The Dakar Rally or simply "The Dakar", formerly known as the "Paris–Dakar Rally", is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. The rally is an off-road endurance event. The terrain that the competitors traverse is much tougher than that used in conventional rallying, and the vehicles used are typically true off-road vehicles and motorcycles, rather than modified on-road vehicles. Most of the competitive special sections are off-road, crossing dunes, mud, camel grass, rocks, and erg among others. The distances of each stage covered vary from short distances up to 800–900 kilometres (500–560 mi) per day. The rough terrain, driver fatigue, and lack of skill usually results in accidents and serious injuries.
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, and full time in the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) for Bahrain Raid Xtreme.
Daniel Elena also known as "Danos" is a Monégasque rally co-driver working most notably with Sébastien Loeb. Between them the pair have won the World Rally Championship (WRC) nine times with Citroën, later competing with Hyundai. Their 79 wins together make him the co-driver with the most victories in the history of the WRC.
The Subaru Impreza WRC is a World Rally Car based on the Subaru Impreza road car. It was used by Subaru World Rally Team, Subaru's factory team, and replaced the Subaru Legacy RS in 1993. The car was debuted at 1993 Rally Finland and won a total of six world rally titles, including three consecutive manufacturers' titles and three drivers' titles.
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, an 18 time Middle East Rally Champion, a five-time FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies champion, a three-time World Rally-Raid Champion, and a five-time Dakar Rally winner. His five victories in the Dakar Rally make him the only Middle Easterner and West Asian to win the competition more than once.
Cupra Racing, formerly known as SEAT Sport, is the high-performance motorsport subsidiary of the Spanish automobile manufacturer SEAT, founded in 1985, succeeding the "SEAT Special Vehicles department" which had been formed in 1971 with the mission to enforce the brand's participation in rally championships, followed by 11 titles between 1979 and 1983. In 2018, SEAT created the Cupra brand as its independent high-performance branch and SEAT Sport was officially replaced by Cupra Racing.
The Dakar Series was an annual series of rally raid off-road races, organised by the A.S.O.. The series groups together events similar in style to the Dakar Rally and was founded in 2008 after the cancellation of the 2008 edition of the rally.
Timo Gottschalk is a German rally co-driver, most notable for being on the winning team of the 2011 Dakar Rally alongside Nasser Al-Attiyah and in 2025 with Yazeed Al-Rajhi.
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.
The 2016 Dakar Rally was the 38th edition of the event and the eighth successive year that the event was held in South America. The event started in Buenos Aires, Argentina on January 2, then ran through Argentina and Bolivia.
Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) is a motorsport division of the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota. Alongside competition activities, the division develops technologies for the Gazoo Racing (GR) sub-brand of Toyota's sports and performance-oriented production road cars.
The Mini All4 Racing is an off-road competition car, built by X-raid between 2011 and 2015, specially designed to take part in the rally raids with the main objective of winning the Dakar Rally. In 2017 Mini All4 Racing was succeeded by Mini John Cooper Works Rally.
The Spark Odyssey 21, stylized as ODYSSEY 21, is an electric off-road racecar designed by Spark Racing Technology for the Extreme E championship.
Cristina Gutiérrez Herrero is a Spanish dentist and rally raid driver. She became the first Spanish female car driver to finish the Dakar Rally in 2017 before winning the event in the T3 category in 2024. In 2021 she was the second woman to win a stage in Dakar Rally history. She participates in the Extreme E electric cross-country series, driving for Lewis Hamilton's Team X44. In 2021 she won the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, becoming the first-ever female driver to win the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies. In 2022 she won the Extreme-E Championship alongside Sébastien Loeb in Lewis Hamilton's Team X44, making her the first Spanish woman to ever win it. In 2022 she was the first Spanish female to reach the podium of the Dakar Rally, being the third classified in the T3 category. In 2023 Dakar Rally she finished in 4th position after having many issues in the first week that prevented her from fighting for the victory. Nonetheless, she won the prologue of the Dakar Rally and the last stage which allowed her to finish in 4th position. In 2024, Cristina made history by winning the challenger category in the Dakar Rally, becoming only the second woman in history to achieve this feat in the world's toughest rally. This accomplishment follows Jutta Kleinschmidt victory in 2001, 23 years prior, as the Dakar Rally continues to become more and more professionalized. She is also the first Spanish woman to ever win at the Dakar Rally. She also holds four Dakar Rally stage wins.
The 2022 Dakar Rally was a rally raid event held in Saudi Arabia and the 44th edition of the Dakar Rally organized by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). The event took place between 1–14 January 2022. This was the third time Saudi Arabia had hosted the event, with support from the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation. The race started in Ha'il and ended in Jeddah, going through canyons and cliffs in the Neom region, passing by the Red Sea coastline, into the stretches of dunes surrounding Riyadh, with a lot more action on sand dunes in the Empty Quarter. The route consisted of one prologue stage and 12 normal stages, with one rest day in Riyadh on 8 January.
The World Rally-Raid Championship is a rally raid series co-sanctioned by the FIA and FIM and promoted by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). The championship's seasons culminate with world championship titles in both automobile and motorcycle categories.
Bahrain Raid Xtreme also known as BRX is a rally raid team that participates in the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) and the Dakar Rally.
In relation to motorsport, Group T1 is a set of technical specifications for prototype cross-country cars used in off-road Cross-Country Rallying. The group is governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and defined in appendix J, article 285 of its International Sporting Code. The cars are single unit builds and may be based on a spaceframe chassis unlike the strict series production bodyshell requirement in Group T2. However, the engine must come from, or be derived from a production car able to be homologated in Group A, Group GT or Group T2. The cars must be powered by one engine and without driving aids such as traction control or ABS.
In relation to motorsport, Group T2 is a set of technical specifications for series production cross-country cars used in off-road Cross-Country Rallying. The group is governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and defined in appendix J, article 284 of its International Sporting Code. The cars must use a bodyshell and apart from safety features such as a roll cage and upgraded suspension and wheels, must retain features of the series production car unlike the thoroughbred race prototypes in Group T1, which have more freedom surrounding the chassis build and other parts. The cars in T2 must be homologated with a series production build requirement of 1000 identical units.
Lucas Moraes is a Brazilian off-road racing driver. He is currently driving for Toyota in the World Rally-Raid Championship as part of Red Bull's rallying team for rally raid events. Moraes has achieved multiple accolades throughout his career, including winning the South American Mitsubishi Cup on two occasions, the Brazilian championship three times, as well as finishing third on his Dakar Rally debut in 2023.
