Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger gave the Dacia Sandrider its second victory in three races after winning the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, round two of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship.

Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon headed a Toyota Gazoo Racing two-three with Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz taking the final step of the podium.

A delighted Al-Attiyah said: “It’s a really good feeling and I’m very happy to win the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. It was a big push from us this week and thanks to The Dacia Sandriders. We were coming here to win the race and lead the championship to make it easier for the next race. We have a really good car, and the team is very strong. We feel sorry for Seb for what happened yesterday, but this is the situation, and I am really happy to win this race for The Dacia Sandriders and all partners and people who are supporting us. The speed was very high from every competitor, we respect everyone, but we did a very good job over the last few days.”

The five-time Desert Challenge winner heads the championship standings with 91 points.

The event ended on a thrilling note as Al-Attiyah ended the penultimate stage on Wednesday with a slender 41 second lead over Moraes’ Hilux with Thursday’s final 167km stage standing between victory and defeat.

The Qatari W2RC Champion won the 11km prologue, but it was Moraes who made the early running in stage one, beating Dacia’s Sebastian Loeb by 1’01″ with Quintero finishing in third position.

Stage two saw Loeb take the stage win and the overall lead followed by Moraes and Al-Attiyah.

It was Al-Attiyah’s turn to take a stage win on SS3 and displace his French teammate at the top of the overall standings with the consistent Moraes in second and Loeb dropping to third on the scoreboard.

Wednesday was Loeb’s 51^st birthday, which is one he’d likely want to forget. The former gymnast, who is used to doing things the human body was never designed to do (like cartwheels), cartwheeled out of the rally.

“It all started when we missed a waypoint by less than 10 metres, which it looked like all our competitors had done in view of the lines we saw. We did a 360-degree turn for validation, but we were caught in our dust, missed a mini-dune and rolled off the front. Our Dacia Sandrider will be brought back to the bivouac, but we’ll have to wait for the FIA inspection to see if we can start again tomorrow”, Loeb reported.

The FIA deemed the roll cage to be too badly damaged and the birthday boy was forced to retire.

20-year-old Polish racer Eryk Goczal and Oriol Mena won the stage in their Prodrive Toyota Hilux, becoming the fourth different winner in five stages.

Al-Attiyah duly took the fastest time on the final stage on Thursday, winning the event by 2’28” from Moraes.

Behind Quintero, Juan Yacopini/Daniel Oliveras brought their Overdrive Toyota Hilux home in fourth overall, followed by Mitch Guthrie/Kellon Walch in their M-Sport Ford Ranger.

Guy Botterill/Dennis Murphy rounded out the top six in their Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa Hilux.

Dakar winners Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk retired at km13 in the final stage with an engine issue while Goczal’s Overdrive machine caught fire 25km further into the stage.

Mattias Ekstrom fell ill during stage two and had to withdraw from the event.

In the overall championship standings, Al-Attiyah leads from Al Rajhi, Moraes, Quintero and Henk Lategan.

The third round of the W2RC Championship is the Toyota Gazoo Racing South African Safari Rally from 18 – 24 May.

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Stage 11: Shubaytah – Shubaytah  stage 275km, liaison 232km

Strategy came into play on the penultimate stage of the 2025 Dakar Rally.

Dunes and fog are not a good mix when the riders, drivers and crews have to start a special on the Dakar. The Empty Quarter was full of dense mist, preventing the helicopters from taking off to ensuring the race’s safety, which delayed the start of the stage, adding to the tension amongst the competitors.

Wednesday’s overall leader Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings were the 11^th crew to take on the dunes of the Empty Quarter, while his title rival Yazeed Al Rajhi started 33^rd and the overall gap between first and second was a slim 2:27…

Lategan caught the front runners and had to slow so as not to open the road, while Al Rajhi could pick off cars at leisure – and at speed. He and Nasser Al-Attiyah set a blistering pace.

At the first waypoint, the Overdrive Toyota crew was just 44 seconds off the South African’s time and by km 94, the gap was just four seconds!

By the time they all passed the third waypoint at km 138, the Saudi driver had a virtual overall lead of 1’24” which grew over the remainder of the stage to 6’11” by the time they all trooped back into the Shubaytah bivouac. With just 61 km of racing left on the final day, Al Rajhi is almost home and dry.

Having conceded his lead, Lategan said: “We did all we could today. Here and there we could have maybe pushed a bit harder, but the car is in one piece, we didn’t miss any waypoints, and we got up the majority of the dunes the first time. It has been a very good day for us and an awesome race. I just think that today’s road position counted against us a little bit. We couldn’t have finished much quicker as we came in right behind Lucas who was opening the road, so if we had overtaken him, we would have been opening the road.”

The stage belonged to the Swedes Mattias Ekstrom and Emil Bergkvist, giving the Ford Raptor back-to-back stage victories. Ekstrom blasted past the first waypoint 59 seconds behind Al-Attiyah who was on a mission to take third in the overall standings off the Ford pair. By the next waypoint, Ekstrom led from Al Rajhi with Al-Attiyah down in fifth in the stage ranking.

Bergstrom held off a late attack from the Qatari’s Dacia, taking the win by 41 seconds with Al Rajhi coming home with the third fastest time, 61 seconds behind the reigning W2RC Champion.

Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch brought their Ford Raptor home in fourth after another impressive drive on their Ultimate class debut.

Lategan brought his Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux home in fifth position, 50” behind the second Ford.

Sixth went to the Portuguese pair of Joao Ferreira/Filipe Palmeiro in the diesel-powered X-Raid Mini JCW, 18” ahead of Rokas Bascuiska/Oriol Mena’s Overdrive Toyota Hilux.

Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier was the leading Century Racing CR7 home, over seven minutes ahead of Guillaume de Mevius/ Mathieu Baumel in their X-Raid Mini JCW.

Rounding out the top ten was Jean Bergounhe/Pascal Larroque in their nimble 4×2 MD Optimus, the second top ten finish for the marque.

On a stage whose distance was reduced by half for the bikes as a result of the delayed start, Tosha Schareina struck a big blow by regaining 7’31’’ over Daniel Sanders, reducing the gap between the two men in the overall rankings to 9 minutes. The Spaniard reinforced his second position before the final 61-km stage which will feature a reverse order grouped start with 15 bikes leaving at a time. Adrien Van Beveren, 3rd in the general rankings, battled to defend his position against Luciano Benavides. Although the Argentinean finished ahead of the Frenchman by 24’’ on this special, he remains in 4th in the general, 6’26’’ from the podium.

In Rally 2, Mathieu Dovèze won by 20’’ ahead of his team-mate Toni Mulec. At the top of the general standings, 35 minutes separate Edgar Canet from Tobias Ebster. Canet is therefore set to win the Rally 2 class on his first attempt.

Overall standings (Provisional)

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Stage 9: Riyadh – Haradh  stage 357km, liaison 232km

Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger won stage nine, becoming the eighth different winner to date and earning the Dacia Sandrider its first stage win of the rally.

The Qatari lead from start to finish save for a brief spell where he fell 10 seconds behind Mattias Ekstrom at km 81. In the overall standings, he remains in fourth position, 25 minutes off the lead with three stages to go.

Guillaume de Mevius and Mathieu Baumel enjoyed a strong stage, bringing their X-Raid Mini JCW home in second place, 25 seconds ahead of Al Rajhi’s Overdrive Toyota.

It was a bad day for the South African Toyota Gazoo Racing team. Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings opened the road but made a small navigation error close to the start and picked up a puncture as well, losing the lead they’d held since stage two after finishing 11th on the stage. “A very difficult day for us. It was not supposed to be so bad but we made an error right near the beginning, got lost and while we got lost we had a puncture. Really bad from our side, I’m a little bit disappointed. Not a great day. That was one of our worst days of this Dakar. It’s not over, there’s still a long way to go, a lot of race miles to go but that was not great”, said a disappointed Lategan at the end of the stage.

Worse for TGRSA though, Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy suffered a high-speed, 6^th gear, end-over-end crash which stretched over a distance of 500m,  leaving their Hilux a twisted wreck in the desert. Fortunately, both driver and navigator emerged unhurt. “That was huge, that was a big accident’”, said Botterill.

Mattias Ekstrom and Emil Bergkvist brought their Ford Raptor home in fourth place, well ahead of Rokas Bascuiska/Oriol Mena’s Overdrive Toyota.

Mitch Guthrie/Kellon Walch kept up their steady pace, taking sixth in their Raptor and comfortably ahead of Simone Vitse/Max Delfino who brought their Chevvy V8-powered MD Optimus 4 x 2 home inside the top ten for the first time.

Marcelo Gastaldi/Adrien Metge top-scored for Century Racing, bringing their CR7 home in eighth with 19 seconds in hand over Cristina Guttierrez/Pablo Moreno’s Dacia Sandrider.

Joao Ferreira/Filipe Palmeiro made it two Minis in the top ten, just 22 seconds behind the Dacia pair.

Daniel Sanders extended his lead by 3’42’’ over Tosha Schareina, his closest pursuer in the general rankings. The bike category leader has strengthened his position and now leads the Spaniard by 14’45’’. Third-placed Adrien Van Beveren regained 1’10’’ on the Australian and has moved to within 20’21’’. Luciano Benavides and Ricky Brabec complete the top 5 in the general rankings, respectively 27’44’’ and 31’31’’ behind.

The French Monster Energy Honda team rider Adrien van Beveren finished the stage with the day’s second-best time behind Luciano Benavides and has closed into within 6 minutes of 2nd place in the general rankings, which is still occupied by Tosha Schareina: “It was a very tough stage, less eventful than yesterday but more complicated for the navigation. It wasn’t a transition stage, to be honest, and I had to turn round three or four times today. I was riding with Luciano and we rode at a fast pace. In such a case, the navigation becomes complicated. On some stages, you have to accept to make some small mistakes. Perhaps, Tosha was not on top form but he still managed to ride quickly”.

Overall Positions (Provisional)

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Stage 8: Al Duwadimi – Riyadh  Stage: 488km  liaison 250km

Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings put their disappointment from Sunday, where their overall lead was cut from over 23 minutes to 21 seconds behind them to grab stage eight by the scruff of its neck and lead the way home to a 7’41” gap over their nearest title rivals. The Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa duo has lead the Dakar since stage two and while their overall advantage might be described as slender, it’s still all to play for over the final four stages.

A two-minute speeding penalty (!) cut their advantage to 5’41” in the overall standings. Lategan also became the seventh different winner on this year’s Dakar Rally. The downside to Lategan’s stage win is that he will open the road on Tuesday; however, he will have bike tracks to lead the way which should mitigate some of the pain he is likely to suffer.

Second on the day, having started 29^th, was Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy in another TGR SA Hilux, 1’47” off the lead after suffering a slow puncture over the last 150km. The young South African driver had to stop to-re-inflate the tyre to ensure it stayed on the rim over the large dunes in the final 30km of the stage heading into Riyadh.

The day started with Botterill opening the way at km 54, 12 seconds ahead of Daniel Schroeder and Henry Kohne in their WCT Amarok.

Stage six winner Guillaume de Mevius took the lead after km 78 but was forced to stop for over an hour at km113 to repair an issue on the left-rear corner of his Mini JCW.

From then on, it was Lategan all the way to Riyadh with Botterill close behind – the gap was 9” at the 200km mark – and earned Toyota Gazoo Racing SA their first one-two.

Third across the stage was another South African crew of Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer in their factory Century Racing CR7, at least it was until the final section, when his French teammate Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier pipped them to the last step of the podium by five seconds! It was Century Racing’s best performance to date with their new CR7 machine.

Nani Roma/Alex Haro was the leading M-Sport Ford pair, bringing their Raptor safely home in fifth place, three seconds clear of Yazeed Al Rajhi/Timo Gottschalk in their Overdrive Toyota Hilux.

Martin Prokop/Viktor Chytka (Jipocar Ford Raptor) was involved in a fierce battle with the Brazilians Joao Ferreira/Filipe Palmeiro in their X-Raid Mini JCW diesel with the nod going to the Czech pair by 23”.

Ninth was Rocas Bacuiska and Oriol Mena in their Overdrive Toyota Hilux with Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz rounding out the top ten in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux.

Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger ended 11^th, dropping 12 minutes to Lategan in the overall standings and while still holding fourth on the leaderboard, the Qatari is 34’14” away from the lead. The W2RC champion said: “It was a very tough day. Sometimes when we were opening it was very difficult. Yazeed had a good line and when he passed we just followed him, until the dunes when we passed him, but it was really difficult. I am happy to finish this day. We still have four days left and we’ll see. The navigation was very hard”.

Overall standings (Provisional)

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Al Duwadimi – Al Duwadimi  stage 419km, liaison 297km

Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon became the sixth different winner from seven stages in what turned out to be a chaotic stage from a timing point of view, hence the word “provisional” as standings could well change before the sun sets over Saudi Arabia.

The Brazilian said: “Yeah, to be honest, since we started so far behind, we were lucky because we definitely got all the tracks for us. So yeah, we didn’t have nothing to lose today, so we pushed a lot. And nice to win one more stage in the Dakar. These things are really hard to get, so happy to score some points for the championship as well. And got to keep fighting. I think now it’s going to be, maybe tomorrow it’s going to be just like this one today and then we’re going to start reaching the Empty Quarter. And there will be some strategy of course playing to not open the bigger one that we have there. But otherwise, so far so good and happy with the win.”

An official notice said “An incorrect road book note for km 158 of the special has caused several drivers at the front of the field to lose their bearings. A segment of about 20 km before and after this point will therefore be delimited at the finish of the car special at the bivouac in Al Duwadimi, erasing any gains or losses made in this part of the stage.”

Dakar leader Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings found the correct route and opened a gap while the others drove around in circles; Al Rajhi lost 14 minutes and Al Attiyah some 20 minutes, while the Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa pair found themselves opening the road. Once the chasing pack found their tracks, he bled time to his closest rivals Yazeed Al Rajhi, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mattias Ekstrom.

After the times had been adjusted, the 30-year-old South African’s lead was just 21 seconds ahead of Al Rajhi. They were, in essence severely penalized for not getting lost! “It’s a bit of a mess with the times. I’m not sure what’s going on. The official timing is showing something different. They took some of the section out of the stage. We’ll see what happens, we hope it doesn’t stay like this. It would be quite unfair because you cannot be penalized for finding the road first. It would not be right”, said Lategan.

At the time of writing, Moraes restored Toyota’s dominance, winning the stage by 7’41” from the Swedish Ford team of Mattias Ekstrom/Emil Bergkvist with Mitch Guthrie/Kellon Walch taking third in their M-Sport Raptor.

Nasser Al-Attiyah/Edouard Boulanger claimed fourth in their Dacia Sandrider on corrected time with Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz racing their Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux to within 23 seconds of their Qatari rival.

Cristina Gutierrez/Pablo Moreno earned a top six finish in their Dacia, 12 minutes off the lead and 48 seconds ahead of Al Rajhi/Timo Gottschalk in their Overdrive Hilux.

Saood Variawa/Francois Cazalet scored another top 10 finish in their Toyota Gazoo South Africa Hilux, comfortably ahead of the Argentinian Juan Yacopini and his Spanish co-driver Daniel Oliveras in another Overdrive Toyota.

The Brazilian Marcelo Gastaldi and Adrien Metge were the top Century Racing finisher in tenth after Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier- who ran as high as second at the 138km mark – suffered power steering problems and dropped back after stopping to top up with oil.

Ignoring the incorrect instruction at the halfway mark of the stage, the top ten teams had all started the day 16^th or lower, while yesterday’s winner Grégoire de Mevius ended 14^th after setting out first on the road. In the stage results, seven of the top ten started 11^th or lower down the order.

Opening a stage on the Dakar Rally is not for the feint-hearted!

In the bike race, Australian Daniel Sanders maintained his grip on the overall standings with another stage win. The Australian master of the Dakar took his fifth stage win of the season and built up a comfortable lead for the rest of the race, 15′33″ ahead of his closest rival, Tosha Schareina: “It was pretty fast, very fast. Technical at the start, we had a lot of rain. But it was only at the start, so it was a pretty wet line to see in front and just had us kind of correct and not follow the mistakes with the navigation. The speed was good, head was good, so it was a much better day.”

In other news, Moraes was given a suspended disqualification after his co-driver accepted a cell phone from a random stranger for 43 seconds in the neutralization zone on stage five. The DQ Sword of Damocles was replaced with a one-hour penalty.

Autosport reports that Al-Attiyah is incensed by the FIA disqualifying Sainz and Loeb, and more so about his ten-minutes penalty for losing a spare wheel after the supporting cradle broke. Stating his intention to write a letter to the president of FIA Mohammed ben Sulayem about the sanction, he said: “I don’t understand it. To lose the tyres with the support [structure] and then the spectator finds the tyre with the support and you get ten minutes. I don’t accept it. “But I’m working to fix that whole problem because that’s not sport, we have to be fair. If I do it the wrong way and drop the tyres, OK, I get ten minutes penalty, but we didn’t realise, we have to be fair, but I will make a good letter to the [FIA] president, to avoid all that.”

Overall standings (provisional)

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Al Ula – Ha’il  Stage 428km, liaison 64km

Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger dominated the second half of the Marathon stage in their Dacia Sandrider, winning stage five by 10 minutes and 54 seconds – or so they thought. The Qatari was hit with a 10 minute penalty for missing a spare wheel at the finishing line, handing the stage win to Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz by one second!

The penalty put the five-time Dakar winner back to 35 minutes off the overall lead.

The young American started the stage in 27^th position but set the sixth quickest time at the first waypoint on km 31. The Toyota Gazoo Hilux was into fifth by km 137, then climbed to fourth where he stayed until passing the last waypoint 51km before the finish in Ha’il.

Those final kilometers of the stage saw the Hilux dancing across the desert, vaulting into second place which became the win.

Mattias Ekstrom/Emil Bergkvist led briefly in their Ford Raptor and held second until the final kilometers when they were blitzed were bumped into third by eight seconds after Quintero’s final stint.

Also finishing in the same minute, the overall rally leaders Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings brought their Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux home 54 seconds off the top step of the stage podium. Four cars in the same minute after428km of hard racing.

Crucially for the South African Rally-Raid champions, they ended 4:17 ahead of their main rivals Yazeed Al-Rajhi/Timo Gottschalk who came home with the fifth fastest time.

Lategan extended his cushion in the overall standings to 10:17 seconds.

Behind the Overdrive Toyota, Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet brought their TGR SA Hilux home 43 seconds adrift of the Saudi racer and nearly 4½ minutes ahead of Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon in another GR Hilux.

Five seconds behind the Toyota was Mitch Guthrie/Kellon Walch in their Ford Raptor, quietly getting on with the job at hand which was to hang on to sixth position overall.

Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier ended ninth in their factory Century Racing CR-7, 49 seconds ahead of Martin Prokop/Viktor Chytka’s Jipocar Ford Raptor.

Wednesday was a tale of punctures, with Toyota Gazoo racing suffering 17 amongst their six cars. On stage five, Giniel de Villiers sat forlornly in the desert after he ran out of tyres. Guy Botterill stopped and took one of their tyres off their car to give to de Villiers, leaving the #205 stanranded untila knight in blue armour in the shape of Lithuanians Urvo Mannama stopped and handed over one of their precious spare tyres.

Real Dakar spirit at play!

Australian KTM rider Daniel Sanders continues to lead the race after his teammate Luciano Benavides took the Thursday stage when initial winner Adrien van Beveren’s Honda and Sanders were penailsed for speeding.

Sanders languished in 25th at the first split, where 18th, 33rd and fifteenth starters, American Skyler Howes’ Honda, Rally 2 leader Michael Docherty’s KTM and Botswana’s Ross Branch led the way. The lead then shuffled between Branch, Californian Ricky Brabec’s Honda and Argentine KTM man Luciano Benavides, who had all started in the second half of the top twenty.

Another Honda rider, Frenchman Adrien van Beveren joined the party up front to soon lead Branch, Brabec and Benavides, with Docherty and class leader Edgar Canet trading blows in front of Rally 2. Leader Sanders meanwhile benefited over three minutes of bonus time to sit only six, rather than ten minutes off the pace in eighth. Up front meantime, Branch nibbled away at van Beveren’s lead as Benavides kept a watching brief and the field headed into the tricky final sector.

Van Beveren made best of that final challenge to hold on to his lead, while Branch struggled and lost a couple of places to Benavides and Chilean Hero teammate José Ignacio Cornejo to come in fourth. Brabec rode home third and Sanders amassed over five minutes of bonus to sneak home sixth on a day where his pace would not have seen him near the top ten. Bracket racing at its best! (Bike report Motorsport Media)

Tomorrow is the well deserved rest day where vehicles will be refreshed as far as possible after a brutal opening half of Dakar 2025.

Overall Results after Stage 5 (Provisional)

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Stage 3: Bisha – Al Henakiyah   Stage 327km, liaison 465km

Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet bounced back from their collision on Monday to take a nail-biting win on stage three and become the youngest ever stage winner in the Ultimate class. It was a stellar performance by both the crew and the technicians at TGR SA who put in an all-nighter to rebuild the wrecked Hilux in time to take the start of the stage on Tuesday morning.

The 19-year-old Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa pair started out in 29^th place and had set the seventh best time by waypoint one after 36km in spite of racing hard in the dust. Over the next 100km, he worked his way into second and by the end of the stage Variawa had pipped Gurlein Chicherit and Alex Winocq’s X-Raid Mini JCW by 33 seconds.

“We had a moment yesterday, an unfortunate incident with Giniel, but nonetheless, this is a good comeback”, said Variawa.

Initially, the top seven fastest teams were within the same minute, and the fierce battle continued with the top four, then the top three remaining within the same minute until the bitter end.

Variawa and Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz traded second and third fastest times across the stage with the American youngster finally ending third in his Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux, a minute and 48 seconds off the winning time.

Gregoire de Mevius/Mathieu Baumel brought their X-Raid Mini JCW home in fourth, followed by the diesel-powered Mini of Joao Ferraira/Filipe Palmeiro, the two teammates separated by 80 seconds.

Nasser Al-Attiyah/Edouard Boulanger ended sixth on the day, just over 3½ minutes off the lead. His teammate and nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb rolled at the 12km mark but carried on, stopping again at km 69 but persevered and reached the finishing line 1:03’20’’ after Variawa.

“It wasn’t the kind of day we prefer. We lost an hour and we got the feeling that we were in ‘it’ up to our necks… But it is what it is, we just have to continue. We’ll keep on racing and we’ll see, even if winning the rally is starting to look complicated”, was Loeb’s understated comment at the finish.

Mattias Ekstrom/Emil Bergkvist was the leading Ford in seventh, having initaially having initially run in the top two over the opening 70 or so kilometers. A puncture halted their charge somewhat.

Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier kept the century Racing flag flying high with eighth overall in the CR-7, five minutes off the pace.

Toyota Gazoo’s Lucas Moraes/Armand Monleon brought their Hilux home in ninth ahead of TGRSA’s Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zietzewitz, another amazing performance considering the condition their car arrived in after the 48-hour stage.

Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy, having started the stage 141^st, blasted past dozens of trucks, SSVs and fellow Ultimate rivals to take 11^th in the Ultimate class and 50^th on the road. “We overtook a hundred vehicles”, he reported at the overnight bivouac.

The Dakar overall leader Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings set a consistent pace but suffered a malfunctioning navigation system early on in the stage and had no way of letting the cars ahead know they were close behind. In spite of finishing 12^th and 7½ minutes behind their teammates, they have a 7min 17 second lead over Al-Attiyah in the overall standings.

Yazeed al Rajhi, winner of the 48-Hour Chrono stage, ended 17^th overall and dropped to fourth in the overall standings.

On two wheels, Daniel Sanders was not delighted at the finish of the 48 HR Chrono stage despite winning, and for good reason: the Australian knew he would have to open the way today and feared losing time as well as his advantage in the general rankings. This is indeed what happened, bringing a close to his series of three consecutive victories. Skyler Howes has closed in in the general rankings to within 1’57’’ of the official KTM rider and Ross Branch is now just 2’05’’ behind. Sanders and Branch are the only two riders who have not been of the provisional podium since the beginning of the race. Three different brands remain at the forefront: KTM, Honda and Hero.

Overall positions after Day 3: (Provisional)

1. H. Latagen/B. Cummings              Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux                                     19:04:53
2. N. Al-Attiyah/E. Boulanger           Dacia Sandrider                                                              +7:17
3. M. Ekstrom/E. Bergkvist                M-Sport Ford Raptor                                                      +9:34
4. Y. Al Rajhi/T. Gottschalk                 Overdrive Toyota Hilux                                                  +11:45
5. L. Moraes/A. Monleon                  Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux                                           +19:40
6. T. Price/S. Sunderland                   Overdrive Toyota Hilux                                                  +20:17
7. M. Serradori/L. Minaudier           Century Racing CR-7                                                      +21:15
8.  M. Guthrie/K. Walch                     M-Sport Ford Raptor                                                      +23:40
9. J. Ferreira/F. Palmeiro                   X-Raid Mini JCW                                                            +32:07
10. S. Quintero/D. Zenz                        Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux                                          +35:04

The post From mangled wreck to stage win – Saood Variawa takes stage 3! appeared first on Motorsport Week.

There may have been ‘just’ 341km between the rest bivouac E – where the top 27 runners camped overnight – and the finish in Bisha but the Saudi landscape wasn’t done with wreaking havoc on the Ultimate class cars.

Monday’s second part of the 48-Hour Chrono stage started out at km 626, but 69km later Gregoire de Mevius’ X-Raid Mini JCW ground to a halt for 90 minutes, dropping from 14^th in the stage classification to 42^nd.

The next to exit dune left was Cristina Gutierrez in the third Dacia Sandrider at km 729, accompanied by her assistance truck, followed by Nani Roma who stopped at km 766 and had to wait for his support truck.

Guy Botterill, running fifth in the stage rankings, lost around half an hour before waypoint 20 and stopped again before waypoint 22 with mechanical issues. The South African got going again after nearly two-hours and completed the stage in 42^nd position

Carlos Sainz stopped his battered Raptor between the 868 and 897km waypoints. He finished the stage eventually, 1 hour 33 minutes behind Al Rajhi.

With 30km to go, Giniel de Villiers and Saood Variawa crashed into each other in thick dust. While both vehicles suffered significant damage, both crews were unharmed. De Villiers managed to make his car a runner, and completed the stage in a provisional 29^th at the time of writing.

Through all of this, Yazeed Al Rajhi picked up where he left off leading the pack home in his Overdrive Toyota Hilux, in spite of huge pressure from Nasser Al-Attiyah who got to within 26 seconds of snatching the lead.

Henk Lategan, the leading Toyota Gazoo Racing driver, was steady in third place, vaulting to the top of the virtual overall standings after 739km.

Rocas Bacuiska’s Hilux powered the young Lithuanian to an excellent fourth overall with Mathieu Serradori the Century Racing meat in an Overdrive Racing sandwich with Overdrive’s Juan Cruz Yacopini 12 seconds further back in sixth place.

Mattias Ekstrom stopped his Ford for several minutes before km 739, dropping off the stage podium to end in seventh position.

Sebastian Loeb and Fabian Lurquin put in a storming drive gaining 15 minutes after losing half an hour with engine fan problems on Sunday. He ended the stage in ninth place, dragging himself into sixth in the virtual overall standings, just under 19 minutes behind Lategan.

Toby Price continued to surprise on his debut in the Ultimate class with ninth while Benediktas Vanagas and Szymon Gospodarczyk made their first appearance in the top 10 after bringing their Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics Hilux home behind the Australian.

After the finish, Yazeed Al Rajhi received a 2-minute penalty while Nasser Al Attiyah was handed a 4-minute penalty, both for exceeding speed limits. Although the penalties have not deprived Al Rajhi of stage victory, it does mean Al Attiyah drops down to third on the 48 HR Chrono, with Henk Lategan moving into second place, 4’16’’ behind Al Rajhi.

On two wheels, after the 48 HR Chrono stage, Daniel Sanders has opened up a gap in the general standings and leads Skyler Howes by 12’36’’. Ross Branch is third, 4’’ behind Howes and 8’’ ahead of the American’s team-mate Tosha Schareina. Title holder Ricky Brabec completes the top 5, 15’09’’ behind Sanders.

Overall standings after stage 2:

1. H. Lategan/B. Cummings               Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux                                     15:40:30
2. Y. Al Rajhi/T. Gottschalk                 Overdrive Toyota Hilux                                                  +4:45
3. N. Al-Attiyah/E. Boulanger             Dacia Sandrider                                                               +11:14
4. T. Price/S. Sunderland                   Overdrive Toyota Hilux                                                  +11:44
5. M. Bergstrom/E. Bergkvist           M-Sport Ford Raptor                                                      +13:16
6. S. Loeb/F. Lurquin                          Dacia Sandrider                                                               +18:56
7. L. Moraes/A. Monleon                  Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux                                           +20:57
8. M. Serradori/L. Minaudier           Century Racing CR-7                                                       +22:45
9. M. Guthrie/K. Walch                      M-Sport Ford Raptor                                                      +23:33
10. J. Yacopini/D. Oliveras                  Overdrive Toyota Hilux                                                  +23:57

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Bisha – Bisha  Stage 967km, liaison 91km 48- Hour Chrono (Part 1)

As its name suggests, stage two is contested over two days without service, although competitors are allowed to help each other in the evening. The riders and crews will be scattered among multiple bivouacs. When the clock strikes 5 pm, all vehicles are required to stop at the next bivouac they come across on the route.

The competitors camp out and set off again at sunrise on Monday to complete the remaining section of the course. By the time the drivers and riders return to Bisha, the motorbikes will have covered 947 kilometers and the cars 967km.

The six break zones that will accommodate the competitors for the night lie between km 491 (zone A) and km 671 (zone F). Depending on how far they make it on Sunday, the entrants will have between 276 and 456 km left on Monday. Honda reckon that their riders will cover 600 to 650 km of special on the first day, which would take them to zone D (km 608), zone E (km 626) or zone F (km 671). Last year, the leading riders and drivers reached the last camp.

At the first waypoint at 42km, it became clear that the teams starting lower down the order had made the right choice to lose time on stage one as seven of the first ten runners had started the stage outside the top 10.

Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Hilux) passed the first waypoint with the fastest time followed by Nasser Al-Attiyah 11 seconds further back and chased by the 2024 Rookie of the Year Guy Botterill and Dennis Murphy, a second up on Mattias Ekstrom’s Ford Raptor. All four had started the stage in 19^th, 18^th, 14^th and 15^th position respectively.

The first casualty was Saood Variawa, who stopped for half an hour with a mechanical problem in the opening kilometers before the first waypoint and plummeted to the back of the field.

45km later at waypoint two, all the top ten teams were those that had started the day in ninth or lower. Al Rajhi still led but Botterill was into second, 43 seconds ahead of Al-Attiyah. Henk Lategan had blasted his Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux into ninth and in terms of his overall position, his appeal against Saturday’s 10-minute penalty was successful and the penalty was revoked.

 Seth Quintero, who won stage one on Saturday, was languishing down in 18th position…

At km 168, there was a three-minute de-controlled service area to change tyres if needed with some pit stops quicker than others.

At the 169km mark, the top three were covered by 30 seconds; Al-Rajhi was 23 seconds ahead of Ekstrom’s Ford with Al-Attiyah seven seconds further back. De Mevius (Mini), Nani Roma (Ford) and Sebastian Loeb made up the top six.

There was a 15 minute refueling break at km 231 – about a quarter of the way – and it was the ‘big three’ at the top of the stage timesheets after starting the morning in 18^th, 19^th and 22^nd respectively. Al-Attiyah was fastest by 30 seconds from Al Rajhi with Loeb rounding out the podium at this point with the route heading into the first of dunes of the route.

With the W2RC champion in his element, the Qatari opened up a lead of 3 min 48 over Al Rajhi with Loeb 36 seconds behind the Overdrive Toyota pair by waypoint six. Toby Price was doing exceptionally well in fourth, seven seconds up on De Mevius’ Mini.

Nani Roma was the leading Ford in sixth with Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier in seventh as the top Century Racing entry. Ekstrom was ninth with Juan Cruz Yacopini/Daniel Oliveras (Overdrive Toyota Hilux) rounding out the top 10.

Carlos Sainz flipped his Ford Raptor with mainly cosmetic damage at km 327 but continued after a fellow competitor helped right his car, losing 20 minutes and dropping to 16^th place and 22 minutes off the lead. Lategan and Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz brought Toyota Gazoo Racing back into the top 10 after the 325km mark.

As the crews headed out of the dunes, Al Rajhi was back in the lead at the 373km mark, 70 seconds up on Al-Attiyah with Nani Roma into third as the leading Ford entry.

There was a brief respite at refuel zone at km 413 although Loeb was in trouble, stopping twice. He ended the day in 17th position, 32 minutes off the lead.

As the crews passed the halfway mark and the first break bivouac, Al Rajhi had a 66 second lead over Al-Attiyah with Yacopini into third, some 5:37 behind the leader. Roma and Ekstrom held fourth and fifth for Ford with Toby Price an excellent sixth on his debut on four wheels.

Lategan, Botterill and de Villiers held seventh, eighth and ninth for Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa with Brian Baragwanath rounding out the top 10 in his Century CR7.

When the clocks hit 5pm Saudi time, crews headed to their nearest bivouac, with the top 27 teams making it to camp E at km 626.

After racing across dirt, sand and stoned tracks, as well as a sprinkling of dunes, Al Rajhi had a 79 second lead over Al-Attiyah while third-placed Ekstrom was 8 min 55 seconds away from the lead.

Henk Lategan was a brilliant fourth overall, 1 min 59 ahead of Juan Cruz Jacopini with Guy Botterill breathing down his neck in sixth, 52 seconds behind the Argentinian Overdrive Toyota crew.

Toby Price was a stunning seventh on his four-wheeled debut, ahead of Nani Roma and Giniel de Villiers, who slowly crept into the top 10 with a consistent drive and was lurking just five seconds behind the Mini.

Mathieu Serradori rounded out the top 10 in his Century CR-7.

The drive of the day came from Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet who hauled themselves back from 64th at km 87 to 25^th when they reached camp E.

Virtual General Ranking: (Provisional)

1. Y. Al Rahji/T. Gottschalk                 Overdrive Toyota Hilux                                                  11:45:24
2. N. Al-Attiyah/E. Boulanger           Dacia Sandrider                                                                 +1:19
3. H. Lategan/B. Cummings              Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux                                     +2:12
4. M. Ekstrom/E. Bergkvist                M-Sport Ford Raptor                                                      +3:44
5. G. Botterill/D. Murphy                   Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux                                     +8:07
6. T. Price/S. Sunderland                   Overdrive Toyota Hilux                                                  +9:05
7. N. Roma/A. Haro                           M-Sport Ford Raptor                                                      +14:29
8. G. de Mevius/M. Baumel             X-Raid Mini JCW                                                               +17:40
9. G. de Villiers/D. von Zitzewitz     Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Hilux                                     +17:45
10. B. Baragwanath/L. Cremer           Century Racing CR-7                                                       +20:45

The post Yazeed Al Rajhi leads Dakar 2025 appeared first on Motorsport Week.

As revealed in Motorsport Monday at the end of August last year, Renault’s Romanian subsidiary Dacia, known for their durable cheap ‘n cheerful cars, has formally announced its participation in the 2025 Dakar Rally and the full FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC).

The brand aims to tackle the world’s most challenging bits of Mother Earth with the introduction of its challenger, the Sandrider.

With a strong parent in Renault, who has been deeply involved in all levels of motorsport from Formula One to club racing since the dawn of the motor car and all the expertise they have gathered along with the well-known motorsport firm Prodrive, the Sandrider has been inspired by the 2022 Manifesto concept car and specifically developed for rally-raids. The prototype, designed to be light and agile will compete in the Ultimate T1+ category and will become the most powerful vehicle in Dacia’s history.

Power comes from a Nissan 3.0-litre V6 twin-turbo engine with a direct injection engine producing 360 horsepower at 5,000 rpm. The engine runs on synthetic fuel, which is a combination of renewable hydrogen and sequestered CO². A six-speed sequential transmission sends the power to all four wheels. The car runs on 17-inch aluminium wheels fitted with BF Goodrich’s 37-inch tyre.

Aerodynamics play a crucial role in rally-raid and it is a key area of the Sandrider’s development, with engineers achieving a 10 percent reduction in drag and a 40 percent decrease in lift compared to comparable prototypes (read: Hunter). The emphasis on heat management in extreme conditions led to the integration of anti-infrared pigments in the carbon body panels filed as a patented process.

The Sandrider is set to undergo extensive development in various countries before making its motorsport debut at the Rallye du Maroc, the final round of the W2RC from 5 to 11 October. Dacia’s official W2RC team, the Dacia Sandriders, will participate in their first Dakar Rally and other legs of the World Rally-Raid Championship in 2025.

The team has a stellar driver line-up of experienced and talented drivers headed by Sébastien Loeb, a nine-time World Rally Championship winner with co-driver Fabian Lurquin along for the ride again. The duo finished third in this year’s Dakar Rally.

Nasser Al-Attiyah, a five-time Dakar winner and double W2RC Champion will resume battle with Loeb, but will have to mind his p’s and q’s if things don’t go his way come January.

Cristina Gutiérrez co-driver Pablo Moreno – who won the Challenger class in this year’s Dakar Rally, the Spanish lady-racer becoming only the second woman to win a Dakar title – bring their experience to the team.

The post Dacia’s demon Dakar racer revealed appeared first on Motorsport Week.