There’s no doubt about it: the Taurus T3 Max is the best car in the Challenger class today.

The joint project between MCE-5 and Wevers Sport has impressed in recent years, as evidenced by a 1–2 finish in class at the 2024 Dakar Rally courtesy of Cristina Gutiérrez and Mitch Guthrie and an utter domination of the Rallye du Maroc led by the Goczałs. While those drivers have since graduated to T1, Nicolás Cavigliasso and his allies picked up where they left off without issue.

Cavigliasso already looked like a rising T3 star when he finished runner-up in the category’s W2RC last year (though his wife Valentina Pertegarini won the navigators’ title). After finishing ninth in his Dakar T3 debut, he won three of the first four stages and never lost the overall lead to win the class by a wide margin.

While Can-Am typically rivaled Taurus, the former opted to invest into the SSV division with the new Maverick R instead for the 2025 Dakar. G Rally Team’s OT3 and new G-ECKO cars along with MMP Competition’s T3 cars are no slouches, but those are newer and more unproven models than the Taurus.

Consequently, all 12 stages ended up looking more like a Taurus test session. Tauruses dominated the top ten in every leg: eight in Stage #1; seven in #2 including a top six sweep; nine in #3 with Luis Morais’ G-ECKO averting the lockout in eighth; the top eight in #4, #7, and #12; eight of ten in #5, a top nine in #6 and #9; another top eight in #7; all but one in #10 as Antoine Meo’s hybrid APH-03 was eighth; and seven of ten in #11.

Stage #8, however, was a beauty that brings tears to the eyes of MCE-5 engineers. Tauruses comprised the entire top ten with Pau Navarro leading the way, having joined the team after his deal to race in Ultimate fell through.

By the end of the rally, the top five each drove a Taurus. Behind Cavigliasso, Gonçalo Guerreiro of the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team was second followed by Navarro, Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, and Adam Kuś.

While coming up short, Guerreiro was pleased to score a runner-up in his maiden Dakar. His teammate Corbin Leaverton, also a Dakar newcomer, won the Prologue and a stage but had technical issues drop him to a 20th.

“Even to start the Dakar was already a victory for me,” said Guerreiro, a Portuguese T4 champion. “I hope I can do this race many more times and one day for sure I will win the Dakar.”

The MMP of Jedidia Favre was the highest-finishing non-Taurus, having made it on consistency and avoiding trouble. Zach Lumsden was one of two Can-Am Mavericks to score a top ten alongside Romain Locmane; Lumsden and MMP driver Ricardo Porém had held off Al-Kuwari in Stage #9 to keep Taurus from going 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10 that day.

Annett Quandt missed out on a top ten in the first Dakar for the new X-raid Fenic, which also debuted last month in Saudi Arabia at the Jeddah Rally.

Dania Akeel became the first Saudi woman to win a Dakar stage when she claimed Stage #10 for Taurus, but a broken wishbone knocked her out of the picture. Fellow Saudi and reigning W2RC SSV champ Yasir Seaidan, also in a Taurus, won the next day but had his wishbone break at one point too.

An engine failure made two-time Dakar Quad winner Alexandre Giroud among the category’s casualties in his first race as a driver. Charan Moore, another FIM-to-FIA convert who won Malle Moto in 2023, finished 19th as Puck Klaassen’s navigator.

Meo placed 34th in the first Dakar for hybrid T3 manufacturer Apache Automotive. The APH-03 was the only car in the T3.U subclass for electric and hybrids.

Overall results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Class	Time	Margin
1	14	301	Nicolás Cavigliasso	Valentina Pertegarini	BBR Motorsport	T3.1	57:50:21	Leader
2	17	319	Gonçalo Guerreiro	Cadu Sachs	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	T3.1	59:01:59	+ 1:11:38
3	19	304	Pau Navarro	Lisandro Sisterna	BBR Motorsport	T3.1	59:20:34	+ 1:30:13
4	27	334	Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari	Nasser Al-Kuwari	Nasser Racing	T3.1	61:32:03	+ 3:41:42
5	36	349	Adam Kuś	Dmytro Tsyro	AKPOL	T3.1	64:57:02	+ 7:06:41
6	40	346	Jedidia Favre*	Antoine Lecourbe	MMP Compétition	T3.1	66:09:43	+ 8:19:22
7	48	331	Romain Locmane*	Benjamin Boulloud	Quad Bike Evasion	T3.1	68:38:10	+ 10:47:49
8	52	311	Christophe Cresp*	Jean Brucy	MMP Compétition	T3.1	70:30:38	+ 12:40:17
9	58	353	Lex Peters*	Mark Salomons	Arcane Racing	T3.1	72:33:20	+ 14:42:59
10	59	332	Zach Lumsden*	Shannon Moham	Colorado Motorsport	T3.1	72:36:16	+ 14:45:55
11	63	315	Annett Quandt*	Annie Seel	X-raid Yamaha Supported Team	T3.1	73:52:55	+ 16:02:34
12	64	326	Khalifa Al-Attiyah	Bruno Jacomy	Nasser Racing	T3.1	73:55:53	+ 16:05:32
13	67	345	Benjamin Favre*	Thibaud Darroux	MMP Compétition	T3.1	74:29:31	+ 16:39:10
14	68	316	Ger-Jan van der Valk*	Brando de Lange	Arcane Racing	T3.1	75:58:17	+ 18:07:56
15	73	307	Mário Franco	Rui Franco	Franco Sport	T3.1	77:49:46	+ 19:59:25
16	76	342	Aurélien Bouchet*	Elisa Huguenin	AB Concept	T3.1	81:01:52	+ 23:11:31
17	79	335	Richard Aczel*	Wouter Rosegaar	Arcane Racing	T3.1	81:57:05	+ 24:06:44
18	84	343	Hervé Guillaume*	Maxime Guillaume	Les Enfants du Dakar	T3.1	86:45:54	+ 28:55:33
19	90	302	Puck Klaassen	Charan Moore	G Rally Team	T3.1	89:44:16	+ 31:53:55
20	93	325	Corbin Leaverton	Taye Perry	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	T3.1	92:24:56	+ 34:34:35
21	99	310	Paul Spierings*	Jan Pieter van der Stelt	Rebellion Spierings	T3.1	108:29:22	+ 50:39:01
22	101	328	Piotr Beaupre*	Jacek Czachor	Zoll Racing	T3.1	113:08:23	+ 55:18:02
23	102	300	Yasir Seaidan	Michaël Metge	BBR Motorsport	T3.1	113:24:01	+ 55:33:40
24	103	354	Joan Piferrer*	Joan Rubi	Buggy Masters	T3.1	114:57:18	+ 57:06:57
25	104	338	Hamad Al-Harbi*	Alexey Kuzmich	Shegawi Racing	T3.1	117:37:25	+ 59:47:04
26	109	340	Maria Luís Gameiro*	José Marques	X-raid Yamaha Supported Team	T3.1	123:47:18	+ 65:56:57
27	111	305	Dania Akeel	Stéphane Duplé	BBR Motorsport	T3.1	130:46:55	+ 72:56:34
28	112	347	Loïc Frebourg*	Franck Boulay	Quad Bike Evasion	T3.1	133:39:11	+ 75:48:50
29	116	317	Benjamin Lattard*	Patrick Jimbert	MMP Compétition	T3.1	136:06:59	+ 78:16:38
30	117	351	Alexandre Pesci*	Stephan Kühni	Rebellion Spierings	T3.1	138:50:38	+ 81:00:17
31	122	323	Javier Velez*	Gaston Mattarucco	BE Racing	T3.1	143:03:38	+ 85:13:17
32	126	312	Oscal Ral*	Xavier Blanco	Buggy Masters	T3.1	149:43:49	+ 91:53:28
33	127	358	Joan Font*	Sergi Brugue	Sébastien Loeb Racing	T3.1	151:33:53	+ 93:43:32
34	129	327	Antoine Meo*	Fabien Planet	Apache Automotive	T3.U	162:59:25	+ 105:09:04
35	130	357	Łukasz Zoll*	Michał Zoll	Zoll Racing	T3.1	168:14:27	+ 110:24:06
36	131	330	Ahmed Al-Kuwari	Augusto Sanz	Nasser Racing	T3.1	170:48:08	+ 112:57:47
DNF	DNF	306	Saleh Al-Saif*	Albert Veliamovic	Dark Horse Team	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	308	David Zille	Sebastian Cesana	DaklaPack Rallysport	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	309	Eduard Pons	Jaume Betriu	Nasser Racing	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	313	Khalid Al-Jafla	Andrei Rudnitski	Al-Jafla Racing	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	314	Xavier Foj*	Aku Facundo Jaton	Foj Motorsport	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	318	Pedro Gonçalves	Hugo Magalhães	Franco Sport	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	320	Luis Morais*	David Megre	G Rally Team	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	321	Rui Carneiro	Ola Fløene	G Rally Team	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	322	Ricardo Porém*	Nuno Sousa	MMP Compétition	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	324	Alexandre Giroud*	Jeremy Jacomelli	G Rally Team	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	337	Craig Lumsden*	Jamie Lambert	Colorado Motorsport	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	348	Yannick Grèzes*	Anthony Drapeau	Team Bournezeau Rallye Aventure	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	350	Oscar Maso*	Pedro Lopez Chaves	BE Racing	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	352	Oscar Olivas*	Luis Barrios	Bujarkay-Makarthy Racing	T3.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	355	Gianpaolo Bedin	Alberto Marcon	Raitec Racing	T3.1	DNF	N/A

Stage winners

Stage	Winner	Time
Prologue	Corbin Leaverton	17:17.5
Stage #1	Nicolás Cavigliasso	4:47:12
Stage #2	Paul Spierings*	11:57:48
Stage #3	Nicolás Cavigliasso	3:39:41
Stage #4	Nicolás Cavigliasso	5:07:43
Stage #5	Yasir Seaidan	4:51:27
Stage #6	Yasir Seaidan	5:04:21
Stage #7	Corbin Leaverton	4:27:54
Stage #8	Pau Navarro	5:22:29
Stage #9	David Zille	3:26:50
Stage #10	Dania Akeel	2:08:14
Stage #11	Yasir Seaidan	4:32:09
Stage #12	Paul Spierings*	57:24

W2RC

Drivers

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Nicolás Cavigliasso	82	Leader
2	Gonçalo Guerreiro	61	– 21
3	Pau Navarro	50	– 32
4	Corbin Leaverton	39	– 43
T-5	Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari	37	– 45
T-5	Yasir Seaidan	37	– 45
7	Dania Akeel	26	– 56
8	Adam Kuś	25	– 57
9	Khalifa Al-Attiyah	24	– 58
10	Mário Franco	17	– 65
11	Puck Klaassen	15	– 67
T-12	Khalif Al-Jafla	2	– 80
T-12	Rui Carneiro	2	– 80
T-12	Pedro Gonçalves	2	– 80
T-12	Eduard Pons	2	– 80
T-12	David Zille	2	– 80

Navigators

Rank	Navigator	Points	Margin
1	Valentina Pertegarini	82	Leader
2	Cadu Sachs	61	– 21
3	Lisandro Sisterna	50	– 32
4	Taye Perry	39	– 43
T-5	Nasser Al-Kuwari	37	– 45
T-5	Michaël Metge	37	– 45
7	Stéphane Duplé	26	– 56
8	Dmytro Tsyro	25	– 57
9	Bruno Jacomy	24	– 58
10	Rui Franco	17	– 65
11	Charan Moore	15	– 67
T-12	Jaume Betriu	2	– 80
T-12	Sebastian Cesana	2	– 80
T-12	Ola Fløene	2	– 80
T-12	Hugo Magalhães	2	– 80
T-12	Andrei Rudnitski	2	– 80

Featured image credit: Frederic Le Floc’h / DPPI