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. Most events since the inception in 1978 were staged from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal; 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. Since 2020, the rally has been held in Saudi Arabia. The event is open to amateur and professional entries, professionals typically making up about eighty percent of the participants.
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 five times 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.
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.
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.
Yazeed Mohamed Al-Rajhi is a Saudi businessman, entrepreneur, and business magnate. One of the sons of businessman Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdulaziz Al-Rajhi, his origins trace back to the Al-Qassim region (Al-Bukayriyah), and his lineage traces back to the Bani Zaid tribe. He was born and raised in Riyadh. He began his working life at an early age when his father appointed him in 1998 as an observer of the Private Property Office and later became its general manager throughout the Kingdom in 2004, after which he rose to a number of high positions until he became one of the well-known businessmen.
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.
Pierre Lartigue, is a former French rally racing who won three editions of Rally Dakar (cars).
The FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas is a rally raid series organized by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver, co-driver, and team; with additional trophies awarded to T3 and T4 drivers & teams.
Alexander Dorosinskiy is a Russian racing car driver and entrepreneur, a world-class rally master of sports, the champion of Estonian classic rally 2004, a prize-winner of the stages of the World Rally Championship, the World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, and The FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas.
The 2020 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies was set to be the 28th season of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies; an annual rally raid competition for cars, buggies, side-by-sides, and trucks held in multiple countries. Due to COVID-19 pandemic all events but one were cancelled, and FIA considered that only one event wasn't enough to award a World title and cancelled the season.
The 2020 Dakar Rally was the 42nd edition of the event and the first edition held in Saudi Arabia. The event started in Jeddah on 5 January and finished in Al-Qiddiya on 17 January after 12 stages of the competition.
The 2020 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas is the second season of the reformed FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas; an annual competition for baja-style rally raid events for cars, buggies, and side-by-sides held in multiple countries.
The Mini John Cooper Works Buggy is an off-road competition car, built by X-raid under the Mini marque. The car won the 2019 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies and the 2020 and 2021 Dakar Rallys. The German racing team X-raid has been using the car since 2018.
Cristina Gutiérrez Herrero is a Spanish dentist and rally raid driver who in 2017 became the first Spanish female car driver to finish the Dakar Rally. 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. Cristina currently has 3 stage victories in the T3 category of the Dakar Rally.
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 organised by the Amaury Sport Organization and co-sanctioned by the FIA and FIM. The championship's seasons culminate with world championship titles in both automobile and motorcycle categories.
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.
In relation to motorsport, Group T3 is a set of technical specifications for lightweight prototype cross-country vehicles 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 286 of its International Sporting Code. The vehicles are generally single unit builds for competition purposes, and differ from 'cars' defined in Group T1 by not needing to be road-legal, and have a much lower minimum weight. The T3 vehicles also do not need parts such as a windscreen or an engine manufactured by series production car companies. The vehicles must be powered by one engine and without driving aids such as traction control or ABS. Although not specifically defined as such by the FIA, the group may be called prototype side-by-side vehicles, like their series production relatives of Group T4. Indeed, T3 permits such modified and competition prepared vehicles where T4 prohibits them.
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