Dakar Rally 2025

[NaBUru38]

The ASO has officially announced to remove the quads class for the 2025 Dakar Rally.

https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2024/04/aso-pulls-plug-on-quads-for-2025-dakar-rally/

[NaBUru38]

Mattias Ekström has left Audi and joined Ford for the 2025 Dakar Rally.

https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/feu/en/news/2024/10/01/mattias-ekstroem-joins-ford-performance-for-2025-dakar-rally.html

[focus206]

Entry list was published today:
https://www.dakar.com/en/competitors

Main car category competitors:

Toyota GR (Hilux): De Villiers (RSA), Lucas Moraes (BRA), Quintero (USA), Botterill (RSA), Variawa (RSA), Lategan (RSA)

Toyota Overdrive Racing (Hilux): Al Rajhi (KSA), Yacopini (ARG), Baciuska (LIT), Price (AUS), Mannama (EST), Marcos Moraes (BRA)

Ford M-Sport (Ranger): Carlos Sainz (ESP), Roma (ESP), Ekstrom (SWE), Guthrie (USA)

Dacia (Buggy Sandrider): Al Attiyah (QAT), Loeb (FRA), Gutierrez (ESP)

Mini X-Raid (new Countryman): Chicherit (FRA), Guillaume De Mevius (BEL), Krotov (RUS), Jurkevicius (LIT), Baud (FRA), Ferreira (POR)

Then we have Prokop in his team's Ranger, many Century buggies and many MD Rallye Sport buggies.

[focus206]

Little things about the Dacia Sandrider...
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ERHjRY7hRBg

Let's see if Prodrive designed this car better, without the Hunter's big flaws.

[saco0o]

i want loeb to win so baaad. its been some years already cheering for him. not much luck

[NaBUru38]

Bikes - RallyGP entries:

* Honda: #3 CHI Pablo Quintanilla, #4 USA Ricky Brabec, #5 USA Skyler Howes, #42 FRA Adrien van Beveren, #68 ESP Tosha Schareina.
* KTM: #2 AUS Daniel Sanders, #7 RSA Bradley Cox, #8 CZE Martin Michek, #47 ARG Kevin Benavides, #77 ARG Luciano Benavides, #142 Stefan Svitko.
* Hero: #1 BWA Ross Branch, #6 CHI José Ignacio Cornejo, #9 GER Sebastian Bühler.
* Sherco: #15 ESP Lorenzo Santolino, #19 POR Rui Gonçalves
* Fantic: #17 UAE Mohammed Balooshi.
* Husqvarna: #24 RSA Aaron Mare.
* Kove: #98 USA Mason Klein.
* Rieju: #54 BOL Daniel Nosiglia.
* Yamaha: #30 POR Antonio Maio.

[focus206]

The short prologue of today was won by Henk Lategan (Toyota), in front of Ekstrom (Ford) and Al Attiyah (Dacia). Tomorrow the first real stage, 413 Km.

[focus206]

Guerlain Chicherit (Mini) won today's stage, in front of Quintero and Variawa (both works Toyota). Gaps are still small, 27 drivers within 20 minutes. The only top driver who run into trouble was Baciuska (Toyota Overdrive), who lost 2h 19m.
Next is the 48h marathon stage.

This year you can also follow the times on ewrc-results:
https://www.ewrc-results.com/results/92549-dakar-rally-ultimate-2025/

[focus206]

First half of the marathon stage done, top 3 so far:
1 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive)
2 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Dacia) +1m 19s
3 - Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) +8m 55s

Lucas Moraes got stuck in sand and finished +32m 12s, Loeb stopped twice for "fan problem" according to Dakar website and is at +32m 30s, Sainz rolled but continued with damaged car with +59m 19s
Chicherit, Prokop and Quintero also lost more than 30 minutes from the lead, Variawa and Gutierrez more than one hour.

Tomorrow second half of the stage and at the end we can start looking at the overall standings.

[focus206]

Loeb said in the highlights video that it's an electrical problem: "It stops, it starts on its own, it stops again. There's no much you can do."
So far 2 Dacia Sandrider out of 3 with problems, but I don't know if Gutierrez had technical trouble or made a mistake.

[focus206]

Very good second half of the marathon stage for Loeb, he takes 19 minutes from the leader Al Rajhi and finishes the marathon stage +13m 08s.
Sainz kept losing time, big time losses also for De Mevius, De Villiers and Botterill. Roma and Gutierrez didn't finish the stage and had to be towed back to service by the assistance trucks.

Top 10 overall:
1 - Henk Lategan (Toyota GR)
2 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) +4m 45s
3 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Dacia) +11m 14s
4 - Toby Price (Toyota Overdrive) +11m 44s
5 - Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) +13m 16s
6 - Sebastien Loeb (Dacia) +18m 56s
7 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota GR) +20m 57s
8 - Mitchell Guthrie (Ford) +23m 33s
9 - Mathieu Serradori (Century) +23m 45s
10 - Juan Cruz Yacopini (Toyota Overdrive) +23 57s

[focus206]

De Villiers and Variawa (Toyota teammates) collided during the stage. Also Chicherit hit another car in the dust. They all lost plenty of time.

[EstWRC]

Sainz out because of broken rollcage and Loeb rolled today

[focus206]

after the roll, Loeb lost little more than one hour from the leader. Most likely chances of victory are gone. Many Kms left, but unless the top guys like Al Attiyah, Al Rajhi etc. run intro trouble, there's no way of taking back this amount of time from them.

[focus206]

Footage of the roll: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/P4GGtX0_t4s

[focus206]

Top 5 after today:

1 - Henk Lategan (Toyota GR)
2 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Dacia) +7m 17s
3 - Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) +9m 34s
4 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) +11m 45s
5 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota GR) +19m 40s

Loeb is 16th at +1h 14m 45s, Prokop fell to 25th at +1h 52m 46s

[EstWRC]

Loeb also retired with the same reason as Sainz, rollcage broken

[focus206]

The crash is partly covered by dust so I can't judge well, but it didn't seem such a violent roll that would cause a retirement. But maybe the rollcage was damaged by a sharp stone while rolling, who knows...

[focus206]

Prodrive appealed against the decision to "exclude" Loeb for damaged rollcage. Next stage starts in few hours from now, so not much time to reverse a decision.

[focus206]

The appeal from Dacia seems to have been rejected. Al Attiyah lost 30 minutes after stopping twice.

Cars within 1 hour from the lead:

1 - Henk Lategan (Toyota GR)
2 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) +6m 54s
3 - Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) +21m 40s
4 - Mathieu Serradori (Century) +30m 25s
5 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota GR) +33m 25s
6 - Mitchell Guthrie (Ford) +34m 09s
7 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Dacia) +35m 53s
8 - Juan Cruz Yacopini (Toyota Overdrive) +41m 10s

Serradori with the Century buggy in the podium fight is a cool sight.

[NaBUru38]

2025 Dakar Rally - standings after stage 4:

Bikes

1. AUS Daniel Sanders (KTM), 25:15'
2. ESP Tosha Schareina (Honda), + 13'
3. BWA Ross Branch (Hero), + 26'
4. USA Skyler Howes (Honda), + 27'
5. USA Ricky Brabec (Honda), + 29'
6. FRA Adrien van Beveren (Honda), + 29'
7. CHI Pablo Quintanilla (Honda), + 33'
8. ARG Luciano Benavides (KTM), + 35'
9. CHI José Ignacio Cornejo (Hero), + 54'
10. ESP Lorenzo Santolino (Sherco), + 59'

T3 Challenger

1. ATG Nicolás Cavigliasso (Taurus), 25:32'
2. USA Corbin Leaverton (Taurus), + 25'
3. POR Gonçalo Guerreiro (Taurus), + 29'
4. NED Paul Spierings (Taurus), + 36'
5. ESP Pau Navarro (Taurus), + 1:17'

T4 SSV

1. USA Brock Heger (Polaris), 26:25'
2. FRA Xavier de Soultrait (Polaris), + 1:20'
3. POR Alexandre Pinto (Can-Am), + 1:29'
4. CHI Francisco López (Can-Am), + 2:22'
5. SUI Jérôme de Sadeleer (Can-Am), + 3:27'

T5 Trucks

1. CZE Martin Macik (Iveco), 26:08'
2. CZE Aleš Loprais (Iveco), + 45'
3. LTU Vaidotas Žala (Iveco), + 56'
4. NED Mitchel van den Brink (Iveco), + 1:16'
5. CZE Martin Soltys (Tatra), + 2:49'

[saco0o]

ekstrom doing really well but he hasnt appeared on any official highlights so far!
i also dont understand guitierrez. she was doing really well but now shes almost just a mechanic for the other two?
oh... and toyota is not winning without nasser, eh? and loeb doesnt get luck with prodrive, eh??
mayyyyyybe a loeb toyota partnership would be good? wrc would like that too (one-off)

[focus206]

I also would like to see Loeb on a Hilux... he needs a reliable car. With Prodrive, there's a bigger chance you'll have serious trouble at Dakar rather than not. Let's see if Nasser will be able to bring the Dacia to the end without major time losses.

Car within 1 hour gap:
1 - Henk Lategan (Toyota GR)
2 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) +10m 17s
3 - Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) +20m 54s
4 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Dacia) +35m 00s
5 - Lucas Moraes (Toyota GR) +41m 55s
6 - Mitchell Guthrie (Ford) +42m 44s
7 - Mathieu Serradori (Century) +45m 59s

[dimviii]

i am pretty sure he will have more than one win with hi lux.
Prodrive is $hitty.

[NaBUru38]

2025 Dakar Rally - standings after stage 5:

Bikes

1. AUS Daniel Sanders (KTM), 30:20'
2. ESP Tosha Schareina (Honda), + 7'
3. BWA Ross Branch (Hero), + 17'
4. FRA Adrien van Beveren (Honda), + 18'
5. USA Skyler Howes (Honda), + 20'
6. USA Ricky Brabec (Honda), + 21'
7. ARG Luciano Benavides (KTM), + 24'
8. CHI Pablo Quintanilla (Honda), + 32'
9. CHI José Ignacio Cornejo (Hero), + 41'
10. ESP Edgar Canet (KTM), + 1:01'

T3 Challenger

1. ARG Nicolás Cavigliasso (Taurus), 30:38'
2. POR Gonçalo Guerreiro (Taurus), + 28'
3. NED Paul Spierings (Taurus), + 33'
4. QAT Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (Taurus), + 1:31'
5. SAU Dania Akeel (Taurus), + 1:37'

T4 SSV

1. USA Brock Heger (Polaris), 31:51'
2. FRA Xavier de Soultrait (Polaris), + 1:18'
3. POR Alexandre Pinto (Can-Am), + 1:34'
4. CHI Francisco López (Can-Am), + 2:00'
5. SUI Jérôme de Sadeleer (Can-Am), + 3:58'

T5 Trucks

1. CZE Martin Macik (Iveco), 31:10'
2. NED Mitchel van den Brink (Iveco), + 1:56'
3. CZE Aleš Loprais (Iveco), + 2:16'
4. CZE Martin Soltys (Tatra), + 3:39'
5. NED Martin van den Brink (Iveco), + 3:59'

[Tom206wrc]

It's over for Ross Branch in the motorcycle race today saturday(6th leg of the 2025 Dakar) :(

Same for Guerlain Chichérit(Mini)after a big crash and roll(driver injured) ;(

[focus206]

Hopefully Chicherit will recover fully. Lucas Moraes lost 3 hours and fell from 5th to 15th.

Cars within 1 hour gap:
1 - Henk Lategan (Toyota GR)
2 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) +7m 16s
3 - Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) +22m 27s
4 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Dacia) +30m 25s
5 - Mitchell Guthrie (Ford) +50m 16s
6 - Mathieu Serradori (Century) +56m 28s

[focus206]

Al Rajhi almost caught Lategan in the fight for the lead. Ekstrom and Nasser got closer as well. De Villiers retired, but he was anyway almost 4 hours from the lead.

Cars within 1 hour gap:
1 - Henk Lategan (Toyota GR)
2 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) +21s
3 - Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) +10m 25s
4 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Dacia) +21m 57s
5 - Mitchell Guthrie (Ford) +40m 01s
6 - Mathieu Serradori (Century) +54m 20s

[focus206]

Lategan won today's stage and increased his lead. Can he win the Dakar?

Cars within 1 hour gap:
1 - Henk Lategan (Toyota GR)
2 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) +5m 41s
3 - Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) +28m 55s
4 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Dacia) +34m 14s
5 - Mitchell Guthrie (Ford) +55m 39s
6 - Mathieu Serradori (Century) +58m 24s

[focus206]

Al Rajhi takes the lead of the Dakar. Lategan got lost briefly and had a puncture, but lost only 7 minutes. Al Attiyah won the stage and almost caught Ekstrom for 3rd place.

Top 5:
1 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive)
2 - Henk Lategan (Toyota GR) +7m 09s
3 - Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) +24m 50s
4 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Dacia) +25m 21s
5 - Mitchell Guthrie (Ford) +56m 28s

[focus206]

Lategan retakes the lead with only 2 stages left to go (308 Km special and then a short 61 Km special). Ekstrom and Nasser seem out of the fight on speed, unless something happens at the top 2.

Cars within 1 hour gap:
1 - Henk Lategan (Toyota GR)
2 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) +2m 27s
3 - Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) +26m 46s
4 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Dacia) +30m 21s
5 - Mitchell Guthrie (Ford) +54m 05s
6 - Mathieu Serradori (Century) +59m 41s

[focus206]

Al Rajhi retakes the lead of the Dakar, only 61 Km to go. If he doesn't have problems, it's finally his.

Top 10 before the final stage:
1 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive)
2 - Henk Lategan (Toyota GR) +6m 11s
3 - Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) +22m 34s
4 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Dacia) +26m 50s
5 - Mitchell Guthrie (Ford) +59m 26s
6 - Mathieu Serradori (Century) +1h 10m 08s
7 - Juan Cruz Yacopini (Toyota Overdrive) +1h 58m 13s
8 - Joao Ferreira (Mini) +2h 15m 59s
9 - Seth Quintero (Toyota GR) +2h 19m 47s
10 - Brian Baragwanath (Century) +2h 53m 26s

They said it was going to be a tough Dakar, but very few changes in the top 10 this year. Little drama with punctures, suspension problems etc. compared to last year.

[focus206]

Yazeed Al Rajhi wins the Dakar, congratulations to him and to Overdrive Racing, finally they won a Dakar!

Final Top 10:
1 - Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive)
2 - Henk Lategan (Toyota GR) +3m 57s
3 - Mattias Ekstrom (Ford) +20m 21s
4 - Nasser Al Attiyah (Dacia) +23m 58s
5 - Mitchell Guthrie (Ford) +1h 02m 10s
6 - Mathieu Serradori (Century) +1h 12m 04s
7 - Juan Cruz Yacopini (Toyota Overdrive) +1h 57m 47s
8 - Joao Ferreira (Mini) +2h 15m 57s
9 - Seth Quintero (Toyota GR) +2h 20m 04s
10 - Brian Baragwanath (Century) +2h 59m 26s

[focus206]

In the truck category, Martin Macik won again with his Iveco Powerstar Torpedo.
9 out of 10 trucks of the top 10 are Iveco Powerstar Torpedos, only 9th is Tomas Vratny with his Tatra by Fesh Fesh Team.
The "works" truck of Soltys (Tatra Buggyra Racing) and Sugawara (Hino) had been in the top 10 all the rally, but fell out of it in the last stages.