There are Wolves, Rangers and Rovers, and there are … Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk. The 2025 Dakar Rally winners showed all their skills on the third stage around al-‘Ula as they defended their title.
Blow the whistle! – or – Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk take the lead in the Dakar Rally
Further contributions
Back on track: Al-Rajhi/Gottschalk impress on stage two of the Dakar Rally
Back on the road to success: “Dakar” title defenders Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk have made their first mark in the Dakar Rally with third place on the day.
First things come differently … – Al-Rajhi/Gottschalk with frustrating “Dakar” stage at the beginning
Now it’s time to go: Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk have started the 2026 Dakar Rally with a lot of lost time.
On the pace at the start – Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk with a solid prologue at the Dakar Rally
Sixth position on short 22-kilometer prologue - Al-Rajhi/Gottschalk in tightly bunched leading group Brevity with spice: Tricky opening stage in terms of driving and navigation sets the "Dakar" tone early on The real kick-off follows on Sunday with the first stage...
In demand, hunted – Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk take on the “Dakar” title defense mission
Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk start the 2026 Dakar Rally from January 3 to 17 in Saudi Arabia as defending champions in a tricky mission.
New car, new victory, new title
Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk end the 2025 cross-country rally season with a victory and the title of Saudi Arabian champions New car for the Dakar Rally: tested, tried, run in Jeddah Rally offers compact preparation for the January highlight: the "Dakar" title...
Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk win Baja Qassim
First success on the "Road to the 'Dakar'" - Al-Rajhi/Gottschalk win round of the Saudi Arabian Rally Championship Terrain in the province of Qassim good preparation for the Dakar Rally in January Al-Rajhi and Gottschalk gain rally and self-confidence after around 400...
“Road to the ‘Dakar'” through Morocco particularly rocky
Not yet back to 100 percent – that’s the realization for Yazeed Al-Rajhi/Timo Gottschalk after the Morocco Rally.
Important kilometers on the “Road to Dakar” – Al-Rajhi/Gottschalk competitive in Portugal
Lisbon, Portugal (September 28, 2025) – Carefully feeling their way back to the top of the world: Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk showed good form at the Rally Portugal. The Dakar winners proved their competitiveness on many stages of the fourth round of the FIA...
Engine failure! Bitter disappointment for Al-Rajhi/Gottschalk in Abu Dhabi
Kilometer 13 on the final day brings the end: Technical problem costs valuable points and the lead in the FIA Cross Country Rally World Championship (W2RC) Almost "zero" instead of fourth place in the unloved Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge Looking ahead: three more World...
- Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk put in another strong performance on the third “Dakar” day – narrow overall lead
- Leading group remains close together – starting position becomes a tactical element
- Route to Ad-Dawadimi mainly on gravel and clay – around a tenth in the dunes
Al Salmiyah, Saudi Arabia (January 8, 2024) – Fans like to chant “Blow the whistle!” when their team has taken a surprise lead. – in the full knowledge that the best and most exciting part is yet to come. We also celebrate the moment when we write: Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk lead the Dakar Rally after three days of competition. On the third leg, the current runners-up in the FIA World Rally Raid Championship (W2RC) once again delivered a top driving and navigational performance, finishing the day in a tactically valuable third position and thus relegating Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (ESP/ESP, Audi) from the top spot in the overall standings. However, their lead after around a quarter of the distance covered is just 29 seconds – a blink of an eye in the world of cross-country rallying. The stage win went to Lucas Moraes/Armand Monleon (BRA/ESP), who became the works duo in the Toyota team ahead of the 2024 Dakar Rally.
On the way from Ad-Dawadimi to Al Salmiyah, all driving and navigational skills were once again in demand. Stony paths in wadis with many washouts, fast and less fast sand tracks, soft and less soft dunes as well as off-piste and canyons with difficult navigation awaited the participants. The 437 kilometers of special stages, 19 of which were neutralized, therefore offered a wide variety of challenges.
QUOTES
“To have taken the lead in the Dakar Rally – under our own steam – makes us proud. But we must not forget: We’ve only covered a quarter of the distance and haven’t achieved anything yet. In this respect, we are really looking forward to the coming rally days.”
YAZEED AL-RAJHI
“That was another really tough stage today – but we mastered it well. We had a slow puncture in the first part, but were able to save ourselves until neutralization, and another puncture in the second part – so it was again at the limit in terms of tires. The mechanics have a big job ahead of them today: parts of the bodywork look a bit wild because of all the bushes. But the guys are doing well, even if two hours have to be enough today.”
TIMO GOTTSCHALK
AND THEN THERE WAS …
… a flood of data. The engineers at Overdrive Racing master this every day. After the second stage of the 2024 Dakar Rally, they read out around 500 megabytes of data from the Toyota Hilux DKR’s memory – roughly equivalent to 125,000 pages of densely written A4 paper in pure text.