Yazeed Al Rajhi has won the 2025 Dakar Rally in the car category becoming the first Saudi overall champion ever in the world’s preeminent rally race.
Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk clinched the victory by only 3 minutes and 57 seconds over Toyota’s Gazoo Racing team of Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings.
Driving for Overdrive in a Toyota Hilux, Al Rajhi completed the rally’s total distance in 52 hours, 52 minutes, and 15 seconds,
Al-Rajhi is the first driver to win on their ‘home’ course since Frenchman Pierre Lartigue in 1994 when the race was from Paris to Dakar, Senegal. It moved out of the Europe-to-Africa route format after the 2007 edition over security concerns and has been held entirely within Saudi Arabia since 2020 after a decade of races in South America.
Notably, not only is Al-Rajhi the first Saudi driver to win a Dakar Rally, the Overdrive team is the first private team to beat a factory team in 25 years.
The winning margin was one of the closest finishes in Dakar history and this 2025 race was marked by plenty of drama. Former champions Carlos Sainz and Nani Roma were derailed when Sainz rolled over on the second stage and Roma’s engine failed.
Former champion Sebastien Loeb, driving a new bespoke Dacia Sandrider, also rolled in the third stage. Qatari driver and 5-time Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah was also piloting a Dacia Sandrider but was held back by a navigation error and tire punctures.
The sixth edition of the rally held in Saudi Arabia took place from January 3 to 17 and was organized by the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation and the Saudi Ministry of Sports.
