SANDERS LEADS 2025 DAKAR WEEK ONE

The 2025 Dakar Rally is undeniably unfolding as a KTM vs Honda battle. With four Honda’s in the top six standings, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team still lead the way with Sanders after the Australian has taken three of five stage victories. 

With no lack of struggles, Sander’s has encountered multiple issues with his roadbook tablet resulting in navigational dilemmas which ultimately slashed him with an eight-minute time penalty for speeding during Stage 5. The penalty setback reduced his lead to just seven-minutes ahead overall, though the penalty has since been withdrawn and Chucky again forefronts the rally with a 15-minute lead on Honda’s Tosha Schareina. Seven stages remain, and Sanders has his focus set on building his lead and securing the 2025 Dakar Rally win. 

Daniel Sanders:
“The first week has been really strong and consistent for me, I’ve felt great on the bike and I’m happy with my riding and navigation. It’s definitely been really positive, and I have a healthy lead at the halfway point. Other than a few issues with my roadbook tablet, everything has gone really well and I’m having a lot of fun! I’m enjoying resting and recovering and looking forward to the second half of the race!”

Sanders’ teammate duo of the Argentine brothers, Luciano and Kevin Benavides, have their own narrative playing out. With Luciano sitting seventh overall after finishing runner-up on Stage 5, he has steadily improved over the course of the week and himself overcame navigational issues. Being just half-an-hour off Sanders’ pace, Luciano is well-placed to continue challenging for top stage results and to move up the leaderboard. 

Kevin, on the other hand, finished off Stage 5 in 26th place overall and has made the difficult decision to withdraw from this year’s event as he entered the race well below 100% fitness and the physical strain has proved too much for the two-time Dakar champion. 

Luciano Benavides:
“First week done and I’m happy to be finishing in a strong position, especially after my result yesterday. I feel better than ever on the bike and with my riding, navigation and skills. I think I could have used a better strategy this week as my gap to Daniel is bigger than I’d like, but it’s something I can learn from, and I am super-happy for Daniel and the team. Next week will be tough, but I’m excited to get out there on Saturday after some rest today. Of course, I am still in the fight as I know I have the speed to be there, and a lot can change in a week so I’m going to keep pushing.”

Kevin Benavides:
“The first week was definitely tough with over 30 hours of racing. I’m not in my best physical condition so it has been a fight every day, but I’m really proud to have finished the first week of the toughest rally in the world. That alone is a great achievement! It’s been frustrating as my mind knows how to race fast and stay with the top guys – I’ve proved that in previous years – my body just isn’t capable of maintaining that sort of pace at the moment. It’s because of this feeling that I have made the decision to withdraw for the rally – the risk of further injury is too great. I want to thank the team and the fans for all the support they have given, and I hope to be back racing again soon.”

In the Rally2 realm, KTM’s youngest ever Dakar seat taker, Edgar Canet, has firmly established himself as a rising star in his debut. The 19-year-old has secured two stage wins and built a 16-minute lead in his class along with earning a 10th place overall position as the rally enters week two. 

Edgar Canet:
“That’s the first week finished! It has been really positive for me and I’m super-happy to be leading Rally2 at this point. I have a great feeling with the team and the bike, which has shown in my results. It has been tougher than I was expecting, especially the chrono and marathon stages, where we spent over five hours on the bike. I’m really excited to see how the second week will go, and I will try to make it as good as this first one has been.”

Andreas Hölzl – Rally Team Manager:
“We are super-happy about the situation at the moment with Chucky in the lead and doing an amazing job. He’s fit, confident, and the bike is working really well, so everything has come together perfectly, including the team behind him, who are working really hard, too. Luciano is in a good position going into the second week. He is feeling comfortable on the bike and we’ll certainly do our absolute best as a team to get him up into the podium positions. Edgar has been really impressive so far. In only his first Dakar, he has shown he has what it takes to be competitive with the top guys. He’s obviously leading the Rally2 category but also just inside the top-10 overall. We’ll continue to work with him over the coming week to ensure a strong finish to the event. Unfortunately, of course, we have to say that Kevin will stop now after the first week. As we know, he had a tough year with injury but has done a great job over the first week here, and it’s a testament to his strength and experience that he made it to the rest day. Kevin will stay in Saudi and will be on hand to support his brother and the whole team, which is also a massive help. The second week here at Dakar is looking tough, but we’re well prepared and motivated to carry this momentum to the finish.”

On four wheels, Toby Price and his co-driver Sam Sunderland dropped down the order on Stage 4’s marathon after losing five hours following an axle failure on their Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux T1+. Dropping to 151st place, the pair bounced back on Stage 5 though the damage remained as they sank from 6th overall to 40th. Price’s front-running pace remained, though, as the Australian secured 11th in the last stage before the rest day. Conceding any hope of a podium is little to none, Price outlines he is happy with his performance on the stage and is looking ahead to keep good stage results coming. 

Toby Price:
“We had a much better day today, but yesterday killed us. It is what it is, unfortunately it didn’t work this time round. I’m just disappointed because I let everyone down who’s on the side of the car who made all this possible. We’ll just try and get good stage results now and take it from there. It hurts for the moment, but we’re looking forward to the rest day tomorrow. Today’s stage was not too bad. We got through it, we lost some time but we were a long way back. We’re just in management mode at the moment. We didn’t really have enough tyres after yesterday’s stage, so we just tried to get through and keep it safe. We’re looking forward to the rest day tomorrow and the rest of next week. Hopefully we can do well on some stages and see what we can do. On the 48Hr Chrono stage, I did 940 kilometres on all the same tyres and didn’t get one single flat, and then in the space of about 30 kilometres I got four flat tyres. I couldn’t work out why. The last one I got was in a 30km/h speed zone, I think I dropped into a riverbed and sliced my last tyre. It’s super-frustrating; a bummer for the first week. But other than that, we’ll regroup and get ready for the second week. I feel 100 percent safer in the car, and when we’re going through those stones, I’m super-glad I’m in a car. But there’s so many moving parts in these things, and when you’re rolling around on what is basically a bag of air, you’re putting your life on the line with a tyre. You can spend triple the amount; you can spend 10 million dollars, but then you get four flat tyres and your day is done. It is what it is. I just guess I’m bummed out for the sponsors that are on-board with it. We’ll try and see if we can get a couple of good stage results to keep them happy. It’s been a tough first week, but we’ll keep at it”.

The 2025 Dakar now moves into week two where stages become far longer than what we’ve seen so far. Stage 6 begins with a technical first section filled with rock while the second half of the 606km sees racers enter the sand dunes.