Dakar 2025 cars: Al Rajhi wins on Toyota, then Lategan and Ekström’s Ford

Dakar 2025, First success for Al Rajhi

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The 2025 Dakar proved to be difficult for veterans and especially smiled on young people, with many stage winners under the age of 25. In the end, however, success went to an expert driver: for Al Rajhi it was the 11th Dakar, the sixth on home routes, with a podium in 2022 as the best result. This year he managed to avoid those mistakes and accidents that slowed him down in the past, constantly remaining among the best and making the most of his strategy and starting positions, thus being able to celebrate on the podium in Shubaytah. His main opponent was Henk Lateganback in great form after a year of absence: the 30-year-old South African also managed to avoid major mistakes and tried to recover the gap of over 6 minutes from his rival in the last stage: the 61 km of the mass start stage were too short , despite managing to earn almost half of it. Very positive debut for Fordwho closed the Dakar with two stage victories and a final podium for Mattias Ekströmas well as an excellent fifth place for Mitchell Guthrie. Good performance also for Dacia, fourth with Nasser Al-Attiyahwith the Qatari driver capable of winning a stage. However, the five-time winner was not satisfied with the final result, especially considering 17 minutes of penalties, of which 10 were due to the loss of the spare wheel on a special stage and some navigation errors.

The other classes

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The first success for the couple arrived in the Challenger or T3 category Nicolas Cavigliasso-Valentina PertegariniArgentinian husband and wife on Taurus: for the 31-year-old pilot this is the second success after the one in 2019 in the quads. They finished on the podium Gonçalo Guerreiro And Pau Navarroboth on Taurus. Among the SSVs, the standard side-by-sides, victory for the American debutant Brock Heger (Polaris), ahead of the Chilean Francisco Lopez Contardo (Can-Am) and Portuguese Alexandre Pinto (Can-Am). In trucks, all Iveco podium: the Czech Martin Macikreigning champion, confirms himself ahead of Mitchel van der Brink And Ales Loprais.

Dakar cars: the ranking of stage 12

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1. Lucas Moraes-Armand Monleon (Bra-Spa/Toyota) 54’14”
2. Nasser Al-Attiyah-Edouard Boulanger (Qat-Fra/Dacia) at 1’33”
3. Henk Lategan-Brett Cummings (Saf/Toyota) at 2’11”
4. Mattias Ekström-Emil Bergkvist (Sve/Ford) at 2’12”
5. Daniel Schröder-Henry Carl Köhne (Ger-Saf/Volkswagen) at 3’01”
6. Paul Spierings-Jan Pieter van der Stelt (Ola/Taurus) at 3’10”
7. Yasir Seaidan-Michael Metge (Sau-Fra/Taurus) at 3’24”
8. Juan Cruz Yacopini-Daniel Oliveras (Arg-Spa/Toyota) at 3’59”
9. Nani Roma-Alex Haro (Spa/Ford) at 4’01”
10. Guillaume De Mevius-Mathieu Baumel (Bel-Fra/Mini) at 4’06”

Dakar cars: the final ranking

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1. Yazeed Al Rajhi-Timo Gottschalck (Sau-Ger/Toyota) 52h 52’15”
2. Henk Lategan-Brett Cummings (Saf/Toyota) at 3’57”
3. Mattias Ekström-Emil Bergkvist (Sve/Ford) at 20’21”
4. Nasser Al-Attiyah-Edouard Boulanger (Qat-Fra/Dacia) at 23’58”
5. Mitchell Guthrie-Kellon Walch (USA/Ford) at 1h 02’10”
6. Mathieu Serradori-Loic Minaudier (Fra/Century) at 1h 12’04”
7. Juan Cruz Yacopini-Daniel Oliveras (Arg-Spa/Toyota) at 1h 57’47”
8. João Ferreira-Filipe Palmeiro (Por/Mini) at 2h 15’57”
9. Seth Quintero-Dennis Zenz (USA-Ger/Toyota) at 2h 20’04”
10. Brian Baragwanath-Leonard Cremer (Saf/Century) at 2h 59’26”