Last year, Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah had a forgettable Dakar Rally. The then defending champion suffered as many as a dozen punctures as the event headed to Saudi Arabia for the first time. Despite the setbacks, the Qatari star finished runner-up behind Spaniard Carlos Sainz by a little over six minutes in his Toyota, numbered 300. […]
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing has successfully cleared all the hurdles for access to Dakar 2021, and the team is primed for action, starting with the short prologue on January 2nd. The prologue will be used to determine the starting positions, but at only 11km in length, it isn’t likely to play a major role in the […]
By Sports Car Digest Inaugural edition of the Dakar Classic in 2021. The Dakar Rally is acknowledged as one of the greatest rally raids in the world. It depicts the ultimate human and sporting experience, taking place over a duration of 10 -15 days over several thousand kilometers of some of the most challenging, hostile, […]
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and other associated NGOs on Tuesday criticized the decision to hold the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia for a second consecutive year, despite ongoing repression, including the recent jailing of a woman’s rights activist. “A year later, the repression orchestrated by the Saudi […]
South African crews all set against all odds Dakar 2021 is ready to race in spite of the many challenges facing organisers and competitors to race in the two-week epic in Saudi Arabia. With international travel all but at a standstill, competitors, teams and officials gathered at various points before being chartered into Jeddah. They […]
By: Rachit Thukral Co-author: Carlos Guil Iglesias Rally legend Carlos Sainz believes the fight for overall honours in the 2021 Dakar Rally will be between Toyota and X-raid Mini. The Dakar has proved to be a two-horse race between Toyota and X-raid since Peugeot pulled the plug on its factory programme after three successive wins between […]
By Rachit Thukral, Sergio Lillo | Autosport Sebastien Loeb says the Prodrive-run Bahrain Raid Xtreme team is entering the Dakar Rally expecting to be competitive against established outfits like Toyota and X-raid Mini. Loeb is returning to the Dakar after a one-year absence to helm the new Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, where he will be […]
By: Jake Boxall-Legge Co-author: Sergio Lillo World Rally Championship veteran Kris Meeke “felt like a kid at Christmas” during his first test for PH Sport, the team with which he will compete in the 2021 Dakar Rally. Meeke will drive PH Sport’s Zephyr T3 in next month’s Dakar Rally, which will take place in Saudi Arabia […]
The bravest offroad racers on the planet are heading back to Saudi Arabia to face-off at the 2021 Dakar Rally. After a season like never before, the focus returns to the toughest test of endurance that motorsports has to offer. The Red Bull Desert Wings squad will be chasing glory on the perilous 7,646km loop when […]
by Ollie Marriage | It’s called the BRX Hunter, and it aims to be the fastest way to get across rough terrain ever devised. It’s been built to take on the Dakar Rally, that three-week-long 10,000km romp across deserts, dunes, mountains, and rocks that is the toughest motorsport event on the planet. And it’s created […]
Local media interest in the 2021 edition of the world’s toughest cross-country race should be high after members of the South African media were given the opportunity to visit the team’s headquarters at Hallspeed, near Kyalami, to follow the final steps of the preparation phase. In attendance were both Team Principal Glyn Hall, and the […]
BY JARED ROSENHOLTZ TEASER Perhaps it will spawn a road version? With models like the Quattro, Audi was once a dominant force in rally racing. The brand cemented its dominance in the 1980s with multiple World Rally Championships and now, Audi wants to make a return to off-road motorsport with a new model. Unlike the five-cylinder-powered Quattro, this […]
By Graham Goodwin | Audi Sport is to exit Formula E at the end of the 2021 season as part of a root and branch review of the brands’ motorsport programs. The decision, confirmed at Formula E’s pre-season test in Valencia, Spain by team principal Allan McNish, comes hard on the heels of its post-2020 […]
1 prologue, 12 stages, 4800 kilometres of timed specials, two looping stages and a marathon stage are some of the main features that the ASO released today for the forthcoming 2021 Dakar Rally. The 43rd edition of the great challenge gets underway in just forty days time, with Monster Energy Honda Team, aiming to replicate […]
Sébastien Loeb drove in the desert of Dubai in conditions close to “Dakar 2021” with the brand new BRX T1 Sébastien Loeb declared himself satisfied after having driven in the desert of Dubai with the BRX T1 which he had discovered last month in Great Britain. It is with this vehicle that the French driver […]
By: Sergio Lillo | motorsport.com The 2021 Dakar Rally will feature the lowest participation of the last 25 editions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared to the 541 participants (334 vehicles) of the last South American edition in Peru in 2019, and the 563 (342 vehicles) of the first Saudi edition in 2020, […]
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will be entering four crews in the 2021 Dakar Rally, scheduled to start on January 3 in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah. The works team will consist of Nasser Al-Attiyah and navigator Mathieu Baumel; Giniel de Villiers and navigator Alex Haro; rookie Henk Lategan and navigator Brett Cummings; and Shameer Variawa […]
Iconic race returns from January 3-15 with tough Jeddah and Ha’il stages. The planet’s toughest test of motorsports endurance returns to Saudi Arabia in the New Year as a brand-new Dakar Rally route will push committed petrolheads to the limit over diverse landscapes. Here is all you need to know: – After four decades of […]
Nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb also tested the Extreme E car last week with Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas and Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne. The presence of Loeb and Bottas for the six-day shakedown of the 550bhp ODYSSEY 21 E-SUV at Chateau de Lastours in southern France was initially intended to remain private. But Mercedes’ […]
Nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb is set to make a return to the famous Dakar Rally for 2021. The 46-year-old has competed in the Dakar every year since 2016, only missing this year’s edition which was the first to be held in Saudi Arabia. Loeb’s best finish was in ’17 when he competed alongside […]
Amazon released a documentary starring World Champion Fernando Alonso on 25th September. It focused on his exploration in Motorsports other than Formula 1. Alonso went on to bill Formula 1 as ‘boring’ despite getting the most attention. He also revealed that he did the documentary to ‘shed light’ on other racing series that are more adventurous on and off track. Alonso […]
The new Prodrive-run Bahrain Raid Xtreme Team has announced Nani Roma as its first driver for the 2021 Dakar Rally. Roma, a Dakar winner in both the motorcycles (2004) and cars (2014) categories, makes the move after contesting the 2020 edition with Borgward, and will again compete with fellow Spaniard Dani Oliveras as his co-driver […]
Dakar Rally legend Stephane Peterhansel has abandoned ambitions of contesting the rally-raid with his wife as his co-driver next year. Last year, Peterhansel and former Dakar motorcycle racer Andrea Mayer competed as a duo in the FIA Cross-Country World Cup, and were crowned champions driving for the X-raid Mini team ahead of a planned assault […]
The Porsche 911 has excelled in all aspects of motor racing, known primarily for its performance on race tracks around the world dating back to the early 1960s. The Porsche 911 has enjoyed a successful rally career too, in the 80s the rear engined icon celebrated major victories at the legendary Dakar and […]
Bahrain Raid Xtreme (BRX) – the newly launched team to enter the Dakar Rally 2021 – has big ambitions for next year’s race. Speaking after the team’s launch announcement, team director David Richards has divulged details on the team’s motivations, the design and build of the new car and what the Dakar Rally means for […]
New additions and benefits await participants in Dakar Saudi Arabia 2021 as the Kingdom steps up preparations for its second edition of the world’s most challenging race, which runs from Jan. 3 to 15. The Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation recently opened registration for pilots and their teams. Competitors will benefit from a 50 percent […]
Porsche 959s, Lada Nivas, and Renault 20s will again play in the sand In early 2021, the Porsche 959 and the Lada Niva will have at least one thing in common: They’ll both be eligible to participate in the Dakar Rally after a long hiatus. Neither will realistically be able to beat the racers that will be built specifically […]
Prodrive says it will be “disappointed” if its rivals don’t perceive it as a “potential winner” when it makes its Dakar debut next year under the Bahrain Raid Xtreme banner. Prodrive announced in February that it will enter the prestigious rally raid from 2021 in a joint venture with Bahrain’s sovereign wealth Mumtalakat, and it has […]
Qatar’s three-time Dakar Rally champion Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah will give another shot at the prestigious title during the 43rd edition of the competition.Qatar News Agency (QNA) yesterday reported that the champion rally driver will compete at next year’s event in Saudi Arabia. Al Attiyah’s French co-driver Matthieu Baumel had tweeted earlier, saying: ” We […]
British motorsport and engineering group Prodrive has been around since 1984 and over the years has built numerous successful race and rally cars. We’re talking the Porsche 911 SC RS of the 1980s, Subaru Impreza WRX World Rally cars of the 1990s and 2000s, and an assortment of GT cars for Aston Martin and other teams. […]
The second edition of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia, scheduled to run from January 3-15 next year, will start and finish in Jeddah after venturing through the desert and along the Red Sea, organisers revealed Thursday. The 2021 version of the gruelling 12-day marathon will take participants into uncharted territory, with all timed sections […]
The world’s greatest Endurance race will still be held…The world’s greatest Endurance race will still be held 13th – 14th June 2020!…The ASO has announced the Dakar Rally will run entirely in Saudi Arabia for a second successive year in 2021, but on a route that is “100% new”. The Dakar moved from South America […]
Jordan and Egypt likely the front runners. Several outlets are reporting that the 2021 edition of the Dakar Rally may include one or more new countries. According to Autosport, ASO’s Rally Director David Castera confirmed that the organization is looking at adding other countries. He said that ASO’s agreement with Saudi Arabia required the first […]
The 2021 Toyota Hilux is all set to be unveiled in a few days. To keep the hype going, Toyota Europe has released a teaser of the refreshed truck with none other than former F1 driver Fernando Alonso behind the wheel. The 2021 Hilux is said to be inspired by the U.S.-based Tacoma and Tundra, but we […]
The 46-year-old nine-time World Rally champion Sébastien Loeb who is the most successful driver in the history of the FIA World Rally Championship is set to change discipline after the 2020 season according to Spanish publication Diario AS. Loeb has previously competed in the Dakar Rally four times before and took his best result in 2017 as he finished […]
The Dakar Rally could be forced to shelve plans to add extra countries to its route for its 2021 running as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic. This year’s Dakar was the first to take place in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia taking on sole hosting duties in the first year of a […]
The 2021 Dakar Rally motorcycles could be restricted for both speed and power in a quest for safety THE organisers of the Dakar Rally are discussing with the FIM as to whether the future running of the Dakar Rally could see bikes imposed with both power and speed restrictions. The changes have been put on […]
In the novel Goldfinger, James Bond creator Ian Fleming laid down a phrase that’s quoted to this day: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.” Well, we’d be hard-pressed to say that three off-road custom Porsche 911s to surface within the span of a couple weeks is a sign of […]
The FIA Cross-Country Commission has announced that four-wheel drive cars will form the top category of major international cross-country rallies from 2023. The new ruling is likely to affect the Dakar Rally, which usually follows the regulations of the FIA but also has its own set of guidelines. A consensus to prioritise four-wheel drive vehicles […]
Measures to reduce the number of accidents and increase safety in motorcycle rally events will be tested after a meeting between the Dakar Rally organisers and motorcycling’s governing body FIM. Paulo Goncalves The latest Dakar rally saw two fatalities with motorcyclists Paulo Goncalves of Portugal and Edwin Straver of the Netherlands both dying following accidents […]