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Dakar Rally 2025 - This Year’s Wildest Action in Photos

KTM returns to dominance under Australian Daniel Sanders.

Kurt Spurlock

January 22, 2025

Rally GP podium finishers Adrien van Beveren (third), Daniel Sanders (first), and Tosha Schareina (second) celebrate with a three-way tandem burnout during the winner’s ceremony.(ASO - C. Lopez)

Another year in the books for the world’s most prestigious off-road race.

The 2025 running of the Dakar Rally was one of the most challenging to date, and by all measures, one of the most significant. This year saw a return to form for KTM, who took top honors in the premier Rally GP under Australian Daniel Sanders as well as the Rally 2 class under Edgar Canet.

Last year’s champion Ricky Brabec managed a fifth place finish despite having suffered a broken tibia just three months prior during the Morocco Rally. His HRC Honda teammates Tosha Schareina and Adrien van Beveren rounded out the Rally GP podium for the Big Red manufacturer though, taking second and third places, respectively.

Navigational issues were the common theme this year in the bike class and beyond, with numerous teams suffering widespread failures from their new electronic roadbooks. The transition from traditional paper to tablet-style navigation was contentious enough to get several teams petitioning for a return to paper for 2026.

Other major headlines for the 2025 Dakar Rally include an absolutely dominant win in the side-by-side class for Polaris Factory Racing under Americans Brock Heger and Max Eddy Jr., who finished the race with an impressive gap of over two hours from their nearest competitor. In the Ultimate class, Yazeed Al Rajhi also took home a significant win as the first Saudi driver ever to top the podium as well as the first privateer to beat factory teams in over two decades.

Here’s a glimpse into this year’s action for all of us who couldn’t make the journey.

2025 Dakar Rally by the Numbers

Total vehicles entered: 432

Total vehicles to finish: 175

Total motorcycles entered: 136

Total motorcycles to finish: 77

Total length of FIM course: 4,631 miles

Overall time of Daniel Sanders’ win: 53:08:52

Margin of victory for Sanders: 00:08:50

Rally GP winner Daniel Sanders (KTM) leads Adrien Van Beveren (HRC Honda) and Luciano Benavides (KTM) through the dunes during the final stage of the race.(A.S.O. - F. Gooden)

2024 Dakar champion Ricky Brabec sends his Monster Energy HRC Honda off the edge of a dune in the infamous “Empty Quarter” outside Shubaytah.(ASO - C. Lopez)

Fan favorite Skyler Howes (HRC Honda) catches some air during one of the wide-open sections between Haradh and Shubaytah.(ASO - F. Gooden)

Arunas Gelazninkas (Hoto) suffered a suspension failure during Stage 9, forcing him to limp through the last 100-plus kilometers of the day with a fully rigid front end.(ASO - C. Lopez)

Mason Klein makes his way through Stage 7 on his Kove 450. The footprint of Chinese manufacturers grew considerably this year, with numerous entries in the Kove Factory effort as well as entries from newcomer Hoto Motorcycle, which seeded three machines this year featuring proprietary chassis powered by KTM engines.(ASO - J. Delfosse)

Jeremie Gerber leads a tight pack of Rally2 contenders through a dusty stretch outside Riyadh.(ASO - F. Gooden)

Rally2 winner Edgar Canet slides through an afternoon section in Haradh. Tight and tricky navigation was a common theme for this year’s route.(A.S.O. - A. Vincent)

Hero Motorsports team rider Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo flies off the crest of a dune outside Al Duwadimi near the end of Stage 8.(ASO - F. Gooden)

Dennis Mildenberger’s KTM is recovered from deep sand via helicopter.(ASO - C. Lopez)

Red Bull KTM Factory teammates Luciano Benavides and Daniel Sanders work together to pitch a tent during this year’s overnight 48-Hour Chrono stage.(ASO - Julien Delfosse)

Hero Motorsports rider Ross “Rossi” Branch goes big over a dune on his Hero 450. Branch was a lead contender until an unfortunate crash during Stage 6 took him out of the race.(ASO - F. Gooden)

Poor visibility delayed the start of Stage 11 by over three and a half hours, leading race officials to shorten the stage to less than half the planned distance.(ASO - J. Lindini)

A mass start kicked off the Stage 12 finale and saw dozens of riders battling for a holeshot across the open desert.(ASO - C. Lopez)

Daniel Sanders takes one home for Australia, becoming the second Aussie to ever do so after Toby Price’s titles in 2016 and 2018.(ASO - J. Delfosse)

2025 Dakar champions Brock Heger and co-driver Max Eddy Jr. keep the pressure on a Can-Am Factory rival in their Polaris RZR Pro R.(ASO - F. Le Floc’h)

A local fan cheers on home turf hero and 2025 Dakar Ultimate class winner Yazeed Al Rajhi as he makes his way through the final stretch toward the finish line.(ASO - F. Gooden)

Mattias Ekström pushes his Ford M-Sport Raptor to its limit through the rocky desert outside Haradh on his way to a podium finish in this year’s Ultimate class.(ASO - A. Vincent)

Eye candy from the Dakar Classic class: Axel Berrier gets loose in his custom-built Porsche 964 Carrera 4.(ASO - D. Castilho)

Five cylinders, 20 valves, and 500 hp. The Audi Quattro might be the most Dakar car of all time, and you can still see them do their thing in the Dakar Classic class.(ASO - M. Mattos)

Juan Morera goes full gas through the dunes in his Porsche 959. The car didn’t finish the rally this year, but it put on a hell of a show.(ASO - M. Mattos)

Pound for pound, the big truck class (aka camions) are still the coolest thing in the dirt.(ASO - J. Lindini)

A look at Segway’s X1000, an all-electric racebike built specifically for the Dakar’s Future Mission 1000 class.(ASO - Aurelien Vialatte)