The winner was Saudi Arabian Yazeed Al Rajhi, in his 11th attempt to conquer the world's toughest marathon
Lucas Moraes ended his Dakar 2025 career with a victory in the 12th and final stage, held on Friday (17) in the Empty Quarter desert in Saudi Arabia. This was the Brazilian's second victory in the 47th edition of the race and the third of his still short Dakar career - he became the first driver from the country to win a special stage of the world's toughest marathon last year. Also in 2025, Lucas came second in another stage, missing out on victory by just 18 seconds. Despite their display of speed, the driver and Spanish navigator Armand Monleón finished the event in 14th position due to a breakdown of their Toyota GR DKR Hilux on the sixth special (equivalent to the sixth day of the race), which cost the pair their chances of victory at the end of the twelve days.
The winner of the 47th edition of the Dakar in the overall standings was Saudi Arabian Yazeed Al Rajhi, who competed alongside German navigator Timo Gottschalk in a Toyota Hilux Overdrive. The duo, as well as Moraes/Monleón, are competing in the Ultimate category, the main category of the race. This was Yazeed's first Dakar title, in which he made his debut in 2015. This season, the Saudi made his 11th appearance in the marathon. It was also the first overall victory in the Dakar for a driver from Saudi Arabia, which has hosted the race in its deserts since 2020.
Regularity - During the 12 stages (or 12 days of racing), Yazeed also took first place in one stage (the fourth), as well as second place (the second). His regularity and the lowest rate of problems, including with the car, guaranteed him the title of Dakar 2025 champion, which was won by just 3min57s minutes over the second-placed duo (South Africans Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings), a minuscule rate after 4,870km of timed course.
Brazil's other representatives in Ultimate were Marcos Moraes and navigator Maykel Justo (Toyota Overdrive), who made their debut in the category finishing in 21st place after twelve days of racing, as well as Marcelo Gastaldi, whose navigator is Frenchman Andrien Metge in a Century CR7, who finished in 15th place. In the Challenger category, navigator Cadu Sachs was runner-up alongside Portuguese driver Gonçalo Guerreiro, aboard a Taurus T3 Max, the same prototype used by the champions, Argentinian couple Nicolas Cavigliasso and Valentina Pertegarini. Cavigliasso has competed in the Dakar six times.
In the other categories, Australian Daniel Sanders won his first motorcycle title on a KTM after five participations. Among the trucks, the trio of Czechs Martin Macik (driver), Frantisek Tomasek (navigator) and David Svanda (mechanic) took their MM Technology Powerstar to the title for the second time - they were the winners last year. Macik competed in his 13th Dakar in 2025. In the UTVs, a category in which Brazil has several titles, both with drivers and navigators, rookie driver Brock Heger and navigator Max Eddy (three participations) secured the duo's title. The North Americans competed aboard a Polaris RZR Pro R Sport.
Five-time champion “on his tail” - In today's victory, Lucas Moraes left Qatari Nasser Al-Attiya in second place, the five-time champion of the race who this year was driving a Dacia SandRider alongside French navigator Edouard Boulanger. After 61km of the timed course, the difference between them was just 1min33s. “I was able to drive the whole route on my own, without anyone getting in my way - the cloud of dust from the cars in front often makes overtaking difficult,” said Moraes.
“It was great to finish this Dakar with another victory, adding two first places this year and three in my career since my debut in 2023. The result in the overall standings wasn't what we expected, because we had that problem in the sixth stage and also some mistakes. But that's how the Dakar is, it's a learning curve. The best drivers, navigators and teams in the world are here. And the Dakar is the Dakar: always mega difficult, sometimes a bit insane. But it's a great challenge for any driver and we want to come back next year, even stronger and better prepared. Thank you to everyone who cheered us on, I got lots of messages from people in Brazil - at the end of each day I looked and it was a special moment for me. And thank you to our team, Toyota Gazoo Racing, and sponsors, for all their support and effort for us too,” concluded the Brazilian, who competes with the support of Red Bull, Repsol, Strava, Oakley, Zapalla and OutField.
Automatic translation of the Brazilian Portuguese version
Source: BestPR
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