MEDIA INFORMATION                               

47th Dakar Rally

January 3rd-17th, 2025 

2025 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), round 1

OVERDRIVE RACING’S YAZEED AL-RAJHI WINS THE DAKAR RALLY FOR THE FIRST TIME

  • Second success for his co-driver Timo Gottschalk after a 14-year wait
  • Toyota’s Lategan, Yacopini and Quintero finish second, seventh and ninth
  • Prologue and eight stage wins out of 12 for TGR and Overdrive Toyotas

SHUBAYTAH (SAUDI ARABIA) – Friday, January 17: Overdrive Racing’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi has made history by becoming the first Saudi Arabian driver to win the Dakar Rally.

The Toyota Hilux driver won one stage on his way to a 3min 57sec victory over the Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) duo of Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings. Al-Rajhi’s co-driver Timo Gottschalk secured a second victory after a 14-year wait following his success with Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah in South America in 2011. It was the second closest finish in the history of the car category at the Dakar.

Al-Rajhi said: “I am very, very happy to do it, it was not an easy race, it’s the toughest one that I’ve done in the last 11 years. For sure, me and Timo and my team did a great job like always. We have made a lot of records today: the first Saudi driver to win and also in the last 25 years no private team beat a factory team but we did it this time. Also, it’s the first time there is a winner on the Dakar from the same country in which it is raced, with a Saudi guy winning a Saudi Dakar. Today we took it easy, there was no need to push and we did a great job.”

Lategan led the race for eight days but just fell short after a superb drive. The South African said: “It’s tough to come this far, to lead the race for that long and have a really good race going, just to lose out by only a few minutes at the end. We really gave it our best. The team has been absolutely unbelievable with getting us to where we are, keeping the car in the race and keeping us going. We had a great race, it’s sad to lose it by such a small margin with everything that’s happened but we will come back fighting. I definitely feel that I’ve gained a lot of experience. I’m still just at the beginning. This is my third full Dakar. We’ll keep pushing and I’ll work my hardest to come back and win.”

Toyota controlled the race from the start. The team won the Prologue and eight of the 12 stages on the opening round of the 2025 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC). The success was the fourth for the Japanese manufacturer after previous successes in 2019, 2022 and 2023.

Argentina’s Juan Cruz Yacopini and his Spanish co-driver Dani Oliveras delivered a strong performance to bring the second of the Overdrive Racing cars to the finish in seventh.

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz earned two stage wins during the first week until tyre issues blighted their title challenge on stage four. The American performed strongly during the second half of the event to reach the finish in ninth, despite losing a place late in the dunes in the second week.

Lithuania’s Rokas Baciuška and his Spanish navigator Oriol Mena won the gruelling 48-hour chrono stage during the first week and recovered strongly from delays with brake and suspension issues to reach the finish in Shubaytah in 12th.

Estonian Urvo Männama and navigator Risto Lepik lost time with a problem with the jack during the sandy second week but were able to complete the race in 13th.

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Lucas Moraes and his Spanish navigator Armand Monleón were battling for victory during the first week but all that hard work was undone by technical issues on stage six and an unfortunate time penalty. The Brazilian bounced back strongly to win the seventh stage and climbed back through the field to finish 15th with the fastest time on the short final sprint adding icing to Toyota’s cake.

The Brazilian pairing of Marcos Moraes and Maykel Justo started the second half of the rally from 26th and stayed clear of major dramas to complete the event in 27th.

Australia’s Toby Price and Briton Sam Sunderland were running inside the top six for large parts of the first week on their Dakar debut but Sunderland sustained a concussion after a heavy impact and the decision was eventually taken to withdraw the duo from the race after stage seven.

Overdrive Racing also provided service and logistical support for Spaniard Isidre Esteve Pujol and navigator José-Maria Villalobos in their Repsol Toyota Rally Team car and a pair of Chinese Toyota crews. Esteve Pujol reached the finish in 29th overall.

Guoyu Zhang and Yicheng Wang completed the event in 30th position, their cause not helped by a 30-minute time penalty imposed at the rest day for a minor rule infringement. Rong Zi and Hongyu Pan finished 37th.

Overdrive Racing’s team principal Jean-Marc Fortin said: “What to say? Two and three years ago, one and three, last year second, and this year, one and two. I am so happy, It’s a dream of life that you are winning Dakar. But this one was another test and Overdrive has won the Dakar. It is unbelievable. We are leading the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ Championships. It’s a beautiful day.”

After the rest day, the sixth stage of 604.21km ran between Ha’il and Al-Duwadimi and featured two parts with the first running across rocky terrain and the second featuring endless sand and dunes. Moraes ground to a halt with technical issues after just 17km and lost over two and a half hours.

Lategan came home in seventh and retained a reduced overall lead over Al-Rajhi of 7min 16sec. Yacopini and Quintero climbing a place each to seventh and eighth.

Stage seven looped through the dunes around Al-Duwadimi for 418km after it was trimmed back from 481km to support helicopter logistics on safety grounds. Despite his delays the previous day and a one-hour time penalty for handling a mobile ‘phone in a neutralisation zone, Moraes bounced back strongly with the fastest time: the Brazilian won the stage by 7min 41sec and held 19th overall.

Moraes said: “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. It’s 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. 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.”

Lategan dropped nearly 20 minutes to the stage winner but, more importantly, he ceded time to his closest rivals at the top of the leader board and returned to the bivouac with a lead over Al-Rajhi of just 21 seconds.

Yacopini and Quintero held seventh and eighth but Price and Sunderland retired their Overdrive Racing Toyota in the stage. Sunderland had suffered a mild concussion the previous day after an impact and the decision was sensibly taken to retire the car for the navigator to recuperate after he received another impact. Männama and Baciuška were 11th and 14th overall.

The Dakar caravan then headed to the Saudi capital of Riyadh on an eighth stage of 487km. Lategan had also been affected by a road book error that had caused chaos for the front-runners on stage seven but the South African bounced back strongly and managed to grab the stage win from team-mate Guy Botterill.

The result stretched his lead over Al-Rajhi to 5min 41sec with Yacopini and Quintero retaining seventh and eighth and Männama and Baciuška holding 11th and 13th.

Al-Rajhi’s co-driver Gottschalk said: “It was a long stage, but quite fast. It felt like a WRC, reading pace notes non-stop with no time to drink or even think. We started sixth and overtook a few guys on the road, then Nasser overtook us again in the dunes. Henk had a better starting position from further back. That’s how it goes.”

The ninth stage included a large section of dunes and ran for 357km en route to Haradh, a large oil and industrial hub in the Ahsa Governorate in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.

Lategan’s stage win the previous day meant that he was handed stage-opening duties and it played against the South African in a big way with Al-Attiyah claiming the stage win and Al-Rajhi coming home in third to displace the long-time leader and snatch a lead of 7min 07sec. Lategan got lost and sustained a puncture.

Baciuška came home in fifth and the quartet of Yacopini, Quintero, Männama and Baciuška finished the day in seventh, eighth, 12th and 13th.

Al-Rajhi said: “I am very happy. We did a great job like we planned to. I think we pushed well. We enjoyed it, that’s the most important. I hope everything goes well the next two or three days to win the Dakar…I will fight to win. It won’t be easy, but we will fight to the end. Everything is going well for us”.

The 10th stage only ran for 119km but featured a sea of dunes from Haradh to Shubaytah. Starting further behind helped Lategan’s challenge and he also benefitted from a minor delay for Al-Rajhi to move back into the overall lead.

Al-Rajhi was 2min 27sec behind the South African with Moraes finishing the stage in second and Yacopini and Quintero retaining seventh and eighth overall, despite the latter getting stuck for a short time. Männama lost a place after losing half an hour with a bent jack when he got stuck in the sand.

“We got stuck because we were taking it easy,” said Al-Rajhi. “Everything is going good, that’s the most important. I have a good position, I hope. No pressure, I hope everything will go well.”

The penultimate 11th stage of 275.86km looped through the dunes in the Empty Quarter after a foggy start. The pendulum swung decisively in Al-Rajhi’s favour: the Saudi came home in third and managed to beat Lategan by 8min 38sec to give himself the cushion of 6min 11sec to take into the final morning. Yacopini retained seventh but Quintero slipped a place to ninth.

The leading drivers left the start of the 61km finale in small groups at 10-minute intervals and the top quintet were in the fifth group to tackle the sandy special. Al-Rajhi erred on the side of caution but the lead was enough for the Saudi to secure a memorable victory. Moraes added icing on the Toyota cake with the fastest time.

2025 Dakar Rally – result (unofficial):

  1. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 52hr 52min 15sec
  2. Henk Lategan (ZAF)/Brett Cummings (ZAF) Toyota Hilux IMT Evo 52hr 56min 12sec
  3. Mattias Ekström (SWE)/Emil Bergkvist (SWE) Ford Raptor 53hr 12min 36sec
  4. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Edouard Boulanger (FRA) Dacia Sandrider 53hr 16min 13sec
  5. Mitch Guthrie (USA)/Kellon Walch (USA) Ford Raptor 53hr 54min 25sec
  6. Mathieu Serradori (FRA)/Loic Minaudier (FRA) Century CR7 54hr 04min 19sec
  7. Juan Cruz Yacopini (ARG)/Daniel Oliveras (ESP) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 54hr 50min 02sec
  8. João Ferreira (PRT)/Filipe Palmeiro (PRT) Mini JCW Rally 3.0D 55hr 08min 12sec
  9. Seth Quintero (USA)/Dennis Zenz (DEU) Toyota GR DKR Hilux 55hr 12min 19sec
  10. Brian Baragwanath (ZAF)/Leonard Cremer (ZAF) Century CR7 55hr 51min 41sec

Rally leaders

SS1                              Seth Quintero (Toyota)

SS2-8                           Henk Lategan (Toyota)

SS9                              Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota)

SS10                             Henk Lategan (Toyota)

SS11-12                        Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota)

Stage winners

Prologue                       Henk Lategan (Toyota)

SS1                              Seth Quintero (Toyota)

SS2                              Rokas Baciuška (Toyota)

SS3                              Saood Variawa (Toyota)

SS4                              Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota)

SS5                              Seth Quintero (Toyota)

SS6                              Guillaume de Mévius (Mini)

SS7                              Lucas Moraes (Toyota)

SS8                              Henk Lategan (Toyota)

SS9                              Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (Dacia)

SS10                             Joan Roma (Ford)

SS11                             Mattias Ekström (Ford)

SS12                             Lucas Moraes (Toyota)

Ends

For further information:

Jean-Marc Fortin (E-mail: jmf@overdriveracing.be), Overdrive S.A., rue de L’Enterprise 1, 4530 Villers-le-Bouillet, Belgium, Tel: + 32 475 762 391. www.overdriveracing.be, Facebook: Overdrive Racing, Twitter: @OverdriveToyota

 

 

 

Published On: 17 January 2025