(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
The Peninsula
Doha, Qatar: Qatar's Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah, a five-time winner and the defending W2RC champion, will start among the favourites when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia plays host to the Dakar Rally for the sixth time from January 3-19.
Fifty registered FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) contenders spearhead a massive entry on what promises to be one of the most difficult ever Dakar rallies and the fourth to be the opening round of the W2RC.
Al Attiyah and co-driver Edouard Boulanger made the switch to the new Dacia Sandrider towards the end of 2024 and the Qatari clinched a third successive title – and a first with Boulanger - with victory at the Rally of Morocco on the car's debut.
The Qatari-French duo will starting with a Prologue stage near Bisha on Friday, along with the other competitors who will tackle 12 gruelling desert stages that incorporate 5,145 competitive kilometres in a punishing route of 7,753km.
Toyota Gazoo Racing are the defending W2RC Manufacturers' champions but face the might of Dacia and the Ford M-Sport teams on this occasion with X-raid Mini concentrating on the Drivers' Championship. BBR Motorsport (Taurus), the G Rally Team and X-Raid will battle it out for honours in the Challenger category and the Can-Am Factory Team faces competition from Polaris in the SSV class. Three Dacia Sandriders, four Ford Raptors and X-Raid Minis and seven Toyota Hiluxes top the list of 24 entrants eligible for the Ultimate W2RC category with MD Optimus and Century Racing also in the mix.
Nine-time WRC champion Sebastien Loeb has yet to fulfil his ambition of winning the event and drives a second car with Cristina Gutierrez driving the third car. Loeb and navigator Fabian Lurquin finished second to Al Attiyah in Morocco last October.
Defending the W2RC Manufacturers' title for a fourth time could be even more challenging for Toyota Gazoo Racing on this occasion. Yazeed Al Rajhi finished as the runner-up to Al Attiyah in 2023 and 2024 and is joined by Brazilian Lucas Moraes and American former Challenger champion Seth Quintero to spearhead the Japanese manufacturer's challenge with the latest version of the Toyota Hilux. The trio continue to team up with their regular navigators, Timo Gottschalk, Armand Monleón and Dennis Zenz.
Guillaume de Mévius (second overall in 2024) and Denis Krotov will drive the two petrol-engined Minis, while the FIA World and European Baja Cup champion João Ferreira and Frenchman Lionel Baud will persevere with the diesel engine. Carlos Sainz is a four-time event winner and the defending champion after his memorable success last January with Team Audi Sport.
Sixteen crews have registered for the W2RC and the defending SSV champion Yasir Seaidan of Saudi Arabia switches to Team BBR and leads the way with his French navigator Michael Metge in the first of a dozen Taurus T3 Max machines registered for the class.
Argentina's Nicolas Cavigliasso, the recent FIA Middle East Baja Cup winner Dania Akeel and the talented Spaniard Pau Navarro will be aiming for the top spot on the podium. Cavigliasso again teams up with the defending Challenger champion navigator Valentina Pertegarini. Nasser Racing fields a Taurus for the FIA World Baja Cup's Challenger champion Edouard Pons, while Qatar's QMMF Team has entered a couple of T3s for Al Attiyah's brother Khalifa Saleh Al Attiyah and the 2024 FIA Middle East rally champion Abdulaziz Al Kuwari.
2025 Dakar Rally – Selected entries (W2RC registered)
Ultimate
200. Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah (QAT)/Edouard Boulanger (FRA) Dacia Sandrider
201. Yazeed Al Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) Toyota Hilux Overdrive
217. Denis Krotov (KGZ)/Konstantin Zhiltsov (ANA) Mini JCW Rally 3.0i
219. Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL) Dacia Sandrider
222. Guillaume de Mévius (BEL)/Mathieu Baumel (FRA) Mini JCW Rally 3.0i
225. Carlos Sainz (ESP)/Lucas Cruz (ESP) Ford Raptor
Challenger
326. Khalifa Saleh Al Attiyah (QAT)/Bruno Jacomy (BRA) Taurus T3 Max
334. Abdulaziz Al Kuwari (QAT)/Nasser Al Kuwari (QAT) Taurus T3 Max
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