The Astana Dakar Team are the rally raid team, competes in the multiple rally raid races and in the Dakar Rally. The team participated in cars and trucks classes. [1] They were founded in 2011 to develop the brand Astana, as the part of the Astana Presidential Club. [2]
The Dakar Rally is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were staged from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, but due to security threats in Mauritania, which led to the cancellation of the 2008 rally, events from 2009 to 2019 were held in South America. From 2020 to 2023, the rally has been held in Saudi Arabia. The rally is open to amateur and professional entries, amateurs typically making up about eighty percent of the participants.
Nur-Sultan, previously known as Astana, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city acquired its present name on 23 March 2019, following a unanimous vote in Kazakhstan's parliament. It was named after Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstan from 1990 to 2019.
Carlos Sainz Cenamor is a Spanish rally driver. He won the World Rally Championship drivers' title with Toyota in 1990 and 1992, and finished runner-up four times. Constructors' world champions to have benefited from Sainz are Subaru (1995), Toyota (1999) and Citroën. In the 2018 season he was one of the official drivers of the Team Peugeot Total. He received the Princess of Asturias Sports Award in 2020. Sainz is currently competing in Extreme E for the Acciona | Sainz XE Team alongside teammate Laia Sanz.
Sébastien Loeb is a French professional rally, racing and rallycross driver. He is the most successful driver in the World Rally Championship (WRC), having won the world championship a record nine times in a row. He holds several other WRC records, including most event wins, most podium finishes and most stage wins. Loeb retired from full time WRC participation at the end of 2012. He currently drives part time in the WRC for M-Sport Ford World Rally Team, full time in the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) for Bahrain Raid Xtreme, and full time in the Extreme E Championship for Team X44.
Stéphane Peterhansel is a rally driver from France. He holds the record for wins at the Dakar Rally, with 14 victories. In the 2018 season he was one of the official drivers of the Team Peugeot Total.
Nasser Salih Nasser Abdullah Al-Attiyah is a Qatari rally driver and sport shooter. He was the 2006 Production World Rally Champion, 2014 and 2015 WRC-2 champion, a 16 time Middle East Rally Champion, five times winner of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, and a quadruple Dakar Rally winner. His four victories in the Dakar Rally make him the only Middle Easterner and West Asian to win the competition more than once.
Rally raid, also known as cross-country rallying, is a form of long distance off-road racing that takes place over several days. The length of the event can be as short as 2–3 days for a cross-country baja to as long as 15 days with marathon rallies like the Dakar Rally; with other cross-country rally events lasting 4–5 days. With skill in navigation being key, the driving skill and endurance of riders, drivers, co-drivers, and machines are put to the test. The total distance covered can be anywhere between 600 km to over 5,000 km with terrain ranging from sandy dunes, forest roads, mountain roads, and dry river beds; among others.
The 2009 Dakar Rally was the 31st running of the Dakar Rally. In addition to motorcycle, automobile, and truck categories, a separate quad class was added for the first time. The race began on 3 January 2009, and took place across Argentina and Chile. The rally was for the first time to take place outside of Europe and Africa as the location was changed by organizers due to concerns about possible terrorist attacks that resulted in the cancellation of the 2008 Dakar Rally.
Astana Football Club is a professional football club based in Nur-Sultan. They play in the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest level of Kazakh football. The club's home ground is the 30,254-seat Astana Arena stadium. The club colours, reflected in their badge and kit, are sky blue and yellow. Founded as Lokomotiv Astana in 2009, the club changed its name to Astana in 2011. They are members of the Astana Presidential Club, an association of the main sports teams in Nur-Sultan supported by the Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna.
Guerlain Chicherit is a French rally and rallycross driver, and a professional skier who was four times world champion in freeriding.
Michel Périn is a French rally navigator.
The Silk Way Rally is an annual rally raid type of off-road race. The first Silk Way Rally was raced in 2009 from Kazan, Russia to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. From 2010 to 2013, the race has taken place in Russia. The 2016 edition had a Moscow-Astana-Beijing route, the 2017 edition starts in Moscow and finishes in Xi'an, China. From 2009 to 2011, the rally was part of ASO's Dakar Series. The rally compete in three categories - moto, cars and trucks.
The 'Astana' Presidential Club is a multi-sports club established under the initiative of Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2012. The main aim of the Club is to support and develop professional sports and sports of high achievement in Kazakhstan and promote the image of Astana and Kazakhstan in general, on the international arena.
The 2014 Dakar Rally was the 36th running of the event and the sixth successive year that the event was held in South America. The event started in Rosario, Argentina on January 5 and finished in Valparaíso, Chile on January 18 after 13 stages of competition. Marc Coma won his fourth title in the motorcycle category riding a KTM; Ignacio Casale took his maiden title in the quad category on a Yamaha; Nani Roma clinched victory in the car category for the first time, ten years after his sole motorcycle title, driving a Mini; and Andrey Karginov took his first truck category title for Kamaz.
The 2015 Dakar Rally was the 37th running of the event and the seventh successive year that the event was held in South America. The event started in Buenos Aires, Argentina on January 4, then ran through Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, before returning to Buenos Aires on January 17 after 13 stages of competition, for a total distance of 9,000 km (5,600 mi). For the first time, organizers reserved separate rest days for different categories so that at least two classes raced on each day.
Sam Sunderland is a Dubai-based British rally raid motorcycle rider, best known for his participation in the Dakar Rally, which he won in 2017 and 2022.
Antanas Juknevičius is a Lithuanian rally driver. He is one of the most experienced and successful professional Rally-raid drivers in Lithuania. Juknevicius is the only driver from the Baltic states to participate in every single stage of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies.
X-raid is a private German rally team based in Trebur. It has been competing in cross-country rallies since 2002, including the Dakar Rally. The company is based in Trebur near Frankfurt am Main. Since 2002, vehicles for the Dakar Rally and individual cross-country rally events worldwide as well as the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies have been developed and built there. The X-raid team has won thirteen World Cup titles since its inception and the car category of the legendary Dakar Rally in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2020, and 2021.
Andrey Olegovich Karginov is a Russian rally raid driver, best known for winning the 2014 and the 2020 Dakar Rally in the truck category for Kamaz.
Gerard Farrés i Güell is a Spanish motorcycle racer of enduro and rally raid. In rally raid, he finished in third place in the motorcycle category in the 2017 Dakar Rally and won Baja Aragón in the same category in 2007, 2009 and 2011.