The field of W2RC Season 5 reached the rest day of the Dakar yesterday. Riyadh marks the halfway point of the inaugural round of the series.
The top 4 of the 2025 championship also hold the top 4 of the rally in the motorbike category. The world champion, Daniel Sanders (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), holds the top spot. A bunch of Rally2 contenders ran into trouble, but Preston Campbell (Monster Energy Honda HRC) avoided their fate and sits at the top of the leader board.
The world champion, Lucas Moraes (The Dacia Sandriders), is running tenth overall in the car category. The other two men who stood on the series podium are locked in a duel for victory, with Nasser Al Attiyah (The Dacia Sandriders) leading Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC).
In the Stock class, the first confrontation between the manufacturer Defender and Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body has turned to the advantage of the English maker and its driver Rokas Baciuška.
The top 2 of the 2025 season is also the top 2 of the Challenger race. The W2RC runner-up, Pau Navarro (Odyssey Academy by BBR), is just ahead of the champion, Nicolás Cavigliasso (Vertical Motorsport). Three Can-Am Factory drivers top the W2RC board in SSV.
Tomorrow, the competitors will roll out of Riyadh. Seven stages, including a second marathon-refuge stage, will stand between them and the finish line in Yanbu.
RallyGP: Sanders puts number 1 in the top slot
Two consecutive flashes of brilliance from a RallyGP newcomer marked the start of the 48th edition of the Dakar, as Edgar Canet (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) opened up his account at the elite level with victories in the prologue and stage 1. However, a wrecked tyre in the marathon-refuge stage relegated the Spaniard to more than ten hours down in the overall.
The top 4 of the 2025 season in the RallyGP class have never fallen lower than sixth. Daniel Sanders and Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda HRC) have been on the overall podium every day since the show hit the road in Yanbu and naturally hold the top spots in Riyadh. The reigning world champion is a mere 45 seconds ahead of the American.
“Chucky” would have reached the rest day with a substantially wider margin if he had not been handed down a 6-minute penalty for speeding at the beginning of stage 6. Tosha Schareina (Monster Energy Honda HRC) also made a blunder in the opening week. Much like the Australian, the Spaniard had barely had time to hop onto his saddle when he messed up, forgetting to go through the flags marking the exit from the bivouac-refuge. This oversight cost him 10 minutes and left him just outside the podium (+11′56″).
Luciano Benavides (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) is slotted ahead of him (+10′15″). As it stands, KTM and Honda have each played two of their ace cards.
Nacho Cornejo has placed his Hero in fifth place, about half an hour off the pace. His wingman Ross Branch got off to a solid start, but he had to slow down to avoid burning through his rear foam before the finish line of the marathon stage. The Motswana is now over an hour and a half from the lead.
Looking at the stats, Sanders has added to his existing record of stage victories, bringing his W2RC tally to 25. Schareina has picked up two and now has 21 to his name. Benavides (16) and Brabec (12) have added one apiece.
Rally2: Campbell steps out of the shadow of his father
The Rally2 title holder, Edgar Canet, has moved up to the premier division, clearing the way for his former rivals. Harith Noah (Sherco TVS Factory Rally) and Tobias Ebster (Hero MotoSports) have quit the race due to injury. Neels Theric (Kove Factory Racing) has won two stages, but only after his overall dreams went up in smoke as he literally pushed his motorbike to the finish line of the prologue.
Michael Docherty (BAS World KTM) seemed destined to become the new sheriff in town after claiming four stage wins (32 in total, a record in Rally2), but a broken rim forced the South African to sit out the second day of the marathon stage. Martim Ventura (Monster Energy Honda HRC), the only rider close to his level (one stage win), had earlier lost buckets of time repairing his motorbike after hitting a stone.
His teammate and fellow Dakar rookie Preston Campbell, the son of the US Baja legend Johnny Campbell, steered clear of trouble and now holds the Rally2 lead ahead of the regulars Toni Mulec (BAS World KTM, +16′42″) and Konrad Dąbrowski (Duust Rally, +23′29″).
Ultimate: Al Attiyah in command, Toyota in a tight spot, Ford in force
Just as tyre wear was one of the main challenges of the first week in the motorbike category, punctures on stony terrain have been the decisive factor in the car race up until now. The 2025 Dakar winner, Yazeed Al Rajhi, threw in the towel in stage 3, already running low on spare wheels and too far back to challenge for top honours. Henk Lategan, who had already endured a puncture-fest in the prologue, was hit by nine flats in the stage that did Al Rajhi in. Going for broke, the South African managed to avoid further punctures and even vaulted into the overall lead after the two-day marathon stage.
Meanwhile, Nasser Al Attiyah played it safe. Everything fell into place for the Qatari sharpshooter in stage 6, the first one held in the dunes, his favourite hunting grounds. The three-time world champion, out to reclaim his crown after a massive disappointment in 2025, bumped Lategan (+6′10″) from the lead on the eve of the rest day, and he did so in style, bagging his 50th W2RC special win (one more than in the Dakar).
Ford held sway in the early days. Mattias Ekström grabbed the prologue and Mitch Guthrie secured two stages, but Nani Roma and Carlos Sainz are the top-ranked Raptor drivers. The Spanish duo sit third (+9′13″) and fourth (+11′49″) overall, with their Swedish teammate in fifth place (+12′11″).
The puncture goblins have relegated Sébastien Loeb to sixth (+17′36″). World champion Lucas Moraes, racing in a Dacia for the first time, is a cut below the rest of the 2025 top 4. The Brazilian sits tenth overall, +26′46″ from his teammate and W2RC runner-up from Qatar.
Heading into the second half of the rally, Dacia has good reason to be satisfied with how Al Attiyah has fared and how Loeb has managed to limit the damage. The three-time world manufacturers’ champions, Toyota, are pinning all their hopes on Lategan, the only Hilux driver inside the top 10 apart from the Ultimate rookie Eryk Goczał (ninth). Ford have turned up in force, with four works Raptors inside the top 7, less than 22 minutes adrift.
Stock: The best defence is a good offence for Defender
The opening week of the Stock race saw Defender bag seven specials in as many days. Sara Price (3), Rokas Baciuška (2) and Stéphane Peterhansel (2) have left the Land Cruisers with absolutely nothing. Mechanical issues have put the American and “Monsieur Dakar” miles behind the Lithuanian in the general standings. Baciuška leads Peterhansel (+44′43″) and Ronald Basso (+1 h 51′56″) in his Land Cruiser. The Dakar title holder, Akira Miura, is now racing under Dakar Experience rules after failing to complete a stage.
Challenger: Navarro and Cavigliasso call the shots
The war of attrition in the Challenger class has claimed its first victim: Dania Akeel (Odyssey Academy by BBR). The Saudi driver, who stood on the championship podium last season, suffered multiple punctures before a turbo failure delivered the coup de grâce in stage 3. She is now 2 h 23′ down in the overall.
Meanwhile, the two men ahead of her in the 2025 ranking have avoided bad luck so far. Pau Navarro, the top driver not named Nicolás Cavigliasso in the series, holds a lead of 4′57″ over the Argentinian going into the rest day. Lucas del Río (BBR Motorsport) is third at 25′54″.
The Saudi Yasir Seaidan (Nasser Racing) almost received a hero’s welcome in his home city of Riyadh. He was running second yesterday after seizing the lead in stages 3 and 4. He even went through km 204 in the virtual lead, a single second ahead of Navarro, but a broken rear axle cost him more than 45 minutes. Seaidan is now fourth overall at 46′30″.
SSV: Bullseye for the Buckeye
The newly arrived Can-Am factory Maverick Rs have made their presence felt in the championship. The Ohioan Kyle Chaney is the top-ranked W2RC entrant, followed by his teammate João Monteiro (+4′41″). “Chaleco” López (Can-Am Factory Latam) is still up for a fight despite his one-hour deficit.
