Yazeed Al Rajhi became the first Saudi Arabian to win the Dakar Rally, triumphing in his Toyota Hilux after a 7828-kilometre marathon in the deserts of his home country. In an event that saw 12 stages won by a total of 10 different drivers, the 47th running of the rally also saw strong finishes for a variety of manufacturers, with Ford and Dacia joining Toyota in the top five.
The rally was also one of the closest, with just three minutes and 57 seconds separating Al Rajhi from second-placed
Henk Lategan. The Swedish pairing of Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist finished third in their Ford Raptor, 20’21” behind the winner, with Nasser Al-Attiyah around three and a half minutes further back in fourth aboard the new Dacia
Sandrider. Compare that with the 1 hour, 52 minutes and 12 seconds by which Hiroshi Masuoka won it in 2003.
Al Rajhi was the third driver to hold the overall lead during the course of the rally – with all of them being in Toyotas.
American prodigy Seth Quintero took the top step on the podium at the end of day one, but after that it was Lategan
who moved to the head of the queue – a position he then held for an entire week.
The South African was never able to establish a comfortable gap ahead of the chasing pack, however – and when he
was beset by a combination of punctures and navigational errors while on Stage 9, a 357-kilometre monster between Riyadh and Haradh, Al Rajhi made his move.
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