Nicolas Cavigliasso (ARG)/Valentina Pertegarini (ARG) | Taurus T3 Max |
| 302. Puck Klaassen (NLD)/Charan Moore (ZAF) | G Rally Team OT3 |
| 304. Pau Navarro (ESP)/Lisandro Herrera (ARG) | Taurus T3 Max |
| 305. Dania Akeel (SAU)/StƩphane DuplƩ (FRA) | Taurus T3 Max |
| 307. Mario Franco (PRT)/Rui Franco (PRT) | X-Raid YXZ 1000R |
| 308. David Zille (ARG)/Sebastien Cesana (ARG) | Taurus T3 Max |
| 309. Eduardo Pons (ESP)/Jaume Betriu (ESP) | Taurus T3 Max |
| 313. Khalid Al-Jafla (ARE)/Andrei Rutnitski (ANA) | Taurus T3 Max |
| 318. Pedro GonƧalves (PRT)/Hugo MaghalĆ£es (PRT) | X-Raid YXZ 1000R |
| 319. GonƧalo Guerreiro (PRT)/Cadu Sachs (BRA) | Taurus T3 Max |
| 321. Rui Carneiro (PRT)/Ola Floene (NOR) | G Rally Team OT3 |
| 325. Corbin Leaverton (USA)/Taye Perry (DEU) | Taurus T3 Max |
| 326. Khalifa Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Bruno Jacomy (BRA) | Taurus T3 Max |
| 334. Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (QAT)/Nasser Al-Kuwari (QAT) | Taurus T3 Max |
| 349. Adam Kus (POL)/Dmytro Tsyro (UKR) | Taurus T3 Max |
| SSV | |
| 405. Sara Price (USA)/Sean Berriman (USA) | Can-Am Maverick R |
| 406. Enrico Gaspari (ITA)/Fausto Mota (PRT) | Polaris RZR Pro R Sport |
| 408. Diego Martinez (ARG)/Sergio Lafuente (URY) | Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR |
| 409. Fernando Alvarez (ARG)/Xavier Panseri (FRA) | Can-Am Maverick R |
| 410. Claude Fournier (FRA)/Gregory Revest-Arnoux (FRA) | Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR |
| 412. Alexandre Pinto (PRT)/Bernardo Oliveira (PRT) | Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR |
| 413. Manuel AndĆŗjar (ARG)/Bernardo Graue (ARG) | Can-Am Maverick R |
| 414. Michele Cinotto (ITA)/Alberto Bertoldi (ITA) | Polaris RZR XP Pro |
| 426. Carlos Vento (ESP)/Jorge Brandao (PRT) | Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR |
| 430. Roger Grouwels (NLD)/Rudolf Meijer (NLD) | Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR |
| Other SSV entrants (not W2RC registered) | |
| 400. Xavier de Soultrait (FRA)/Martin Bonnet (FRA) | Polaris RZR Pro R Sport |
| 401. Sebastian Guayasamin (ECU)/Fernando Acosta (ARG) | Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR |
| 402. Gerard FarrƩs (ESP)/Tony Vingut (ESP) | Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR |
| 404. Francisco Lopez (CHL)/Juan Pablo Latrach (CHL) | Can-Am Maverick R |
| 420. Hunter Miller (USA)/Andrew Short (USA) | Can-Am Maverick R |
