Rally Raid SSV World Champion Alexandre Pinto has arrived in Saudi Arabia ahead of the 2026 Dakar Rally, held from January 3 to 17 as the opening round of the W2RC – World Rally-Raid Championship. Entered by the Old Friends Rally Team and navigated by fellow World Champion Bernardo Oliveira, Alexandre Pinto leads the SSV contenders at the wheel of his Polaris RZR, carrying race number 400. The entry list brings together some of the best off-road competitors in the world, including several Portuguese drivers.
January 1st and 2nd will be dedicated to the traditional administrative and technical scrutineering, as well as the final preparations before the sporting action begins on January 3rd with a 23-kilometre prologue in Yanbu, launching the world’s most prestigious cross-country rally.
“Last year, when I raced the Dakar for the first time, I never imagined the season would end this way. Winning the SSV World Championship in my debut W2RC season was a dream come true. It was a step-by-step belief process; we entered Dakar with no expectations. We wanted to be as fast as possible, but the priority was to finish. We built up our pace, won stages, and finished the Dakar leading the World Championship. From that moment on, we truly started believing. Race after race, the confidence grew, the results came, and 2025 became a season to remember.
Now we enter 2026 with the same goal – or even higher. Becoming World Champion brings responsibility, but we don’t want to carry unnecessary pressure. We’re heading into another major challenge. These last months have been intense, preparing every detail to face our second Dakar. The competition will be strong, the stages demanding, but we have been working hard to be ready. A huge thank you to Old Friends Rally Team, all our sponsors, family, and friends – without their dedication, we would not be on our way to Dakar 2026. We will make final adjustments on site, but we are ready,” says Alexandre Pinto.
The 48th edition of the Dakar Rally covers a total of 8,000 kilometres, including approximately 4,900 kilometres against the clock. The route features a prologue and 13 stages, starting and finishing in Yanbu on the shores of the Red Sea, with the rest day scheduled for Riyadh. The first competitive week runs until January 9th (end of Stage 6), followed by the rest day on January 10th and the second week of racing towards the finish.
The opening prologue, although short, winds through small hill sections on compact dirt tracks. While not the most technically complex stage, it requires precision, experience and total focus from the start.
Source: Old Friends Rally Team official press release
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