Pau Navarro just missed out on winning the 2025 World Rally-Raid Championship in the Challenger category, losing to Nicolás Cavigliasso by 26 points. Barring a move back into Ultimate, Navarro was keen on finally getting that trophy in 2026.

Despite not winning any stages, his revenge campaign began on a strong note with victory at the Dakar Rally. While not racking up stage wins, consistency was key as he took the lead with a runner-up finish in Stage 5 and never looked back.

BBR colleague David Zille got the ball rolling by winning the first stage, while Navarro started off by farming top-five runs each day. The latter gradually rose through the order before passing Yasir Seaidan, who finished seventh in Stage 5. Cavigliasso, also the reigning Dakar winner in the class, moved up into second the next day and quickly closed the gap.

However, after whittling the margin down to 2:02, disaster struck for Cavigliasso in Stage 9 when his radiator suffered a puncture. He finished 28th for the day and over an hour behind Navarro, dropping him to fifth overall and leaving his chances of a repeat on ice so thin that it’s basically transparent.

Seaidan regained second and finished fifth that stage. He placed second in Stage 10 while Navarro was tenth and received a 12-minute penalty for being late, enabling Seaidan to rapidly erase the deficit from 41:41 to just 18:30. Navarro explained the delay was because the throttle position sensor came loose, which he speculated was due to sabotage since it couldn’t detach on its own.

Fortunately for Navarro, the issue didn’t come up again and he would clamp down on the lead even harder. He beat Seaidan by seven minutes in Stage 11 and by 45 seconds on the 12th leg, inflating the margin back up to nearly 26 minutes going into the last day. In order for Seaidan to win, he would’ve basically needed Navarro to have a problem.

While Seaidan was fourth in the final stage, Navarro was tenth and barely three and a half minutes behind him to secure the victory. His navigator Jan Rosa i Viñas technically notched his third straight Dakar victory after going back-to-back in the Dakar Classic with Carlos Santaolalla.

“We were screaming at each other and hitting each other on the head,” Navarro quipped to MARCA about his celebration with Rosa at the finish. “I don’t know if I hurt him.”

While Tauruses continued to dominate the Challenger class, Puck Klaassen prevented them from sweeping the top ten by placing fifth in her G-ECKO. Klaassen won two stages in the debut race for KTM X-Bow powered by G Rally Team, one of which saw her record the first 1–2 finish for women ahead of Taurus’ Dania Akeel. Akeel scored a top ten in eighth.

Klaassen’s cousin Pim, on the other hand, was set back by technical issues on his Taurus as early as the Prologue. Forced to climb his way through the order, there were instances where he even ran ahead of his T1-driving father Dave. He was slowed down again by wheel stud problems late, but managed to reach the finish.

Sergei Remennik, the reigning FIA World Baja Cup champion in Challenger, was signed up for the race as a rapid assistance driver for BBR Motorsport and his fellow Tauruses. This meant coming to help those like Akeel and Zille when they ran into trouble, which he did in Stages 3 (broken turbo hose) and 13 (a crash). Teammates Ignacio Casale and Kevin Benavides also had electrical and shock issues, respectively.

Casale and Benavides, former Dakar winners on the FIM side, ensured Remennik’s help wasn’t in vain as they notched stage wins of their own. Even Remennik had problems of his own like a broken turbocharger in Stage 2 and needing to fix the drivetrain and clutch in the marathon legs.

Remennik admitted afterward that he looked at Dakar the wrong way going into the race.

“I did underestimate the Dakar, but now I’d like to go further and see the entire World Rally-Raid Championship,” he said. “Even as a team player and with an eye solely on the team result.”

Rebellion Spierings certainly could’ve wished their race went better, but it was still a solid outing. Team boss Paul Spierings won two stages as well as the Prologue, but was out of contention due to mechanical problems in Stage 2. Fellow co-owner Alexandre Pesci was 19th.

1993 Dakar winner Bruno Saby, driving for his vintage rally outfit Team Milano Racing in partnership with Spierings, was 23rd in his first start since 2007. His Dakar return was lowlighted by contact with Xavier de Soultrait that sent the latter into a roll and damaged his Taurus. Various stages were such a grind that he even found them comparable to the ones in Africa.

“I’m not even tired. I could go for another week,” the 76-year-old Saby remarked.

Pablo Copetti was one of the category’s three DNFs, bowing out after rolling and destroying the fuel pump connector. The former Quad rider blasted MMP Compétition as a “disaster” in Stage 2 after they didn’t come to the pit area to service him in time, meaning he had to complete the stage with three good tires. After calming down, he explained his anger stemmed from MMP, a French outfit, prioritizing their French drivers over him.

Óscar Ral was disqualified.

Results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	28	336	Pau Navarro	Jan Rosa i Viñas	Odyssey Academy by BBR	54:46:21	Leader
2	30	304	Yasir Seaidan	Xavier Flick	Nasser Racing	55:09:43	+ 23:22
3	32	300	Nicolás Cavigliasso	Valentina Pertegarini	Vertical Motor Sport Team	55:22:13	+ 35:52
4	33	338	Lucas del Rio	Bruno Jacomy	BBR Motorsport	55:23:30	+ 37:09
5	36	302	Puck Klaassen	Augusto Sanz	KTM X-Bow powered by G Rally Team	55:40:33	+ 54:12
6	39	314	Ignacio Casale*	Cadu Sachs	BBR Motorsport	56:40:41	+ 1:54:20
7	44	347	Kevin Benavides	Lisandro Sisterna	Odyssey Academy by BBR	57:19:11	+ 2:32:50
8	45	301	Dania Akeel	Sébastien Delaunay	Odyssey Academy by BBR	57:22:26	+ 2:36:05
9	49	310	Paul Spierings	Jan Pieter van der Stelt	Rebellion Spierings	57:59:07	+ 3:12:46
10	53	305	David Zille	Sebastian Cesana	BBR Motorsport	58:14:46	+ 3:28:25
11	54	306	Pedro Gonçalves	Hugo Magalhães	BBR Motorsport	58:17:19	+ 3:30:58
12	58	303	Kees Koolen	Jurgen van den Goorbergh	G Rally Team	59:15:04	+ 4:28:43
13	69	315	Jedidia Favre*	Antoine Lecourbe	MMP Compétition	62:19:42	+ 7:33:21
14	70	308	Alexandre Giroud*	Armelle Henry	Rebellion Spierings	62:29:42	+ 7:43:21
15	71	320	Benjamin Favre*	Thibaud Darroux	MMP Compétition	62:42:06	+ 7:55:45
16	75	330	Lex Peters*	Mark Salomons	G Rally Team	64:12:31	+ 9:26:10
17	85	323	Pim Klaassen	Mark Laan	DaklaPack Rallysport	65:59:40	+ 11:13:19
18	86	321	Rui Carneiro	Fausto Mota	G Rally Team	66:13:57	+ 11:27:36
19	90	351	Alexandre Pesci*	Stephan Kühni	Rebellion Spierings	67:34:55	+ 12:48:34
20	95	311	Aurélien Bouchet*	Élisa Huguenin	AB Concept / BTR	69:32:21	+ 14:46:00
21	96	332	Vic Flip*	Stefan Henken	MM Rallye	69:47:34	+ 15:01:13
22	97	331	Sergei Remennik	Aleksei Ignatov	BBR Motorsport	70:01:34	+ 15:15:13
23	98	328	Bruno Saby*	Benjamin Boulloud	Milano Racing – Rally Raid / Rebellion Spierings	70:29:17	+ 15:42:56
24	99	333	Joan Font*	Adrià Guillem	BE Racing	71:12:11	+ 16:25:50
25	110	325	Piotr Beaupré*	Jarosław Kazberuk	Zoll Racing	80:55:20	+ 26:08:59
26	111	326	Łukasz Zoll*	Michał Zoll	Zoll Racing	81:00:01	+ 26:13:40
27	112	324	Rine Streppel*	Lisette Bakker	Arcane Racing	81:10:18	+ 26:23:57
28	116	340	Rebecca Busi	Sergio Lafuente	X-raid Team	87:04:16	+ 32:17:55
29	120	348	Kevin Rouviere*	Patrick Jimbert	KR Competition	95:53:49	+ 41:07:28
30	127	335	Charles Munster	Xavier Panseri	KTM X-Bow powered by G Rally Team	114:59:19	+ 60:12:58
31	130	319	Hervé Guillaume	Maxime Guillaume	Proparc / BTR	124:03:03	+ 69:16:42
32	132	334	Dick van Culenborg*	Johannes Schotaanus	Rebellion Spierings	138:25:20	+ 83:38:59
33	151	327	Henri van Steenbergen*	Daan van Ooijen	Team Oryx Rallysport	239:22:09	+ 84:35:48
DNF	DNF	316	Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari	Stéphane Duplé	QMMF Racing Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	329	Daniel Kersbergen*	Michiel Goegebeur	Team Orange Bull	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	363	Pablo Copetti*	Enio Bozzano	MMP Compétition	DNF	N/A
DSQ	DSQ	317	Óscar Ral*	Fernando Acosta	Vertical Motor Sport Team	DQ	N/A

Stage winners

Stage	Overall	Driver	Total Time
Prologue	50	Paul Spierings	12:31.9
Stage 1	32	David Zille	3:32:50
Stage 2	29	Lucas del Rio	4:26:49
Stage 3	24	Puck Klaassen	4:28:25
Stage 4	23	Nicolás Cavigliasso	5:23:12
Stage 5	29	Lucas del Rio	4:18:09
Stage 6	22	Ignacio Casale*	3:58:57
Stage 7	38	Kevin Benavides	4:22:57
Stage 8	33	Puck Klaassen	4:55:38
Stage 9	13	Paul Spierings	4:08:57
Stage 10	16	Paul Spierings	5:14:55
Stage 11	37	Nicolás Cavigliasso	3:17:27
Stage 12	21	Kevin Benavides	3:44:52
Stage 13	29	Kevin Benavides	52:28

Featured image credit: Antonin Vincent / DPPI / ASO