On December 26, 1978, Thierry Sabine gave the first departure from Trocadéro to Paris for 182 vehicles, heading to the Senegalese capital. After 29 years in Africa, then 11 years in South America to escape the threat of attacks, the Dakar competitors will leave the Saudi desert for the fifth time. In total, 778 participants will compete on motorcycles, cars, quads and trucks. Among them, 135 “rookies” are participating in their first edition, alongside 129 veterans with at least ten Dakars under their belt. “I wanted a difficult Dakar. It was already tough last year but I wanted to go further,” the boss of the event, David Castera, told AFP.
The race, the first round of the world rally raid championship, crosses the kingdom from west to east in 14 days, 7,861 km for 4,716 km of special stages (timed section of the stage). The rally opens with a qualifying prologue which starts from the archaeological gems of Al-Ula, in the northwest of the country.
The competitors will continue towards the south-east with three days in the Empty Quarter, one of the largest deserts in the world, where a two-day stage will take place, a new format called “48h chrono”, a loop of 781 km (including 572 of special). “They leave in the morning, at 4 p.m. they stop. They join one of the eight bivouacs in front of them, with a tent, a sleeping bag and a survival ration and they leave the next day and continue their special,” explained David Castera.
After a day of rest in Riyadh, they will leave with a demanding stage of 873 km (483 special), the longest of the Dakar, with a complex route between rocky canyons and portions of dunes. The penultimate stage is the biggest chunk of the second week, where inhospitable soils are expected to lead to many punctures during the 480km special.
The winners will be chosen at the end of the 12th stage, on January 19, a loop around Yanbu on the shores of the Red Sea. “Winning the Dakar is my obsession,” said Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive) on Wednesday at a press conference at the Start Camp in Al-Ula.
Still runner-up last year, the nine-time world rally champion is still chasing his first Dakar title. He hopes to dethrone the five-time winner of the event, the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, who joined him at Prodrive. “I already placed Seb as my main rival on the last two Dakars. Today we are reunited. Our common goal is to take both cars to the podium. If he leads the race, I will help him, and vice versa. There is no doubt about it,” assured Nasser Al-Attiyah.
They will compete with the Audis of the Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel, holder of the record for victories in the event (14 successes, including six on motorcycles) and the Spaniard Carlos Sainz, crowned in 2010, 2018 and 2020. “The last two years were complicated. Last year I made a mistake. This year it would be good to finish on the podium, at least. And winning would be ideal to end my career,” said Stéphane Peterhansel.
On the motorcycle side, the Argentinian Kevin Benavides (KTM) will defend his crown against other big names in the discipline such as his brother Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna), the British Sam Sunderland (GasGas) winner in 2022, the Australian Toby Price (GasGas ) or the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda). “After my victory, I had a difficult year, several fractures, the last one at the beginning of December. I thought I wouldn’t be able to come but I worked a lot,” assured Kevin Benavides.
If the carbon footprint of the event is often criticized, the organizers always keep in mind to achieve the objective of 100% alternative energies on the Dakar for the 2030 edition, with the implementation of a new test, “Mission 1,000”. “We did a small Dakar of 1,000 km where we only took vehicles with alternative energies. They are there as a demonstration, so that perhaps in 6 to 8 years, the Dakar will transform little by little,” hopes David Castera. As for the organizing country, it is still under fire for its policy of “sportwashing”, using sport for several years as diplomatic leverage with Formula 1, Moto GP or football to make people forget its human rights violations. .
