In a constant battle with the difficulties of a demanding course, Toyota placed two cars in the first two places on the podium, but the victory ended up being home-grown and with an unofficial car, leaving Henk Lategan in the official Toyota in 2nd place just 3m57 behind, in a race that covered 7.828 km. A tasty achievement for Yazeed Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk, who controlled numerous pressures along the way, but also found themselves free, too soon, from the opposition of Carlos Sainz or Sébastien Loeb, who were forced to abandon.
Mattias Ekstrom's Ford finished last on the podium, making a very positive contribution. In the Dacia Sandrider's debut, the ever-favorite Nasser Al-Attiyah tried hard, but had to settle for 4th place, 23m58 behind the winner and just over three minutes off the podium.
The Portuguese duo João Ferreira/Filipe Palmeiro, entered in the Ultimate category in a diesel Mini JCW, ended up being the best X-Raid team, finishing the Dakar in 8th place, 2h15m57 behind the winners, but with a very competitive attitude, even achieving a 2nd place in stages. The results were excellent for the two-time national, European and world TT champions. In the Challenger category, where Nicolas Cavigliasso/Valentina Pertegarini triumphed, Gonçalo Guerreiro achieved a fantastic 2nd place, while Mário Franco and Rui Franco finished in 15th position and Maria Gameiro achieved her dream by finishing the race in 26th place, navigated by the experienced José Marques.
In the Challenger category, the ACP-supported team of Luís Portela de Morais and David Megre were forced to abandon after coming in 6th place with an extremely positive performance. But the Portuguese podiums didn't stop there, with Alexandre Pinto and Bernardo Oliveira taking 3rd place in the SSV category, while João Monteiro and Nuno Morais came 7th. In the trucks, Paulo Fiuza navigating Vaidotas Zala finished the Dakar in 5th place. In the motorcycles, where Daniel Sanders' KTM triumphed, ACP rider António Maio was forced to abandon, while Rui Gonçalves on a Sherco came in a positive 11th place, Bruno Santos was 45th.
The Dakar 2025, the opening event of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship, is over, and the ACP is organizing the only event on European soil, the BP Ultimate Rally Raid Portugal, from September 22 to 28.