We’ve finally reached the finish line of the 2025 Dakar Rally, a race that was truly epic from the start line until the end of Stage 12. A host of first-time winners emerged from the convoy to write their names on the famous Touareg trophy after battling the deserts of Saudi Arabia. Towering sand dunes, extreme temperatures and a racing distance of over 5,000 kilometres all lay in wait at the world’s toughest rally. Let’s salute the winners of this legendary rally and also the entire Red Bull Desert Wings squad who tested themselves against motorsports’s most mighty challenge.
Shubaytah, Saudia Arabia (17/01/2025) – There’s rarely been a performance so dominant on two wheels as Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders put in on his way to claiming his first Dakar win and the 20th victory of KTM. The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider held the lead since setting the fastest time on the Prologue Stage two weeks ago. The Australian won five stages in total to equal the achievement of his countryman Price back in 2016. Back then Price won the Dakar bike race, in 2025 it’s Sanders who has taken victory for the first time.
“Winning this race feels massive. When I came over the last dune and saw the bivouac I got instant chills through the whole body. All the emotions just started coming through! The Dakar is the biggest off-road bike race in the world.” – Daniel Sanders
Among the chasing pack that pushed Sanders all the way in Saudi Arabia was his KTM team-mate Luciano Benavides. The Argentinian really upped the pace in the rally’s second week as he took two stages between Hail and Shubaytah. Benavides eventually had to settle for fourth overall and that’s his best ever Dakar finish, even if he’s aiming for even more!
The breakout star of this year’s Dakar bike race is undoubtably 19-year-old Edgar Canet. The rookie was a last-minute recruit of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing and raced in the Rally2 category due to his lack of experience. Not only did Canet win the Rally2 class, but he finished eighth overall.
“For two weeks I’ve only been thinking about arriving at the finish. Finishing eighth overall and P1 in Rally2 is a dream come true. Also my team-mate Chucky wins the overall so I’m super happy with that.” – Edgar Canet
The Ultimate class delivered a win on home turf for Saudi Arabian driver Yazeed Al Rajhi, giving the crowd gathered at the podium in Shubaytah plenty to cheer about. Al Rajhi came out on top of a cat and mouse battle with fellow Toyota Hilux driver Henk Lategan over the dunes of the Empty Quarter. Al Rajhi’s co-driver Timo Gottschalk is now a two-time winner of the Dakar with wins in both South America and Saudi Arabia.
“Today we’ve broken many records. I’m the first Saudi driver to win the Dakar and it’s also been 25 years since all factory teams were beaten.” – Yazeed Al Rajhi
Taking third spot on the final podium behind Al Rajhi and Lategan was Mattias Ekström of Ford M-Sport. The Swede was debuting the brand-new Ford Raptor T1+ at this Dakar and its V8 engine powered Ekström and co-driver Emil Bergkvist to their best ever Dakar finish.
“It’s my first Dakar podium in the Ultimate category and it feels very nice. It was a very challenging rally for all of us. We tried our best to fight for the win, but this year we were not good enough.” – Mattias Ekström
Time lost in the first week as the convoy tackled both the 48-Hour Chrono and Marathon Stage gave Nasser Al-Attiyah an uphill task as he chased a sixth Dakar victory. The Qatari and co-driver Edouard Boulanger were also in a new car, the Dacia Sandrider, which they took to its first-ever Dakar stage win. Al-Attiyah finished up fourth overall at this Dakar and his attention now turns to winning a fourth consecutive World Rally-Raid Championship.
“We had a problem on one day and without that day we could have really had a good fight for the win. Now the World Championship is very important for us. The next race is in Abu Dhabi and it will be good for me because it’s all in the sand.” – Nasser Al-Attiyah
It was a first Dakar in the Ultimate class for Mitch Guthrie Jr. and the Californian adapted quickly to his Ford Raptor T1+. The Californian and co-driver Kellon Walch hardly put a foot wrong during the two-week odyssey from Bisha to Shubaytah and were rewarded with fifth place overall.
“It feels like a win to get to the end of my first year in the Ultimate class in fifth overall. To run up front with all these legendary drivers feels amazing and I’m already excited for next year.” – Mitch Guthrie Jr.
Guthrie Jr. was joined in the overall Top 10 by fellow Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team graduate Seth Quintero. It’s remarkable that Quintero at just 22 years old already has five editions of the Dakar under his belt. A pair of stage wins in the first week of this Dakar were the highlights of Quintero and co-driver Dennis Zenz’s latest trip to Saudi Arabia.
“It’s hard to sum up this Dakar. It’s been a year of learning and a year of growing. We got a couple of stage wins, but a bit of bad luck here and there took us down a few spots.” – Seth Quintero
Early setbacks saw both Cristina Gutiérrez and co-driver Pablo Moreno plus Nani Roma and navigator Alex Haro playing supporting roles for their teams. Dacia driver Gutiérrez managed a string of Top 10 stage results while Roma drove the Ford Raptor T1+ to its first-ever Dakar stage win.
Both defending Ultimate class champion Carlos Sainz and nine-time WRC winner Sébastien Loeb were out of the rally before Rest Day. The reason for both withdrawals were identical. The FIA decided that damage to roll cage of Sainz’s Ford Raptor T1+ and Loeb’s Dacia Sandrider meant that their cars were no longer safe to continue racing. The same was true for Laia Sanz who was prevented from finishing her 15th consecutive Dakar. Other high-profile retirements at this Dakar included Toby Price and co-driver Sam Sunderland plus 2009 Dakar winner Giniel de Villers in the Ultimate class.
All finishers of the 2025 Dakar Rally were honoured on the podium stage in the spectacular setting of the Shubaytah bivouac in the heart of the Empty Quarter Desert. Once again the Dakar has proved to be the greatest challenge that motorsport has to offer, taking the convoy into a 5,000-kilometre battle through the deserts of Saudi Arabia. When competitors and their machines have finally recovered from the rally you can be sure they’ll be hatching a plan to come back to Saudi Arabia and do it all again next year.
Selected Final Standings of 2025 Dakar Rally
ULTIMATE
1. Yazeed Al Rajhi (SAU) / Timo Gottschalk (DEU) – Toyota 52:52:15
2. Henk Lategan (ZAF) / Brett Cummings (ZAF) – Toyota +03:57
3. Mattias Ekström (SWE) / Emil Bergkvist (SWE) – Ford +20:21
4. Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) / Edouard Boulanger (FRA) – Dacia +23:58
5. Mitch Guthrie Jr. (USA) / Kellon Walch (USA) – Ford +01:02:10
9. Seth Quintero (USA) / Dennis Zenz (DEU) – Toyota +02:20:04
12. Rokas Baciuška (LTU) / Oriol Mena (ESP) – Toyota +03:42:21
14. Lucas Moraes (BRA) / Armand Monleon (ESP) – Toyota +05:23:30
18. Guillaume De Mévius (BEL) / Mathieu Baumel (FRA) – MINI +08:03:43
40. Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP) / Pablo Moreno (ESP) – Dacia +38:44:31
42. Nani Roma (ESP) / Alex Haro (ESP) – Ford +70:13:44
BIKE (OVERALL)
1. Daniel Sanders (AUS) – KTM 53:08:52
2. Tosha Schareina (ESP) – Honda +08:50
3. Adrien Van Beveren (FRA) – Honda +14:46
4. Luciano Benavides (ARG) – KTM +22:16
8. Edgar Canet (ESP) – KTM +01:40:29
BIKE (RALLY2)
1. Edgar Canet (ESP) – KTM 54:49:21
2. Tobias Ebster (AUT) – KTM +33:25
3. Romain Dumontier (FRA) – Honda +01:22:33
QUOTES
Daniel Sanders: “Winning this race feels massive. When I came over the last dune and saw the bivouac I got instant chills through the whole body. All the emotions just started coming through! The Dakar is the biggest off-road bike race in the world. To have won the International Six Days Enduro and now the Dakar has ticked off everything I ever wanted to achieve. I have to thank my team and all my family and friends who have supported me along the way.”
Edgar Canet: “It’s amazing to reach the finish of my first Dakar Rally. For two weeks I’ve only been thinking about arriving at the finish. Finishing eighth overall and P1 in Rally2 is a dream come true. Also my team-mate Chucky wins the overall so I’m super happy with that.”
Yazeed Al Rajhi: “This was the toughest Dakar I ever did out of all the 11 I’ve raced. I’m happy with the job I did and also Timo (Gottschalk) and the team. Today we’ve broken many records. I’m the first Saudi driver to win the Dakar and it’s also been 25 years since all factory teams were beaten. From the start of the rally our plan was to go on the attack. But this is a long rally so your strategy has to be clever and you need to watch what’s going on around you. Finally, we did everything very, very well.”
Mattias Ekström: “It’s my first Dakar podium in the Ultimate category and it feels very nice. It was a very challenging rally for all of us. I think Yazeed (Al Rajhi) deserved to win, I know how much he’s trained for this. We tried our best to fight for the win, but this year we were not good enough. I say thanks to Ford Performance, to M-Sport and to our Ford Raptor for being so nice to us.”
Nasser Al-Attiyah: “We’re happy to finish. We had a problem on one day and without that day we could have really had a good fight for the win. Now the World Championship is very important for us. The next race is in Abu Dhabi and it will be good for me because it’s all in the sand.”
Mitch Guthrie Jr.: “They didn’t make it easy on us drivers this year. It feels like a win to get to the end of my first year in the Ultimate class in fifth overall. It was such a clean Dakar, we really didn’t have any issues. To run up front with all these legendary drivers feels amazing and I’m already excited for next year.”
Seth Quintero: “It’s hard to sum up this Dakar. It’s been a year of learning and a year of growing. The speed was there and the whole Toyota Gazoo Racing team did an amazing job for me, I can’t thank them enough. We got a couple of stage wins, but a bit of bad luck here and there took us down a few spots. I’m still only 22, but this was already my fifth Dakar.”
Lucas Moraes: “Finishing another Dakar is always a huge moment. I’m so proud of the team, they delivered us an amazing car. To win two stages and be second on another one showed the speed we had. I had some issues at this Dakar that helped me to learn a lot. It wasn’t the overall result we were expecting, but it’s nice to finish by winning the ‘Champs-Élysées’ stage.”
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