Australian Daniel Sanders is crowned 2025 FIM World Rally-Raid Champion for Red Bull KTM with victory at BP Ultimate rally Raid Portugal.

Completing a perfect season (so far!), Australian Daniel Sanders has capped wins at the 2025 Dakar Rally, Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, South African Rally and today the Rally-Raid Portugal to clinch the FIM World Rally-Raid Championship.

The Red Bull KTM rider has been untouchable since taking victory at the end of the 2024 season in Morocco. A maiden Dakar victory followed to set the former outright ISDE winner up for a victory streak unmatched in the history of the W2RC era of the world championship.

Daniel Sanders: “It’s a dream come true to win the world championship. You think about it when you’re a kid no matter what sport you do, but I chose motorbikes, and it worked out really well.

“The race here has gone so well, and the bike has been perfect, so a massive thank you to the team for all the hard work they put in. It’s very rare to have this sort of consistency in rally as it’s often so unpredictable. But up to now, we’ve put in a perfect season, and we’ll still be aiming to carry that into Morocco. It’s still all sinking in really. I’m happy to get the world championship here in Portugal and hopefully, there’s a lot more to come.”

Based around confidence on the current incarnation of the KTM 450 Rally bike, which Sanders has been instrumental in developing around himself, the record breaking four wins on the bounce seals the ’25 world title a round early with just the Rallye du Maroc in mid-October.

Provisional Results – 2025 Rally Raid Portugal (after 5 of 5 stages)

1. Daniel Sanders (AUS), KTM, 12:39:39

2.Tosha Schareina (ESP), Honda, 12:43:19 +3:40

3. Luciano Benavides (ARG), KTM, 12:52:20 +12:41

4. Ricky Brabec (USA), Honda,12:54:13 +14:34

5. Edgar Canet (ESP), KTM, 13:01:36 +21:57

Provisional Standings – 2025 FIM World Rally-Raid Championship (after rnd 4) RallyGP

1. Daniel Sanders (AUS), KTM, 113 pts

2. Luciano Benavides (ARG), KTM, 69 pts

3. Tosha Schareina (ESP), Honda, 66 pts

4. Ricky Brabec (USA), Honda, 66 pts

5. Adrien Van Beveren (FRA), Honda, 48 pts

Rally2

1. Edgar Canet (ESP), KTM, 88 pts

2. Michael Docherty (ZAF), Honda, 74 pts

3. Tobias Ebster (AUT), Hero, 67 pts

4. Konrad Dabrowski (POL), KTM, 55 pts

5. Ruy Barbosa (CHI), KTM, 26 pt

Photo Credit: A.S.O. | DPPI | Edophoto | Helena Clancy