Defending automotive champion Yazeed Al-Rajhi faces an uphill battle on the 2026 Dakar Rally after a troubled opening stage, through which he misplaced important time and incurred a heavy penalty.
Shortly after his Dakar victory in 2025, Al-Rajhi and navigator Timo Gottschalk suffered accidents that compelled them to overlook a number of rounds of the World Rally-Raid Championship. The Saudi driver and his German co-driver have been solely capable of contest a handful of – admittedly unremarkable – warm-up occasions late within the 12 months earlier than beginning their title defence this weekend.
Al-Rajhi confirmed stable tempo within the prologue with sixth place, however the first stage counting in direction of the general classification didn’t go to plan. He completed thirty ninth on the 305km check in Yanbu on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, shedding virtually 29 minutes to winner Guillaume de Mevius (X-raid Mini).
A big a part of that deficit was brought on by a 16-minute penalty for lacking a waypoint and committing a dashing infringement. Even with out the penalty, nonetheless, the Overdrive Toyota driver nonetheless misplaced almost 13 minutes to de Mevius.
“At a difficult part with many canyons, we selected the flawed one, although Timo had the proper feeling,” Al-Rajhi defined.
“We determined to attempt it anyway. Because of the mud from different rivals, we managed to seek out the proper route once more, but it surely was too late. Not a perfect begin to the Dakar Rally and an enormous time loss.”
#201 Overdrive Racing Toyota: Yazeed Al Rajhi, Timo Gottschalk
Picture by: A.S.O.
That was not the one subject, as Gottschalk defined after the opening stage.
“We already had two punctures early on, earlier than taking the flawed canyon at a troublesome level,” the German added.
Taking the flawed flip finally led to lacking a waypoint, which resulted within the time penalty for the crew.
“Though we have been again on the proper route fairly shortly, we sadly validated the subsequent waypoint and subsequently acquired the penalty. Not a great begin, however there may be nonetheless quite a lot of terrain forward of us and we actually gained’t hand over. We are going to attempt to recuperate as a lot floor as attainable over the subsequent 12 phases,” he stated.
On Monday, Al-Rajhi and Gottschalk will get their first alternative to bounce again from the disappointing opening stage. The second aggressive stage covers 400 kilometres and takes the sphere from Yanbu to Al-‘Ula.
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