MEDIA INFORMATION                               

Ha’il Toyota International Rally (Saudi Baja)

January 30th-February 1st, 2025 

2025 FIA World Baja Cup, round 1

OVERDRIVE RACING’S YAZEED AL-RAJHI EARNS HIS EIGHTH VICTORY AT THE HA’IL INTERNATIONAL RALLY/SAUDI BAJA

  • Victory number five for his German co-driver Timo Gottschalk
  • Yacopini and Akeel give Overdrive Racing a 1-2-3 finish in Ha’il

HA’IL (SAUDI ARABIA) – Saturday, February 1: Overdrive Racing’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi continued where he left off with his recent Dakar Rally victory to earn an eighth career success in the Ha’il Toyota International Rally (Saudi Baja)

The Toyota Hilux driver won the event on five occasions when it ran to a longer format before 2020 and has now recorded shorter Baja successes in 2022, 2024 and 2025. His German co-driver Timo Gottschalk won the longer rally with Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah in 2011 and has now taken wins with Al-Rajhi in 2015, 2016, 2024 and 2025. The duo now lead the 2025 FIA World Baja Cup after the opening round.

Al-Rajhi said: “It was a good race. Timo and I did it well. We enjoyed it. That’s the most important. The 20th anniversary of the event here was a nice one. The event is going better and better every year.”

Argentina’s Juan Cruz Yacopini and his Spanish co-driver Dani Oliveras kept the pressure on the Saudi driver for long periods of the three-day event on a new route through the north-central deserts of Saudi Arabia and finished second in their Toyota Hilux.

Yacopini finished 5min 49sec behind the Dakar winner. He said: “Both stages were very nice. The second one was a fast, sandy one with some dunes and off-piste. Navigation was not a big issue this weekend but you need a good co-driver to go faster. The gap between me and Yazeed was not too long yesterday and I wanted to push as much as I could. But he was faster than me and he made a big gap. Congratulations to him.”

Dania Akeel and Stéphane Duplé ran a third Overdrive Racing Toyota and were registered to defend Akeel’s 2024 FIA Middle East Baja Cup title. They finished third to give Overdrive Racing a clean sweep of the podium places.

Akeel said: “It was a lot of fun and we won the Middle East Baja class. It was quite technical in places with some very rough parts. It was good experience.”

A Prologue of 5.76km determined the start order for the opening special stage over a new route through the neighbouring An-Nafud desert. Al-Rajhi set the pace with a run of 3min 56sec and beat Khalifa Saleh Al-Attiyah by eight seconds with Yacopini and Akeel coming home in fourth and sixth places.

Al-Rajhi started the opening 260km from ninth on the road and made his favourable starting position count with the fastest time. The Saudi beat Yacopini by 1min 35sec to take the lead with Akeel in third, 3min 48sec adrift.

Gottschalk said: “Very nice stage in a different area to years before. There were some tricky dunes, nice fast gravel tracks and some navigation. It was something to enjoy. We had a good pace, not too fast. We had a good fight with Juan Cruz Yacopini. It was okay. It was raining a lot the days before but it was sunny and the desert was looking nice.”

Akeel said: “The stage was a lot of fun with this car. There were some nice fast parts in the sand and dunes. It was a bit technical. We opened the road for a large part and lost some time there but we stayed in the top three.”

There were no late dramas for Al-Rajhi and he won the final 160km stage by 4min 14sec to secure an eighth victory in Ha’il. Yacopini and Akeel finished second and third on the day’s special to earn Overdrive Racing a clean sweep of the podium places.

The 2025 FIA World Baja Cup continues with the Aqaba-based Jordan Baja on April 10th-12th.

2025 Saudi Baja – result (unofficial):

  1. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 4hr 28min 15sec*
  2. Juan Cruz Yacopini (ARG)/Daniel Oliveras (ESP) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 4hr 34min 04sec*
  3. Dania Akeel (SAU)/Stéphane Duplé (FRA) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 4hr 38min 26sec+
  4. Khalifa Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Dmytro Tsyro (UKR) Taurus T3 Max 4hr 39min 51sec+
  5. Ahmed Al-Kuwari (QAT)/Augusto Sanz (ARG) Taurus T3 Max 4hr 46min 17sec+
  6. Saleh Al-Saif (SAU)/Alexander Toril (ESP) G Rally Team OT3 4hr 48min 12sec+
  7. Hamza Bakhashab (SAU)/Marcin Pasek (POL) Can-Am Maverick R 4hr 54min 21sec+
  8. Miroslav Zapletal (CZE)/Michal Goleniewski (POL) Ford F-150 4hr 54min 28sec*
  9. Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (QAT)/Nasser Al-Kuwari (QAT) Taurus T3 Max 4hr 56min 25sec+
  10. Sergei Remennik (ARE)/Aleksei Ignatov (KGZ) Taurus T3 Max 4hr 58min 28sec*

*denotes registered for FIA World Cup

+ denotes registered for FIA Middle East Cup

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: 1 February 2025