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Motorsport

Sport

Dakar 2025: Al-Rajhi usurps factory Toyotas to clinch surprise win

Toyota Henk Lategan Dakar (Event) Yazeed AlRajhi Mattias Ekstrom Ford Nasser AlAttiyah Century (Organization) Dacia X (Organization)

Yazeed Al-Rajhi outgunned factory Toyota rival Henk Lategan in a customer Hilux to claim an against-the-odds victory in the Dakar Rally.

With newcomers Ford and Dacia still finding their feet in cross-country rallying and last year’s winner Audi having pulled out of the competition, the 47th edition of Dakar was effectively an all-Toyota affair.

But while the Japanese manufacturer fielded five cars on a factory basis, it was privateer Al-Rajhi who took the spoils for Overdrive after two weeks of rallying in his home country, Saudi Arabia.

For the longest time, Lategan had the edge over Al-Rajhi in the overall standings, with the South African capitalising on his consistency to maintain his lead over a rival who was arguably faster on pure pace.

Lategan appeared to have cemented his chances of victory after topping the eighth stage on Monday, but a navigation error at the start of the following test in Haradh handed the initiative to Al-Rajhi and threw the rally wide open.

The factory Toyota driver rebounded on Stage 10 in his bid to re-establish the status quo, but his lack of prowess on dunes came to be his undoing as Dakar went deeper into the Empty Quarters desert.

A lacklustre performance on the penultimate day decided the rally in Al-Rajhi’s favour, with the Saudi driver pouncing on the opportunity to snatch the lead and then bring it home on Friday.

The 43-year-old had shown his mettle by provisionally winning the gruelling 48-hour test in Bisha, after that very stage forced him into retirement 12 months ago. Although the result was later revised in favour of his team-mate Rokas Baciuska, the performance established Al-Rajhi as Lategan’s strongest rival in what turned out to be a two-horse race for victory.

There were some hiccups along the way, including a tardy showing on Stage 10 where he hemorrhaged nine minutes to Lategan, but a rapid recovery on the following day sealed the victory for him.

The final margin between the two drivers was 3m57s.

#211 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota: Henk Lategan, Brett Cummings (Photo by: TOYOTA GAZOO Racing)

The best-of-the-rest tag went to Mattias Ekstrom, who finished 20m21 off the lead in third on Ford’s full-fledged debut in Dakar.

With Carlos Sainz Sr forced out early by the FIA after damaging his car’s roll cage in a crash on Stage 2, the ever-reliable Ekstrom took over the mantle for the American manufacturer and delivered his personal-best finish in Dakar.

The Swede was regularly battling for individual stage wins and finally picked up a victory on Stage 11 to seal the final spot on the podium.

His result meant Ford was able to beat fellow newcomer Dacia, as a frustrated Nasser Al-Attiyah wound up fourth in the best of the Sandriders.

Like Ford, Renault Group brand Dacia also took an early blow when Sebastien Loeb had to withdraw from the event due to a damaged car.

With Loeb gone, Al-Attiyah was still faster than Ekstrom on outright pace, but a four-minute penalty for overspeeding and a 10-minute time addition for losing a spare wheel on Stage 5 meant that he was always on the back foot.

The Qatari driver fought back valiantly in the second week, finally picking up a win on the ninth test, but a navigation error on Stage 10 ended any hopes of clinching a podium finish.

Behind Al-Attiyah, Mitch Guthrie Jr finished a solid fifth on his debut in the Ultimate category, backing up the performance of Ford team-mate Ekstrom.

South African marque Century failed to score a win in the 2025 Dakar, but Mathieu Serradori ended up a respectable sixth and just over an hour down on winner Al-Rajhi.

X-raid made a resurgence in the Dakar this year as it swapped the diesel engine on its Mini with petrol power. Guillaume de Mevius scored a first stage win for the British marque since 2021, while team-mate Joao Ferreira finished eighth in the overall standings, behind Overdrive’s Juan Cruz Yacopini.

Seth Quintero scored two stage wins but was never in contention for the overall win after a tough run in the 48-hour test and punctures on Stage 4. He ended up ninth in the final order, as Century’s Brian Baragwanath rounded out the top 10.

Dakar 2025 - Cars classification (Top 10)

Pos	Driver	Car	Time/Gap
1	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Toyota	52h52m15s
2	Henk Lategan	Toyota	3m57s
3	Mattias Ekstrom	Ford	20m21s
4	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Dacia	23m58s
5	Mitch Guthrie Jr	Ford	1h02m10s
6	Mathieu Serradori	Century	1h12m04s
7	Juan Cruz Yacopini	Toyota	1h57m47s
8	Joao Ferreira	Mini	2h15m57s
9	Seth Quintero	Toyota	2h20m04s
10	Brian Baragwanath	Century	2h59m26s