The Dakar launches new kings: Who are Yazeed Al Rajhi and Daniel Sanders?

The Dakar rally debuts new kings: the Saudi Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota), in cars, and the Australian Daniel Sanders (KTM), in motorcycles, have been crowned today in the most legendary rally-raid, after solving the 12th and last stage (Shubaytah, 61 km loop) without scares or mishaps, thanks to the substantial advantages they stored on the penultimate day.

Both expand the list of Dakar winners, which did not know new names of champions since 2021 in motorcycles (with Kevin Benavides) and 2009 with Giniel de Villiers in cars.

In the last stage, Sanders finished 6th, 10 seconds behind Schareina (4th), and the great revelation, Edgar Canet, was 13th, to finish his first Dakar in eighth overall position and as winner of the subcategory Rally2.

In cars, over the final 61 km, Al Rajhi took 6th place, 2m52s behind the winner of the day, Nasser Al Attiyah, who was finally left off the podium by three and a half minutes (3rd place went to Mattias Ekström , at the premiere of the Ford Raptor).

Yazeed Al Rajhi

The son of the banker sheikh is already champion at home… in his 11th edition of the Dakar, after a decade of WRC fiascos

Who says money doesn’t understand competition and talent? There is Yazeed Mohamed Al Rajhi (Riyadh, 44 years old), one of the sons of the banking businessman and Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdulaziz Al-Rajhi, a famous surname in Saudi Arabia: it can be seen in almost every urbanized corner in the shape of an ATM. automatic. Yazeed has taken it upon himself to take it further, as a sports star. Being the richest in the caravan serves a purpose…

The driver from Riyadh is not unknown in the motor world. In addition to having participated in the Dakar in 11 editions (he was 3rd in 2022 and 4th in 2020), Yazeed began to make a name for himself in the WRC World Rally Championship in 2008 (he had debuted in the regional races in 2007). He had his own team, Yazeed Racing, although he was not very good at it: in his 10 editions in the World Championship (2008-18), he only managed to score 5 points.

He tried his luck in the Dakar in 2015, with a Toyota Hilux, and that was something else, with dunes and tracks more similar to those of his usual landscape: in his first edition he achieved a stage victory, although he abandoned in the 11th. ª stage when he was third overall. In 2017 he moved to Mini and in 2020 again to Toyota, with the Overdrive structure, with which he has now won, co-driven by the German veteran Timo Gottschalk, who was navigator for Nasser al-Attiyah, his great regional rival. .

Al Rajhi has distinguished himself in recent years, and especially in this edition, as a fierce rival and a top-level competitor, a great master of driving in the dunes, and with a great sense of strategy, knowing how to conserve and give up ground so as not to have to open a track. Thus, in this Dakar 2025, he only won one stage (the 4th) and has only led after two, in the 9th and in the penultimate, the 11th, in which he dealt the final blow to Henk Lategan with a formidable sprint through the dunes in 275 km of special: he put almost 8 minutes on the South African, decisive for taking the Tuareg.

A Tuareg who has a special flavor for Al Rajhi: he achieves it at home, becoming a hero of the Saudi people, and against his great rival Nasser Al-Attiyah, whom he already surpassed in 2024 in the Ruta 40 Challenge in Argentina, proof of World rally-raids in which he was runner-up… behind the Qatari.

Daniel Sanders

The heir to Toby Price who led from day one to win his fifth Dakar

The Australian pilot Daniel Sanders (Three Bridges, Victoria, 30 years old) is one of the best exponents of the school of off-road Australian, heir to two-time champion Toby Price. In this Dakar 2025, Sanders has honored his nickname of chucky (which is due to the vomiting he got when he was little from filling himself with milk): he proved to be quite the diabolical doll by continuing to give gas, without holding anything back, from the prologue, when he took the lead.

And he did not let go in the 12 stages, managing like a veteran, in the face of harassment from the Honda troop (Schareina, who worried him the most, Brabec or Van Beveren), the Hero (Branch, Cornejo) or the Sherco (Loren Santolino) .

It became very clear that he would be a serious contender to take over from Brabec by winning the wild Chrono 48 Hours, which he dominated with more than 7 minutes over all his pursuers. He won five stages (in the 7th), equaling Price’s record from 2016. From there, he only expanded his lead, which always ranged between 10 and 16 minutes over Schareina.

This his first Tuareg, in his fifth Dakar, does justice to the career of the Australian pilot, who had been a favorite victim of misfortune.

After being the best rookie in his debut in 2021 (he was 4th overall), Sanders won two stages in the 2022 Dakar and was 3rd overall when he fractured his elbow and wrist in an accident on a stretch of link. In the 2023 Dakar he won another stage and finished 7th overall after dealing with food poisoning and a thorn stuck in an arm muscle, the last straw for a beekeeper accustomed to bee stings. And on the eve of his fourth Dakar, in 2024, he broke his femur in training in the Australian outback.