The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia performs host to the Dakar Rally for the sixth time from January Third-Nineteenth. Fifty registered FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) contenders spearhead a large entry on what guarantees to be one of the crucial troublesome ever Dakar rallies and the fourth to be the opening spherical of the W2RC.
Beginning with a Prologue stage close to Bisha on January Third, rivals will sort out 12 gruelling desert levels that incorporate 5,145 aggressive kilometres in a punishing route of seven,753km.
Toyota Gazoo Racing are the defending W2RC Producers’ champions however face the would possibly of Dacia and the Ford M-Sport groups on this event with X-raid Mini concentrating on the Drivers’ Championship. BBR Motorsport (Taurus), the G Rally Staff and X-Raid will battle it out for honours within the Challenger class and the Can-Am Manufacturing unit Staff faces competitors from Polaris within the SSV class.
Three Dacia Sandriders, 4 Ford Raptors and X-Raid Minis and 7 Toyota Hiluxes high the checklist of 24 entrants eligible for the Final W2RC class with MD Optimus and Century Racing additionally within the combine.
Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah is a five-time winner of the occasion and the defending W2RC champion. He and co-driver Edouard Boulanger made the change to the brand new Dacia Sandrider in the direction of the tip of 2024 and the Qatari clinched a 3rd successive title – and a primary with Boulanger – with victory on the Rally of Morocco on the automobile’s debut.
9-time WRC champion Sébastien Loeb has but to fulfil his ambition of profitable the occasion and drives a second automobile with Cristina Gutiérrez driving the third automobile. Loeb and navigator Fabian Lurquin completed second to Al-Attiyah in Morocco final October.
Defending the W2RC Producers’ title for a fourth time might be much more difficult for Toyota Gazoo Racing on this event. Yazeed Al-Rajhi completed because 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 producer’s problem with the newest model of the Toyota Hilux. The trio proceed to group up with their common navigators, Timo Gottschalk, Armand Monleón and Dennis Zenz.
Nice tuning and ongoing work has been carried out with the Toyota’s suspension in current weeks and Al-Rajhi clinched an emphatic win in Jeddah shortly earlier than Christmas within the closing shakedown of the automobile earlier than Dakar. Overdrive Racing’s Juan Cruz Yacopini and Rokas Baciuška are additionally registered for the Drivers’ Championship. The latter triumphed within the SSV class in 2022 and 2023 and stepped up for extra success in Challenger final 12 months.
Toyota Gazoo Racing additionally fields a DKR Hilux for Henk Lategan and a Hilux IMT Evo for Saood Variawa. Veteran South African Giniel de Villiers received the occasion outright with Volkswagen in 2009 and can also be entered in an IMT Evo, however isn’t registered for the W2RC.
The X-Raid Mini JCW Staff loved a profitable 2024 marketing campaign throughout a variety of Bajas and has a powerful line-up to problem for honours in 2025. Staff principal Sven Quandt was a serious a part of Staff Audi Sport’s Dakar success in 2024 and has labored on the event of a petroleum engine for the Mini JCW Rally this 12 months.
Guillaume de Mévius (second total in 2024) and Denis Krotov will drive the 2 petrol-engined Minis, whereas the FIA World and European Baja Cup champion João Ferreira and Frenchman Lionel Baud will persevere with the diesel engine. Guerlain Chicherit might effectively problem for total honours in a 3rd petrol machine however isn’t personally registered for the W2RC.
The Ford M-Sport Staff have developed the Ranger after which the Raptor away from the highlight of the W2RC for a lot of 2023 and 2024. However the group has registered for the 2025 W2RC and can be difficult for each the Producers’ and Drivers’ Championships.
Carlos Sainz is a four-time occasion winner and the defending champion after his memorable success final January with Staff Audi Sport. He once more groups up with Lucas Cruz and can be joined by former Audi team-mates Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist and Mitch Guthrie/Dennis Zenz within the three automobiles registered for Producers’ factors. Guthrie makes the step up from the Challenger class.
Joan ‘Nani’ Roma has received the Dakar on two wheels and in a automobile and crews the fourth Raptor with fellow Spaniard Alex Haro. He carried out a lot of the take a look at and improvement work over current months and tackled choose occasions final 12 months, together with topping the occasions on the Hungarian Baja in August.
Different W2RC registered drivers prone to push for the highest 10 embrace Mathieu Serradori (Century CR-7) and Martin Prokop (Ford Raptor).
Overdrive Racing can also be operating a Toyota for former Dakar bike winners Toby Worth and Sam Sunderland. Australian Worth will drive with Briton Sunderland navigating on their first actual style of four-wheel competitors, however they aren’t registered for the W2RC.
To make the competitors as honest as doable within the flagship Final class, a collection of proposals have been authorised within the FIA Cross-Nation Rally Sporting Laws to finalise the deployment of the FIA torque meter for the primary time in 2025.
This would be the main system for monitoring and controlling powertrain efficiency in Final group automobiles. Sporting penalties of 10 seconds per infringement can be imposed for as much as 5, 30 seconds for six to 10 or a hard and fast penalty of 10 minutes per stage for greater than 10 infringements.
The Cross-Nation Rally Fee carried out an evaluation in 2024 and has restructured the points-scoring system. For the Dakar, the factors scale of fifty, 40, 30, 26, 23, 20, 17, 13, 11, 9, 7, 6, 5 and 4 is in situ and the occasion can even see 4 factors awarded for categorized rivals from sixteenth place onwards and two factors awarded to unclassified rivals.
Staff BBR, the G Rally Staff and X-Raid set for Challenger battle
With Can-Am switching its consideration to the SSV class from the beginning of 2025, Staff BBR, the G Rally Staff and X-raid-built Yamaha YXZs begin because the favourites to tussle for honours within the Challenger class.
Sixteen crews have registered for the W2RC and the defending SSV champion Yasir Seaidan of Saudi Arabia switches to Staff BBR and leads the way in which along with his French navigator Michael Metge within the first of a dozen Taurus T3 Max machines registered for the category.
Argentina’s Nicolas Cavigliasso, the current FIA Center East Baja Cup winner Dania Akeel and the proficient Spaniard Pau Navarro can be aiming for the highest spot on the rostrum. Cavigliasso once more groups up with the defending Challenger champion navigator Valentina Pertegarini.
Nasser Racing fields a Taurus for the FIA World Baja Cup’s Challenger champion Edouard Pons, whereas Qatar’s QMMF Staff has entered a few T3s for Al-Attiyah’s brother Khalifa Saleh Al-Attiyah and the 2024 FIA Center East rally champion Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari.
Argentina’s David Zille, final 12 months’s Jordan Baja winner Khalid Al-Jafla, Portugal’s Gonçalo Guerreiro, American Corbin Leaverton and Pole Adam Kus full the line-up of registered Taurus drivers. Each Guerreiro and Leaverton can be hoping to observe within the footsteps of the likes of Quintero and Guthrie, as they signify the Purple Bull Off-Highway Junior Staff USA by BFG.
Puck Klaassen and Rui Carneiro fly the flag for the G Rally Staff of their OT3s and Mario Franco and Pedro Gonçalves can be aiming for honours of their X-Raid-developed YXZ 1000Rs.
Can-Am Manufacturing unit Staff appears to be like for SSV success in new Maverick R
Eight of the ten registered SSV crews will drive Can-Ams and the Canadian producer can even give a aggressive debut to its new Maverick R. The machines have been permitted to run in an Experimental class in the direction of the tip of 2024 however weren’t eligible for FIA Championships.
The Can-Am Manufacturing unit Staff and the South Racing Can-Am Staff can be hoping to proceed their outstanding run of success on the Dakar. The American duo of Sara Worth and Sean Berriman begin because the favourites to say most W2RC factors within the new machine, whereas Fernando Alvarez (final 12 months’s winner of the FIA World Baja Cup’s SSV class) and Manuel Andújar will drive new Mavericks beneath the South Racing banner.
Registered competitors comes from a pair of Polaris RXRs within the arms of the Italian duo of Enrico Gaspari and Michele Cinotto, a South Racing Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RRÂ for Diego Martinez and personal Can-Am entries for Claude Fournier, Alexandre Pinto, Carlos Vento and Roger Grouwels. Pinto received the Highway to Dakar Problem on the Rally of Morocco again in October.
It’s fairly seemingly that the outright winner of the SSV part can be a driver who isn’t registered for the W2RC. A number of Dakar champion Fernando Lopez and American team-mate Hunter Miller wheel out a pair of manufacturing facility Maverick Rs, whereas former French biker Xavier de Soultrait has entered in a Polaris and the proficient Gerard Farrés and Sebastian Guayasamin drive a pair of Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RRs.
The route
The route for the forty seventh operating of the world’s most well-known off-road occasion is foreboding, difficult and options tons of of kilometres of sandy tracks and dune crossings.
The occasion is predicated out of a begin camp in Bisha within the southwest of the Kingdom for the primary time and finishes within the distant city of Shubaytah, deep within the Empty Quarter of Saudi’s Japanese Province near the frontier with the UAE.
A 29km Prologue, close to Bisha, will decide the beginning order for the opening 412km Bisha loop stage on January 4th.
The primary a part of the race options the 48hr-chrono stage of 965km on January fifth and sixth and this leads in the direction of a Marathon stage with out service help between Al-Henakiya and Al-Ula, en path to the remaining day in Ha’il.
After the remaining day on January tenth, motion resumes with the sixth stage of 606km between Ha’il and Advert-Duwadimi and one other punishing 481km loop by means of the deserts round Advert-Duwadimi on January twelfth.Â
The Dakar caravan then heads to the Saudi capital of Riyadh and on to Haradh for an additional two specials of 487km and 357km earlier than arriving in Shubaytah on January fifteenth after a brief run of 119km by means of the demanding dunes.
A closing sting within the tail would be the eleventh stage of 280km round Shubaytah on January sixteenth earlier than the ultimate Energy Selective Part kinds a part of the final stage of 134km that brings the survivors to the end celebrations in distant Shubaytah. Factors can be awarded for the quickest three crews in every class on the brand new Energy Selective Part.
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2025 Dakar Rally – main entries (W2RC registered solely):
Final  200. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Edouard Boulanger (FRA) Dacia Sandrider201. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 203. Lucas Moraes (BRA)/Armand Monleón (ESP)Toyota GR DKR Hilux204. Seth Quintero (USA)/Dennis Zenz (DEU) Toyota GR DKR Hilux207. Jean-Luc Ceccaldi (FRA)/Delphine Delfino (FRA)MD Optimus209. Mathieu Serradori (FRA)/Loic Minaudier (FRA)Century CR7210. Rokas Baciuška (LTU)/Oriol Mena (ESP) Toyota Hilux Overdrive211. Henk Lategan (ZAF)/Brett Cummings (ZAF)Toyota GR DKR Hilux212. Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP)/Pablo Moreno (ESP)Dacia Sandrider215. Guoyu Zhang (CHN)/Yicheng Wang (CHN)Toyota Hilux216. Juan Cruz Yacopini (ARG)/Daniel Oliveras (ESP) Toyota Hilux Overdrive217. Denis Krotov (KGZ)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (ANA) Mini JCW Rally 3.0i218. Saood Variawa (ZAF)/François Cazalet (FRA)Toyota Hilux IMT Evo219. Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL)Dacia Sandrider221. Martin Prokop (CZE)/Viktor Chytka (CZE)Ford Raptor RS 222. Guillaume de Mévius (BEL)/Mathieu Baumel (FRA)Mini JCW Rally 3.0i224. Lionel Baud (FRA)/Lucie Baud (FRA)Mini JCW Rally 3.0D225. Carlos Sainz (ESP)/Lucas Cruz (ESP)Ford Raptor226. Mattias Ekström (SWE)/Emil Bergkvist (SWE)Ford Raptor227. Joan ‘Nani’ Roma (ESP)/Alex Haro (ESP)Ford Raptor228. Mitch Guthrie (USA)/Kellon Walch (USA) Ford Raptor240. João Ferreira (PRT)/Filipe Palmeiro (PRT)Mini JCW Rally 3.0D242. Daniel Schröder (DEU)/Henry Köhne (DEU)Volkswagen WCT Amarok262. Dave Klaassen (NLD)/Tessa Klaassen (NLD)Purple-Lined Revo T1+  Different Final entrants (not W2RC registered) 202. Guerlain Chicherit (FRA)/Alex Winocq (FRA)Mini JCW Rally 3.0i206. Giniel de Villiers (ZAF)/Dirk von Zitzewitz (DEU)Toyota Hilux IMT Evo213. Christian Lavieille (FRA)/Valentin Sarreaud (FRA)MD Optimus231. Toby Worth (AUS)/Sam Sunderland GBR)Toyota Hilux Overdrive  Challenger  300. Yasir Seaidan (SAU)/Michael Metge (FRA)Taurus T3 Max301. Nicolas Cavigliasso (ARG)/Valentina Pertegarini (ARG) Taurus T3 Max 302. Puck Klaassen (NLD)/Charan Moore (ZAF)G Rally Staff OT3304. Pau Navarro (ESP)/Lisandro Herrera (ARG)Taurus T3 Max305. Dania Akeel (SAU)/Stéphane Duplé (FRA) Taurus T3 Max307. Mario Franco (PRT)/Rui Franco (PRT) X-Raid YXZ 1000R308. David Zille (ARG)/Sebastien Cesana (ARG)Taurus T3 Max309. Eduardo Pons (ESP)/Jaume Betriu (ESP)Taurus T3 Max313. Khalid Al-Jafla (ARE)/Andrei Rutnitski (ANA)Taurus T3 Max318. Pedro Gonçalves (PRT)/Hugo Maghalães (PRT)X-Raid YXZ 1000R319. Gonçalo Guerreiro (PRT)/Cadu Sachs (BRA)Taurus T3 Max321. Rui Carneiro (PRT)/Ola Floene (NOR)G Rally Staff OT3325. Corbin Leaverton (USA)/Taye Perry (DEU)Taurus T3 Max326. Khalifa Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Bruno Jacomy (BRA)Taurus T3 Max334. Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (QAT)/Nasser Al-Kuwari (QAT)Taurus T3 Max349. Adam Kus (POL)/Dmytro Tsyro (UKR)Taurus T3 Max  SSV  405. Sara Worth (USA)/Sean Berriman (USA)Can-Am Maverick R406. Enrico Gaspari (ITA)/Fausto Mota (PRT) Polaris RZR Professional R Sport 408. Diego Martinez (ARG)/Sergio Lafuente (URY)Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR409. Fernando Alvarez (ARG)/Xavier Panseri (FRA)Can-Am Maverick R410. 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 Andújar (ARG)/Bernardo Graue (ARG)Can-Am Maverick R414. Michele Cinotto (ITA)/Alberto Bertoldi (ITA)Polaris RZR XP Pro426. Carlos Vento (ESP)/Jorge Brandao (PRT)Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR430. Roger Grouwels (NLD)/Rudolf Meijer (NLD)Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR  Different SSV entrants (not W2RC registered) 400. Xavier de Soultrait (FRA)/Martin Bonnet (FRA)Polaris RZR Professional R Sport401. Sebastian Guayasamin (ECU)/Fernando Acosta (ARG) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR402. Gerard Farrés (ESP)/Tony Vingut (ESP)Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR404. Francisco Lopez (CHL)/Juan Pablo Latrach (CHL)Can-Am Maverick R420. Hunter Miller (USA)/Andrew Quick (USA)Can-Am Maverick R
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Timetable of occasions
Wednesday, January 1 Accreditation and administration, Begin camp, Bisha07.00hrs-21.00hrs  Thursday, January 2 Accreditation and administration, Begin camp, Bisha07.00hrs-21.00hrsRe-scrutineering checks, Begin camp, Bisha10.00hrs-16.00hrsTop driver press convention, Begin camp, Bisha17.00hrs-18.00hrsCompetitors’ parade19.00hrs onwards  Friday, January 3  Bisha (Prologue)29km  Saturday, January 4 Bisha-Bisha (Stage 1) 412km  Sunday, January 5 Bisha-Bisha (Stage 2 – half 1)    Monday, January 6 Bisha-Bisha (Stage 2 – half 2)965km mixed  Tuesday, January 7 Bisha-Al-Henakiya (Stage 3) 496km  Wednesday, January 8 Al-Henakiya-Al-Ula (Stage 4 – Marathon) 415km  Thursday, January 9 Al-Ula-Ha’il (Stage 5)428km  Friday, January 10 Ha’il relaxation day    Saturday, January 11 Ha’il-Advert-Duwadimi (Stage 6)606km  Sunday, January 12 Advert-Duwadimi- Advert-Duwadimi (Stage 7) 481kmMonday, January 13 Advert-Duwadimi-Riyadh (Stage 8) 487kmTuesday, January 14 Riyadh-Haradh (Stage 9) 357km  Wednesday, January 15 Haradh-Shubaytah (Stage 10) 119km
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Thursday, January 16
 Shubaytah-Shubaytah (Stage 11) 280km
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Friday, January 19
 Shubaytah – Energy Selective Part (Stage 12) 134kmPodium and prize giving, Shubaytah, 20.00hrsÂ
