2025 Dakar Rally: Hometown hero Yazeed Al-Rajhi records Ultimate victory

It’s not much of a surprise that factory-backed teams usually fare better than privateers in racing. They have the money, the resources, and typically the talent too. The Dakar Rally is no exception to this as virtually every winner, especially since the turn of the millennium, has had some sort of factory support.

Yazeed Al-Rajhi finally bucked that trend. While Overdrive Racing is a partner of Toyota Gazoo Racing, he is not a factory driver for the Japanese manufacturer like those at TGR. Ironically, he beat a TGR racer for the win.

Competing on his home soil, Al-Rajhi chased down Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa’s Henk Lategan for the overall win. Al-Rajhi leapfrogged Lategan in Stage #9 before losing the lead the next day, then regained the top spot in the penultimate stage after Lategan got lost.

Lategan entered the final leg needing to beat Al-Rajhi by 6:11, but only did so by 2:14. Although coming up short, it is still Lategan’s best Dakar finish after missing the 2024 race due to injury.

“It was a bittersweet race for us, to come all of this way, do two weeks of racing over thousands of kilometers, late nights, early mornings, and then to miss out by four minutes,” Lategan commented. “But to get onto the podium is fantastic. It’s our first podium and it’s a great achievement. It’s amazing what the team’s done and and what we could manage with this race. I’m proud of what we did. We’ll keep trying, we’ll keep pushing this year, we’ll improve the car, we’ll improve ourselves, we’ll gain more experience, and we’ll come back stronger next year.”

Al-Rajhi is the first Saudi driver to win the Dakar outright, which makes it all the sweeter to do so in his home country. The victory also gives him the early advantage in the World Rally-Raid Championship, where he’s come close in the past two seasons.

The two of them secured a 1–2 finish for the Toyota Hilux, which enjoys its fourth Dakar title. Unlike the previous three instances, all courtesy of Nasser Al-Attiyah, 2025 marks the first time a Hilux from Overdrive won, though both teams field the same model. Hiluxes also claimed eight of the 13 stages including the Prologue.

Mattias Ekström joined Al-Rajhi and Lategan on the podium in an impressive Dakar debut for the Ford Raptor T1+. Prepared by M-Sport, the Raptor uses a V8 engine unlike its V6-powered rivals and had been quick in its first few races last year. Mitch Guthrie rounded out the top five in his own Raptor, while their Spanish teammates Nani Roma and defending winner Carlos Sainz fell out of contention in the Chrono Stage. Still, Roma managed to score a stage win as did Ekström.

“It’s my first Dakar podium in the Ultimate category and it feels very nice,” Ekström added. “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.”

Al-Attiyah and the Dacia Sandrider settled for fourth, his worst Dakar finish since a sixth in 2007. Although the thrice reigning W2RC champ won a stage, navigation troubles and technical glitches were a recurring theme, which he frequently raised to the FIA.

Joined by Guillaume de Mévius in his Mini JCW Rally Plus 3.0i, each of the “Big Four” manufacturers—a term coined by Red-Lined CEO Terence Marsh to describe the largest marques with factory support—won a stage. Marsh predicted before the race that vehicle reliability would be tested by the 2025 route, and that certainly seemed to be the case as Dacia and Ford, both with fairly new vehicles, suffered retirements due to crashes or other mechanical problems. Mini had its share of problems with the navigation and accidents as well like Guerlain Chicherit’s rollover.

That is not to say Toyota was completely perfect, of course. Lategan’s TGRSA colleague Giniel de Villiers’ final race with the team was set back by a crash with their other teammate Saood Variawa. Even then, others like Overdrive’s Rokas Baciuška and Juan Cruz Yacopini and TGR’s Seth Quintero and Lucas Moraes were there to fill the gaps.

Outside of the Big Four, Century Racing and Red-Lined Motorsport’s T1+ entries had tumultuous rallies. In the latter camp, gremlins haunted Aliyyah Koloc’s REVO down to the very last stage.

Century had what Brian Baragwanath’s navigator Leonard Cremer described as a “massive rollercoaster with lots of ups and downs.” Things started inauspiciously even before the race when one of the team’s service trucks kept stopping with a tire problem while a camper blew out a tire altogether, preventing them from reaching the bivouac in Bisha until nightfall.

A plethora of strange mechanical troubles prompted the team to replace 30 percent of their cars’ parts during the rest day. Such a substantial process was bound to generate some snags like Baragwanath’s CR7 experiencing some false alarms on his sensor readings, then having to stop to check his rear differential oil level on the liaison to Stage #6.

Despite the misadventures, Mathieu Serradori and Baragwanath scored top tens.

“It’s been a relentless year of development to get to this level but somehow we still need to find more speed and eliminate the small problems if we want to go higher,” said Century Racing head Julien Hardy.

Overall results

FinishOverallNumberDriverNavigatorTeamClassTimeMargin
11201Yazeed Al-RajhiTimo GottschalkOverdrive RacingT1+52:52:15Leader
22211Henk LateganBrett CummingsToyota Gazoo Racing South AfricaT1+52:56:12+ 3:57
33226Mattias EkströmEmil BergkvistFord M-SportT1+53:12:36+ 20:21
44200Nasser Al-AttiyahÉdouard BoulangerDacia SandridersT1+53:16:13+ 23:58
55228Mitch GuthrieKellon WalchFord M-SportT1+53:54:25+ 1:02:10
66209Mathieu SerradoriLoïc MinaudierCentury RacingT1+54:04:19+ 1:12:04
77216Juan Cruz YacopiniDaniel OliveirasOverdrive RacingT1+54:50:02+ 1:57:47
88240João FerreiraFilipe PalmeiroX-raid Mini JCW TeamT1+55:08:12+ 2:15:57
99204Seth QuinteroDennis ZenzToyota Gazoo RacingT1+55:12:19+ 2:20:04
1010214Brian Baragwanath*Leonard CremerCentury RacingT1+55:51:41+ 2:59:26
1111221Martin ProkopViktor ChytkaORLEN Jipocar TeamT1+56:14:29+ 3:22:14
1212210Rokas BaciuškaOriol MenaOverdrive RacingT1+56:34:36+ 3:42:21
1313235Urvo Männama*Risto LepikOverdrive RacingT1+56:48:47+ 3:56:32
1415203Lucas MoraesArmand MonleónToyota Gazoo RacingT1+58:15:45+ 5:23:30
1520230Marcelo Gastaldi*Adrien MetgeCentury RacingT1+59:31:17+ 6:39:02
1621278Pierre Lachaume*Christophe CrespoMD Rallye SportT1.259:46:09+ 6:53:54
1722224Lionel BaudLucie BaudX-raid Mini JCW TeamT1+59:46:44+ 6:54:29
1823222Guillaume de MéviusMathieu BaumelX-raid Mini JCW TeamT1+60:55:58+ 8:03:43
1928257Nandu Jubany*Marc SolàMD Rallye SportT1.261:46:24+ 8:54:09
2029218Saood VariawaFrançois CazaletToyota Gazoo Racing South AfricaT1+62:22:11+ 9:29:56
2130248Marcos Moraes*Maykel JustoOverdrive RacingT1+62:24:31+ 9:32:16
2232229Isidre Esteve*José Maria VillalobosRepsol Toyota Rally TeamT1+63:14:35+ 10:22:20
2333215Guoyu ZhangYicheng WangYunXiang RacingT1+63:22:00+ 10:29:45
2435265Ronald Van Loon*Erik LemmenOase MotorsportT1+64:53:57+ 12:01:42
2538253Hugues Moilet*Olivier ImschootOff Road ConceptT1.265:30:38+ 12:38:23
2641238Gintas Petrus*Darius LeskauskasPetrus RacingT1.266:16:19+ 3:24:04
2742251Rong Zi*Hongyu PanYunXiang RacingT1+66:21:35+ 13:29:20
2844249Karel Trněný*Václav PritzlX-Force ACCR Czech TeamT1+66:47:16+ 13:55:01
2945233Simon Vitse*Max DelfinoMD Rallye SportT1.267:47:24+ 14:55:09
3046246Jean-Rémy Bergounhe*Pascal LarroqueMD Rallye SportT1.268:03:28+ 15:11:13
3147243Pascal Thomasse*Arnold BrucyMD Rallye SportT1.268:24:58+ 15:32:43
3250261Francis Balocchi*Anthony PesMD Rallye SportT1.270:00:28+ 17:08:13
3351263Ludovic Gherardi*Lionel CostesMD Rallye SportT1.270:27:29+ 17:35:14
3455264Rik van den Brink*Gydo HeimansSerradori Racing TeamT1+70:52:16+ 18:00:01
3557234Aliyyah Koloc*Sébastien DelaunayBuggyra ZM RacingT1+72:31:02+ 19:38:47
3661244Maik Willems*Marcel SnijdersBastion Hotels Dakar TeamT1+73:33:26+ 20:41:11
3770252Jérôme Cambier*Pascla DelacourMD Rallye SportT1.276:32:16+ 23:40:01
3871254William Battershill*Stuart GregoryCentury RacingT1.277:16:56+ 24:24:41
3977245Stefan Carmans*Antonius van TielCSA RacingT1+81:20:22+ 28:28:07
4086266Min Lei Wang*Du XuanyiMingyuan Industrial RacingT1+88:05:38+ 35:13:23
4191212Cristina GutiérrezPablo MorenoDacia SandridersT1+91:36:46+ 38:44:31
4294207Jean-Luc CeccaldiDelphine DelfinoJLC RacingT1.294:20:48+ 41:28:33
43106227Nani RomaÁlex HaroFord M-SportT1+123:05:59+ 70:13:44
44110237Tim Coronel*Tom CoronelCoronel Dakar TeamT1+130:14:56+ 77:22:41
45119262Dave KlaassenTessa KlaassenDaklaPack RallysportT1+139:44:23+ 86:52:08
46121217Denis KrotovKonstantin ZhiltsovX-raid Mini JCW TeamT1+141:43:22+ 88:51:07
47124242Daniel SchröderHenry Carl KöhnePS Laser RacingT1+146:10:03+ 93:17:48
48134241Vladas Jurkevičius*Aisvydas PaliukenasX-raid Mini JCW TeamT1+181:19:54+ 128:27:39
DNFDNF202Guerlain ChicheritAlex WinocqX-raid Mini JCW TeamT1+DNFN/A
DNFDNF205Guy Botterill*Dennis MurphyToyota Gazoo Racing South AfricaT1+DNFN/A
DNFDNF206Giniel de Villiers*Dirk Von ZitzewitzToyota Gazoo Racing South AfricaT1+DNFN/A
DNFDNF208Benediktas Vanagas*Szymon GospodarczykGurtam Toyota Gazoo Racing BalticsT1+DNFN/A
DNFDNF213Christian Lavieille*Valentin SarreaudMD Rallye SportT1.2DNFN/A
DNFDNF220Wei Han*Li MaHanwei MotorsportT1+DNFN/A
DNFDNF223Laia Sanz*Maurizio GeriniCentury RacingT1.2DNFN/A
DNFDNF225Carlos SainzLucas CruzFord M-SportT1+DNFN/A
DNFDNF231Toby Price*Sam SunderlandOverdrive RacingT1+DNFN/A
DNFDNF236Eugenio Amos*Paolo CeciMD Rallye SportT1.2DNFN/A
DNFDNF239Mark Corbett*Juan MöhrCentury RacingT1.2DNFN/A
DNFDNF247Po Tian*Hangting GuoHanwei MotorsportT1+DNFN/A
DNFDNF258Markus Walcher*Stephan PreussWalcher Racing TeamT1.1DNFN/A
DNFDNF260Agostino Rizzardi*Francesco GasperiMotortechnica Racing TeamT1.2DNFN/A
DNFDNF267Andrei Halabarodzka*Kirik ShubinMagol Dakar TeamT1.1DNFN/A
DSQDSQ219Sébastien LoebFabian LurquinDacia SandridersT1+DSQN/A
* – Not competing for World Rally-Raid Championship

Stage winners

StageWinnerTime
PrologueHenk Lategan15:28.6
Stage #1Seth Quintero4:35:08
Stage #2Rokas Baciuška10:54:11
Stage #3Saood Variawa3:16:52
Stage #4Yazeed Al-Rajhi4:26:40
Stage #5Seth Quintero4:32:53
Stage #6Guillaume de Mévius4:34:49
Stage #7Lucas Moraes4:01:49
Stage #8Henk Lategan4:51:54
Stage #9Nasser Al-Attiyah2:52:59
Stage #10Nani Roma2:06:34
Stage #11Mattias Ekström4:19:27
Stage #12Lucas Moraes54:14

W2RC

Unlike Challenger and SSV, Ultimate does not have its own trophy and is instead part of a larger championship that includes all classes.

Drivers

RankDriverPointsMargin
1Yazeed Al-Rajhi70Leader
2Henk Lategan55– 15
3Nasser Al-Attiyah48– 22
4Mattias Ekström44– 26
T-5Mitch Guthrie28– 42
T-5Seth Quintero28– 42
7Mathieu Serradori25– 45
8Juan Cruz Yacopini23– 47
9João Ferreira22– 48
10Lucas Moraes18– 52
T-11Rokas Baciuška16– 54
T-11Guillaume de Mévius16– 54
13Martin Prokop15– 55
14Saood Variawa13– 57
15Nani Roma12– 58
16Daniel Schröder9– 61
T-17Dania Akeel7– 63
T-17Nicolás Cavigliasso7– 63
T-19Cristina Gutiérrez6– 64
T-19Denis Krotov6– 64
T-19Pau Navarro6– 64
22Gonçalo Guerreiro5– 65
T-23Khalifa Al-Attiyah4– 66
T-23Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari4– 66
T-23Manuel Andújar4– 66
T-23Lionel Baud4– 66
T-23Jean-Luc Ceccaldi4– 66
T-23Michele Cinotto4– 66
T-23Claude Fournier4– 66
T-23Mário Franco4– 66
T-23Enrico Gaspari4– 66
T-23Roger Grouwels4– 66
T-23Dave Klaassen4– 66
T-23Puck Klaassen4– 66
T-23Adam Kuś4– 66
T-23Corbin Leaverton4– 66
T-23Alexandre Pinto4– 66
T-23Sara Price4v66
T-23Yasir Seaidan4– 66
T-23Guoyu Zhang4– 66
T-41Khalid Al-Jafla2– 68
T-41Rui Carneiro2– 68
T-41Pedro Gonçalves2– 68
T-41Diego Martinez2– 68
T-41Eduard Pons2– 68
T-41Carlos Sainz2– 68
T-41Carlos Vento2– 68
T-41David Zille2– 68
T-41Fernando Álvarez2– 68

Navigators

RankNavigatorPointsMargin
1Timo Gottschalk70Leader
2Brett Cummings55– 15
3Édouard Boulanger48– 22
4Emil Bergkvist44– 26
T-5Kellon Walch28– 42
T-5Dennis Zenz28– 42
7Loïc Minaudier25– 45
8Daniel Oliveiras23– 47
9Filipe Palmeiro22– 48
10Armand Monleón18– 52
T-11Mathieu Baumel16– 54
T-11Oriol Mena16– 54
13Viktor Chytka15– 55
14François Cazalet13– 57
15Álex Haro12– 58
16Henry Carl Köhne9– 61
T-17Stéphane Duplé7– 63
T-17Valentina Pertegarini7– 63
T-19Pablo Moreno6– 64
T-19Lisandro Sisterna6– 64
T-19Konstantin Zhiltsov6– 64
22Cadu Sachs5– 65
T-23Nasser Al-Kuwari4– 66
T-23Lucie Baud4– 66
T-23Sean Berriman4– 66
T-23Alberto Bertoldi4– 66
T-23Delphine Delfino4– 66
T-23Rui Franco4– 66
T-23Bernardo Graue4– 66
T-23Bruno Jacomy4– 66
T-23Tessa Klaassen4– 66
T-23Rudolf Meijer4– 66
T-23Michaël Metge4– 66
T-23Charan Moore4– 66
T-23Fausto Mota4– 66
T-23Bernardo Oliveira4– 66
T-23Taye Perry4– 66
T-23Grégory Revest-Arnoux4– 66
T-23Dmytro Tsyro4– 66
T-23Yicheng Wang4– 66
T-41Jaume Betriu2– 68
T-41Jorge Brandão2– 68
T-41Sebastian Cesana2– 68
T-41Lucas Cruz2– 68
T-41Ola Fløene2– 68
T-41Sergio Lafuente2– 68
T-41Hugo Magalhães2– 68
T-41Xavier Panseri2– 68
T-41Andrei Rudnitski2– 68

Manufacturers

RankManufacturerPointsMargin
1Toyota147Leader
2Ford116– 31
3Dacia98– 49

Featured image credit: Charly Lopez / ASO

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