Despite a chaotic Dakar Rally in January, Brian Baragwanath was able to keep his Century CR7 going and ultimately enjoy a top-ten finish.
Well, he was able to enjoy it for a month and a half anyway.
The FIA announced Tuesday that Baragwanath has been disqualified from the race due to a noncompliant fuel sample. The sample, which was taken after Stage #1, found it had too much oxygen than what is permitted.
Specifically, the sample contained an oxygen mass/mass percent of 5.82. The FIA stipulates a maximum of 3.7% m/m.
Testing took place in the month following the race. The oxygen is separated using gas chromatography, a process of passing the fuel sample until the elements inside are divided. ISO 22854, for gasoline and E85 ethanol fuel, and EN 13132, for unleaded petrol, are the two tests used by the FIA to extract oxygen.
FIA Technical Delegate Christophe Vely received the findings, then asked Century Racing if a second sample would like to be submitted for further analysis. The team declined and permitted Vely to send the report to the stewards.
A hearing took place on Monday, exactly two months after the Dakar began. Century head Julien Hardy explained he had spoken with Vely about the “possibility of using hi-octane fuel” but did not cover the oxygen levels nor did he know there was a limit. He also stressed the fuel was used to protect the engine rather than to gain a performance advantage, but took responsibility for the mistake.
Baragwanath is the second disqualification from Dakar, joining Sébastien Loeb. The penalty also moves everyone up a spot, promoting Martin Prokop into tenth.
Revised 2025 Dakar Rally Ultimate results
| Finish | Overall | Number | Driver | Navigator | Team | Class | Time | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 201 | Yazeed Al-Rajhi | Timo Gottschalk | Overdrive Racing | T1+ | 52:52:15 | Leader |
| 2 | 2 | 211 | Henk Lategan | Brett Cummings | Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa | T1+ | 52:56:12 | + 3:57 |
| 3 | 3 | 226 | Mattias Ekström | Emil Bergkvist | Ford M-Sport | T1+ | 53:12:36 | + 20:21 |
| 4 | 4 | 200 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Édouard Boulanger | Dacia Sandriders | T1+ | 53:16:13 | + 23:58 |
| 5 | 5 | 228 | Mitch Guthrie | Kellon Walch | Ford M-Sport | T1+ | 53:54:25 | + 1:02:10 |
| 6 | 6 | 209 | Mathieu Serradori | Loïc Minaudier | Century Racing | T1+ | 54:04:19 | + 1:12:04 |
| 7 | 7 | 216 | Juan Cruz Yacopini | Daniel Oliveiras | Overdrive Racing | T1+ | 54:50:02 | + 1:57:47 |
| 8 | 8 | 240 | João Ferreira | Filipe Palmeiro | X-raid Mini JCW Team | T1+ | 55:08:12 | + 2:15:57 |
| 9 | 9 | 204 | Seth Quintero | Dennis Zenz | Toyota Gazoo Racing | T1+ | 55:12:19 | + 2:20:04 |
| 10 | 10 | 221 | Martin Prokop | Viktor Chytka | ORLEN Jipocar Team | T1+ | 56:14:29 | + 3:22:14 |
| 11 | 11 | 210 | Rokas Baciuška | Oriol Mena | Overdrive Racing | T1+ | 56:34:36 | + 3:42:21 |
| 12 | 12 | 235 | Urvo Männama* | Risto Lepik | Overdrive Racing | T1+ | 56:48:47 | + 3:56:32 |
| 13 | 14 | 203 | Lucas Moraes | Armand Monleón | Toyota Gazoo Racing | T1+ | 58:15:45 | + 5:23:30 |
| 14 | 19 | 230 | Marcelo Gastaldi* | Adrien Metge | Century Racing | T1+ | 59:31:17 | + 6:39:02 |
| 15 | 20 | 278 | Pierre Lachaume* | Christophe Crespo | MD Rallye Sport | T1.2 | 59:46:09 | + 6:53:54 |
| 16 | 21 | 224 | Lionel Baud | Lucie Baud | X-raid Mini JCW Team | T1+ | 59:46:44 | + 6:54:29 |
| 17 | 22 | 222 | Guillaume de Mévius | Mathieu Baumel | X-raid Mini JCW Team | T1+ | 60:55:58 | + 8:03:43 |
| 18 | 27 | 257 | Nandu Jubany* | Marc Solà | MD Rallye Sport | T1.2 | 61:46:24 | + 8:54:09 |
| 19 | 28 | 218 | Saood Variawa | François Cazalet | Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa | T1+ | 62:22:11 | + 9:29:56 |
| 20 | 29 | 248 | Marcos Moraes* | Maykel Justo | Overdrive Racing | T1+ | 62:24:31 | + 9:32:16 |
| 21 | 31 | 229 | Isidre Esteve* | José Maria Villalobos | Repsol Toyota Rally Team | T1+ | 63:14:35 | + 10:22:20 |
| 22 | 32 | 215 | Guoyu Zhang | Yicheng Wang | YunXiang Racing | T1+ | 63:22:00 | + 10:29:45 |
| 23 | 34 | 265 | Ronald Van Loon* | Erik Lemmen | Oase Motorsport | T1+ | 64:53:57 | + 12:01:42 |
| 24 | 37 | 253 | Hugues Moilet* | Olivier Imschoot | Off Road Concept | T1.2 | 65:30:38 | + 12:38:23 |
| 25 | 40 | 238 | Gintas Petrus* | Darius Leskauskas | Petrus Racing | T1.2 | 66:16:19 | + 3:24:04 |
| 26 | 41 | 251 | Rong Zi* | Hongyu Pan | YunXiang Racing | T1+ | 66:21:35 | + 13:29:20 |
| 27 | 43 | 249 | Karel Trněný* | Václav Pritzl | X-Force ACCR Czech Team | T1+ | 66:47:16 | + 13:55:01 |
| 28 | 44 | 233 | Simon Vitse* | Max Delfino | MD Rallye Sport | T1.2 | 67:47:24 | + 14:55:09 |
| 29 | 45 | 246 | Jean-Rémy Bergounhe* | Pascal Larroque | MD Rallye Sport | T1.2 | 68:03:28 | + 15:11:13 |
| 30 | 46 | 243 | Pascal Thomasse* | Arnold Brucy | MD Rallye Sport | T1.2 | 68:24:58 | + 15:32:43 |
| 31 | 49 | 261 | Francis Balocchi* | Anthony Pes | MD Rallye Sport | T1.2 | 70:00:28 | + 17:08:13 |
| 32 | 50 | 263 | Ludovic Gherardi* | Lionel Costes | MD Rallye Sport | T1.2 | 70:27:29 | + 17:35:14 |
| 33 | 54 | 264 | Rik van den Brink* | Gydo Heimans | Serradori Racing Team | T1+ | 70:52:16 | + 18:00:01 |
| 34 | 56 | 234 | Aliyyah Koloc* | Sébastien Delaunay | Buggyra ZM Racing | T1+ | 72:31:02 | + 19:38:47 |
| 35 | 60 | 244 | Maik Willems* | Marcel Snijders | Bastion Hotels Dakar Team | T1+ | 73:33:26 | + 20:41:11 |
| 36 | 69 | 252 | Jérôme Cambier* | Pascla Delacour | MD Rallye Sport | T1.2 | 76:32:16 | + 23:40:01 |
| 37 | 70 | 254 | William Battershill* | Stuart Gregory | Century Racing | T1.2 | 77:16:56 | + 24:24:41 |
| 38 | 76 | 245 | Stefan Carmans* | Antonius van Tiel | CSA Racing | T1+ | 81:20:22 | + 28:28:07 |
| 39 | 85 | 266 | Min Lei Wang* | Du Xuanyi | Mingyuan Industrial Racing | T1+ | 88:05:38 | + 35:13:23 |
| 40 | 90 | 212 | Cristina Gutiérrez | Pablo Moreno | Dacia Sandriders | T1+ | 91:36:46 | + 38:44:31 |
| 41 | 93 | 207 | Jean-Luc Ceccaldi | Delphine Delfino | JLC Racing | T1.2 | 94:20:48 | + 41:28:33 |
| 42 | 105 | 227 | Nani Roma | Álex Haro | Ford M-Sport | T1+ | 123:05:59 | + 70:13:44 |
| 43 | 109 | 237 | Tim Coronel* | Tom Coronel | Coronel Dakar Team | T1+ | 130:14:56 | + 77:22:41 |
| 44 | 118 | 262 | Dave Klaassen | Tessa Klaassen | DaklaPack Rallysport | T1+ | 139:44:23 | + 86:52:08 |
| 45 | 120 | 217 | Denis Krotov | Konstantin Zhiltsov | X-raid Mini JCW Team | T1+ | 141:43:22 | + 88:51:07 |
| 46 | 123 | 242 | Daniel Schröder | Henry Carl Köhne | PS Laser Racing | T1+ | 146:10:03 | + 93:17:48 |
| 47 | 133 | 241 | Vladas Jurkevičius* | Aisvydas Paliukenas | X-raid Mini JCW Team | T1+ | 181:19:54 | + 128:27:39 |
| DNF | DNF | 202 | Guerlain Chicherit | Alex Winocq | X-raid Mini JCW Team | T1+ | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 205 | Guy Botterill* | Dennis Murphy | Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa | T1+ | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 206 | Giniel de Villiers* | Dirk Von Zitzewitz | Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa | T1+ | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 208 | Benediktas Vanagas* | Szymon Gospodarczyk | Gurtam Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics | T1+ | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 213 | Christian Lavieille* | Valentin Sarreaud | MD Rallye Sport | T1.2 | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 220 | Wei Han* | Li Ma | Hanwei Motorsport | T1+ | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 223 | Laia Sanz* | Maurizio Gerini | Century Racing | T1.2 | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 225 | Carlos Sainz | Lucas Cruz | Ford M-Sport | T1+ | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 231 | Toby Price* | Sam Sunderland | Overdrive Racing | T1+ | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 236 | Eugenio Amos* | Paolo Ceci | MD Rallye Sport | T1.2 | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 239 | Mark Corbett* | Juan Möhr | Century Racing | T1.2 | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 247 | Po Tian* | Hangting Guo | Hanwei Motorsport | T1+ | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 258 | Markus Walcher* | Stephan Preuss | Walcher Racing Team | T1.1 | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 260 | Agostino Rizzardi* | Francesco Gasperi | Motortechnica Racing Team | T1.2 | DNF | N/A |
| DNF | DNF | 267 | Andrei Halabarodzka* | Kirik Shubin | Magol Dakar Team | T1.1 | DNF | N/A |
| DSQ | DSQ | 210 | Brian Baragwanath* | Leonard Cremer | Century Racing | T1+ | DSQ | N/A |
| DSQ | DSQ | 219 | Sébastien Loeb | Fabian Lurquin | Dacia Sandriders | T1+ | DSQ | N/A |
Featured image credit: Antonin Vincent / DPPI


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