2025 Dakar Rally stage one results where Red Bull KTM’s Daniel Sanders came out punching for the early lead from Ricky Brabec and Ross Branch after tricky navigation on the opening day.

2024 Dakar Rally stage 1 in a nutshell – Bisha > Bisha Special: 413km Liaison: 86km

• Race Director David Castera warned weeks ago that the 2025 Dakar would be a challenge from the start. Tricky navigation proved a key element as always catching some riders out through the five or more hours of timed special. “I was going so far the wrong way so many times…it made me sad.” Said Kove Rally Team’s Mason Klein.

When the GPS says 'recalculating'… 🧭😅 #Dakar2025 #DakarInSaudi pic.twitter.com/TsNa937sfm

— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 4, 2025

• Yesterday’s prologue result gave GP riders (21 in total) choice of their start position today, winner Daniel Sanders got first pick and so on back to front. That meant Mohammed Balooshi got the ball rolling followed by Hero Motorsports’ Nacho Cornejo – the former HRC rider and Dakar stage winner was quick to take the lead and took advantage of the bonus point system, clocking additional time with every kilometre as a reward for laying down a line in the sand.
• His Hero teammate Sebastien Buhler became the first major rider to go out on a stage, crashing just under 70km into the race and exiting the race with a suspected broken collarbone. The German was helped at the scene by Skyler Howes and departs the race early for the second year in succession.
• The other issue was dust as those faster riders caught those in front, causing some tough moves as riders stood firm on the line forcing the hand of faster riders to make it stick and get ahead.
• “It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to start so far back and in the end,” said Daniel Sanders, “everyone caught each other and no-one wanted to give up any space. Everyone held their line and didn’t want to play friendly so you had to charge it up, forget about the roadbook for a bit and block pass to get in front. It was a tough one but you had to stand your ground and stay strong.”
• The trio of Ricky Brabec, Daniel Sanders and Ross Branch emerged as the virtual leaders from an early point, with Tosha Schareina homing in by the 100km-mark to join them as a lead quartet who traded the lead as they headed up to and past the halfway point of the stage. In Rally 2, 19-year-old Edgar Canet lead the way in fifth scratch on his first day of racing the Dakar.
• At refuelling, after 244km of the 413 special, Cornejo was still ploughing a lonely furrow out front and went onto amass over five minutes bonus time by the final timing beam on the SSP.
• Sanders took advantage of being behind his rivals on the stage and when those in front lost their way and time, it allowed the Australian former ISDE outright winner to claim the stage win by just over two minutes, 2’26” clear of Branch third and Schareina 18’ further back. (Howes would later be awarded the stage podium place once his time is handed back – around 10 minutes).
• Rally 2 class saw rookie Canet leading from Michael Doherty in the first half of the stage. But not for the first time the South African crashed and took time to get going again, losing 15 minutes already.
• It was some debut for the 19-year-old Spaniard Canet but he was no alone suffering finding waypoints and found Austrian protégé of Kinigadner, Tobias Ebster for company at the front. At the finish it was Ebster who assumes the R2 lead, 13th overall and two minutes ahead of Canet. Both finished ahead of 
• The second stage (second and third days of the rally) is a Chrono 48-hour one, which meant is was in the riders’ best interests is to finish as high as possible today. That sounds obvious but sandbagging occurs on certain stages in order to get a favourable start on the following day. The 48Hr Chrono will see top riders start in reverse order and that makes it easier to ride faster without relying on the roadbook so much.
• This new single stage over two days saw ’24 winner Ricky Brabec on a bit of a mission when it was introduced last year. Stretching miles into the first half by the cut-off and in part assisting his overall victory. It could be a crucial coming this early this year. Sanders meanwhile is threatening to, “do the whole thing on day one”…

2025 Dakar Rally stage 1 results:

Provisional overall classification after stage 1:

*Results will update when they become official

Photo Credit: E Bauer + A.S.O. C Lopez | A Vincent