David Zille had an up-and-down career in the World Rally-Raid Championship with Can-Am, but the switch to Taurus seems to have helped.

The South African Safari Rally’s Challenger class was a duel between Zille and points leader-slash-teammate Nicolás Cavigliasso. The pair won all five stages, Zille notching three, which quickly distanced them from the field.

Penalties set the tone early on. Cavigliasso, the Dakar Rally champ, fell behind early because of a two-minute penalty for missing a waypoint in Stage 1, which relegated him from third to fourth. Although Zille also got a minute tacked on for speeding that day, Cavigliasso had to work his out out of a four-minute hole. He nearly did so with his Stage 2 win while Zille fell from second to fifth after he failed to hit a checkpoint too. This sliced the gap down to five seconds before it swelled again as Zille won the next day.

Stage 4 was a disappointment for Cavigliasso as he placed fourth and 2:40 back of Zille. Entering the final day, Zille led him by 5:36 and had over 16-and-a-half minutes on third-placed Adam Kuś. Although Cavigliasso won Stage 5, he only beat his rival by 1:57.

The overall win was the first for Zille in the W2RC, who switched to Taurus T3 Max for the 2025 season. All but one of the seven Challengers in South Africa were Tauruses, and they locked out the top six.

Puck Klaassen was the only South African in the class and the lone non-Taurus holdout with her G Rally OT3. She initially finished third in Stage 3, but received 37 minutes of penalties for speeding that effectively killed her race.

Dania Akeel, the winner in Abu Dhabi, finished fifth overall and ahead of Prologue winner Pau Navarro despite a rollover while leading the final day. Navarro’s radiator sprung a leak in Stage 3 that cost him time, though he still holds second in the championship.

Of course, Cavigliasso’s advantage in the points grows from 11 to 31 points. Akeel moves past the absent Yasir Seaidan for third.

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Class	Total Time	Margin
1	15	308	David Zille	Sebastian Cesana	BBR Motorsport	T3.1	12:54:39	Leader
2	16	301	Nicolás Cavigliasso	Valentina Pertegarini	BBR Motorsport	T3.1	12:58:18	+ 3:39
3	20	305	Adam Kuś	Dmytro Tsyro	AKPOL Rally Team	T3.1	13:13:01	+ 18:22
4	21	306	Khalifa Al-Attiyah	Bruno Jacomy	Nasser Racing	T3.1	13:14:05	+ 1:26
5	22	310	Dania Akeel	Stéphane Duplé	BBR Motorsport	T3.1	13:18:12	+ 23:33
6	24	320	Pau Navarro	Jan Rosa Viñas	BBR Motorsport	T3.1	13:33:28	+ 38:49
7	26	302	Puck Klaassen	Charan Moore	G Rally Team	T3.1	13:46:06	+ 51:27

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Driver	Time
Prologue	1	Pau Navarro	7:06.0
Stage 1	20	David Zille	2:40:29
Stage 2	17	Nicolás Cavigliasso	3:32:39
Stage 3	16	David Zille	3:02:37
Stage 4	17	David Zille	2:17:29
Stage 5	16	Nicolás Cavigliasso	1:15:41

W2RC

Drivers

Rank	Driver	Points	Margin
1	Nicolás Cavigliasso	147	Leader
2	Pau Navarro	116	– 31
3	Dania Akeel	98	– 49
4	Yasir Seaidan	76	– 71
5	Adam Kuś	72	– 75
6	Gonçalo Guerreiro	61	– 86
7	Khalifa Al-Attiyah	52	– 95
8	David Zille	51	– 96
9	Puck Klaassen	40	– 107
10	Corbin Leaverton	39	– 108
11	Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari	37	– 110
T-12	Mário Franco	18	– 129
T-12	Khalid Al-Jafla	18	– 129
14	Eduard Pons	17	– 130
15	Pedro Gonçalves	3	– 144
16	Rui Carneiro	2	– 145

Navigators

Rank	Navigator	Points	Margin
1	Valentina Pertegarini	147	Leader
2	Stéphane Duplé	98	– 49
3	Michaël Metge	76	– 71
4	Dmytro Tsyro	72	– 75
5	Jan Rosa Viñas	66	– 81
6	Cadu Sachs	61	– 86
7	Bruno Jacomy	52	– 95
8	Sebastian Cesana	51	– 96
9	Lisandro Sisterna	50	– 97
10	Charan Moore	40	– 107
11	Taye Perry	39	– 108
12	Nasser Al-Kuwari	37	– 110
13	Andrei Rudnitski	18	– 129
T-14	Jaume Betriu	17	– 130
T-14	Rui Franco	17	– 130
16	Hugo Magalhães	3	– 144
17	Ola Fløene	2	– 145
18	João Miranda	1	– 146

Featured image credit: Zille Rally Team