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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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)

The post Seth Quintero wins stage 5 – Henk Lategan extends overall lead appeared first on Motorsport Week.

Update:

Race officials credited Seth Quintero with the 95 seconds that he had spent assisting Laia Sanz after her crash. It was history in the making: never before had a 22-year-old won a stage in the premier class.

A number of competitors received various penalties, the worst top runner affected was Henk Lategan who received a 10 minute penalty which dropped him from 10th in the classification to 21st overall. The Lategan penalty is under appeal as the tracker system malfunctioned.

Bisha – Bisha    Stage 413km, liaison 86km

The Dakar got underway with a 499km stage to whet the appetite for the stages to come. It was important to preserve the cars for stage two on Sunday which is the feared 48-hour Chrono stage – two days and 1058km without service while sleeping in a bivouac in the desert with the bare basics.

No one would want to open the road on such a crucial section of the route. Who was sandbagging in stage one and who was confident enough to grab the lead and open the road on Sunday?

When the cars returned to the bivouac in Bisha, Guerlain Chicherit and Alex Winocq set the fastest time in their X-Raid Mini JCW, giving Mini their first stage win since 2021, finishing 50 seconds ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz.

Rounding out the stage podium, 13 seconds further back was 19-year-old Saood Variawa/Francois Cazalet in their Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa Hilux. The Toyota pair pipped Martin Prokop/Viktor Chytka’s Jipocar Ford Raptor by one second.

The ‘lady of the desert’ and the top Dacia runner was Spaniard Cristina Gutierrez and co-driver Pablo Moreno who ended a superb fifth overall, ahead of Joao Ferreira/Filipe Palmeiro in another X-Raid Mini JCW.

The first of the ‘big guns’ was Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz who brought their Ford Raptor home in seventh position, one second ahead of Lucas Moraes/Armand Monleon in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux.

Rounding out the top ten was Australian Toby Price and British co-driver Sam Sunderland in their Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux and the prologue winner Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings in their TGR SA Toyota Hilux.

Rally favourites Nasser Al-Attiyah and Edouard Boulanger ended 20^th with fellow Dacia Sandrider team mates Sebastian Loeb/Fabian Lurquin in 22^nd, were clearly not keen on opening the road on the 48 Hour Chrono stage. Loeb said: “The goal wasn’t to set the fastest time, so we decided to stop for a few minutes at the end to lose some time and avoid starting first tomorrow”, the Frenchman explained at the finish. “Everyone played the same game… Now we just have to wait and see our exact position in the standings.”

Al-Attiyah, having learned from his mistake last year said; “The stage wasn’t easy, but we took it steady and avoided mistakes. In the final kilometres, we had a puncture and stopped for about fifteen minutes to make sure we secured a starting position well down the order for tomorrow. We gave up a lot of time, but it was important to do so. If I could start fiftieth, that would be ideal. Last year, we took a risk and learned the hard way.”

In the opening half of the stage, Moraes, Variawa, Chicherit, Brian Baragwanath/Leonard Cremer (Century CR-7), Guy Botterill/Dennis Murphy and Lategan dominated the top six, trading places as the waypoints rolled by.

Rokas Baciuska stopped at km 210 to work on the rear brakes while Laia Sanz/Maurizio Gerini crashed their Century CR6-T into a rock while racing in dust and were forced to wait for their truck to repair a broken shock absorber and control arm.

In the bike category, Daniel Sanders, the prologue winner claimed victory in stage one. The Australian finished 2′04″ ahead of Ricky Brabec and 2′26″ clear of Ross Branch. Tosha Schareina, who was just 18″ behind Sanders at the previous waypoint, completed the stage 4′42″ off the leader’s pace. Skyler Howes, who clocked in at 14′49″, will have the time he spent assisting the injured Sebastian Bühler reinstated, which ought to bring him closer to the stage podium.

Top 10 T1+ (Provisional)

1. S. Quintero/D. Zenz                        Toyota Gazoo Racing  Hilux                                          4:35:08 
2. G. Chicherit/A. Winocq                  X-Raid Mini JCW                                                               +0:55
3. S. Variawa/F. Cazalet                     Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Toyota Hilux                      +1:48
4. M. Prokop/V. Chytka                     Jipocar Ford Raptor                                                         +1:49
5. C. Gutierrez/P. Moreno                   Dacia Sandrider                                                               +2:13
6. J. Ferreira/F. Palmeiro                   X-Raid Mini JCW                                                               +2:38
7. L. Moraes/A. Monleon                  Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux                                           +3:18
8. C. Sainz/L. Cruz                             Ford M-Sport Raptor                                                      +3:27
9. G. de Mevius/M. Baumel             X-Raid Mini JCW                                                               +5:37                                    
10. M. Gastaldi/A. Metge                    Century Racing CR7                                                         +5:43

The post Seth Quintero and Toyota Gazoo Racing win Dakar Stage 1 appeared first on Motorsport Week.

Toyota Gazoo Racing perform miracles in the desert!

Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz had a rally-ending incident yesterday. Toyota Gazoo Racing Team Principal Glyn Hall tells the story.

“Seth and Dennis fortunes changed dramatically today (Tuesday, stage four) after they hit a rock embedded in Mother Earth. The chassis was bent and soon after the engine mounting broke because the chassis was 15mm wider that it should be following the damage.

Shortly after, the engine was moving around breaking an oil fitting in the process.

The pair were second fastest till that point.

The team are hard at work repairing the chassis and fitting a replacement engine as the cylinder block was damaged by the broken mounting:  a 20hr penalty will be applied.

If we get the chassis straight enough Seth will continue in the race gaining valuable experience and hopefully some world championship points if he can finish in the top 5 each day.

The following update was received at 6.30am Wednesday: The team did a great job on Seth and Dennis’ car rebuild, finishing at 6:30 this morning (Wednesday) – chassis is fixed, engine changed. The chassis alignment is not 100% but good enough for a top 5 placing in my opinion. Today there will be a 20hr penalty added for the engine change but it should not affect the seeding for the 48hr chrono stage.”

Today’s fifth stage from Al-Hofuf to Shubaytah is the shortest of the rally at just 118km; however, it comprises 100% dunes in Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter and includes a 45km stretch of soft dunes. To get to the stage though, there is a 508km road section.

It’s going to be another long, tough day…

The post Breaking news: Seth Quintero back in Dakar appeared first on Motorsport Week.

The 462km stage two saw order restored. After a somewhat surprising top 10 on day one, the Dakar big guns laid down their marker.

14 times a Dakar winner – six on a bike and eight on four wheels, Stephan Peterhansel powered his Audi RS Q e-tron into a  lead he was never to relinquish for any length of time.

Stéphane Peterhansel scooped up his fiftieth career Dakar stage win. He is now the joint record holder for most stage wins together with Ari Vatanen. “For sure it’s much better than yesterday because at the end it’s not really complicated to be much better than yesterday. But first of all we took the pleasure to drive because the track was not too much destroyed, not too much rocks. So it’s been really fun to drive the car. The setting of the car is really good. For sure to take one victory of stage it’s always nice,” said Peterhansel at the Al Duwadimi finish.

Initially, Nasser Al-Attiyah hounded him just on a minute behind over the first 100 or so km before losing eight minutes around km 130, dropping the Qatari to 11^th.

Stepping up into the void was Saudi hero Yazeed Al Rajhi/Timo Gottschalk in their Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux with Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz half a minute further back in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux.

Loeb, meanwhile, had his BRX Prodrive Hunter up into fourth having started 19^th in a run that looked ominous for those ahead.

At the sharp end, Quintero took the lead by 10 seconds after 167km, with Al Rajhi 26 seconds in arrears and Loeb now a menacing 1:18 away.

At the halfway mark, Peterhansel was back in front, the Audi 31 seconds clear of the factory Toyota pair and Loeb now into third, having squeezed ahead of Al Rajhi by 16 seconds. Such was the pace of the leading quartet that fifth placed Guerlain Chicherit/Alex Winocq were nearly five minutes adrift.

Over the next 50km further down the road, Quintero fought back, taking second off Loeb by three seconds while Al Rajhi faded somewhat, lagging 3½ minutes behind. Over the next 68km, not only did Loeb blow back past Quintero, putting him firmly in his place, the Frenchman closed to within five seconds of the lead Audi.

It was a no-holds-barred race between two of the biggest names in rallying. Peterhansel eked out his lead to 45 seconds, leaving Quintero and Al Rajhi well behind. With 30km to go, Peterhansel had a ‘comfortable’ lead of 38 seconds, reaching the end of the stage 29 seconds clear.

Quintero held on to third, but, almost unnoticed, Al-Attiyah had moved to one second away from the Saudi driver, which for the defending champion, was an easy ask over the final 28km.

Chicherit held on to sixth from Mattias Ekstrom/Emil Bergkvist’s Audi, with teammates Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz taking eighth – and the rally lead – while Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Brazilian driver Lucas Moraes took ninth from Martin Prokop/Viktor Chytka’s Orlen Ford Raptor.

The stars of stage one were nowhere to be seen, other than Sainz. Guillaume De Meuvis/Xavier Panseri, the overnight leader and “shock” winner of stage one, as some journalists called it, dropped 25 minutes to end 19^th after opening the road and only his second ever stage in an Ultimate class car.

Giniel de Villiers, third overnight, was in the mid-20s for most of the stage, ended 21^st after dropping almost 29 minutes. The X-Raid Mini of Vaidotas Zala/Paolo Fiuza – fourth in stage one – ended 13^th.

Guy Botterill/Brett Cummings, having run second on Saturday with eight km remaining and dropped to seventh, plummeted down to 25^th before clawing their way back to a more respectable 12^th, still a great effort from the Dakar rookie.

The third Gazoo Racing Toyota star from stage one, Sa’ood Variawa and Francois Gazalet ended 29^th.

Provisional Overall after stage 2:

Sainz, Al Rajhi (+1:51), Loeb (+4:17)

Jose Cornejo won the overall bike category on his Monster Honda by 5:59. The Chilean opened the road together with Ricky Brabec and Ross Branch and played his cards right to pick up his seventh Dakar stage win, the first since stage 12 last year.

Lucian Benavedes took second on his Husqvarna from Chilean Monster Honda rider Pablo Quintanilla.

Branch is still 2′30″ ahead of Cornejo at the top of the provisional overall standings with American Brabec in third.

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