The Dacia Sandriders’ bid for back-to-back FIA World Rally-Raid Championship victories has begun with Nasser Al-Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb completing the South African Safari Rally Prologue in Sun City earlier this afternoon (Monday).
Navigated by Frenchman Édouard Boulanger, Al-Attiyah, the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) points leader following their victory on February’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, was the first driver to tackle the Prologue. The Qatari completed the nine-kilometre, gravel-based run in 6m58.6s to take thirteenth place among the Ultimate Class contenders.
Loeb, from France, and Belgium’s Fabian Lurquin – starting eighth on the road and chasing their first W2RC finish of the season – stopped the clocks in 9m22.5s, the 35th fastest Ultimate class time, following an on-stage delay aboard their Dacia Sandrider.
The results of the Prologue, which covered a mainly gravel surface with several sections on black turf, will be now used to finalise the starting list for the first competitive stage tomorrow (Tuesday).
And Al-Attiyah will take the start with an impressive record to uphold. Since 2022, the reigning W2RC champion has won every W2RC round he’s tackled for the first time. Victory on the South African Safari Rally would extend that sequence to four events, while also maintaining his standing at the top of the W2RC points table.
In addition to its meticulous off-event preparation, The Dacia Sandriders completed two days of testing in South Africa on Saturday when it tried out several upgrades in readiness for the country’s first W2RC event, which runs until Saturday (May 24).
KEY QUOTES
Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar), driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « The Prologue was really nice to do but it was not easy as the first car because we open the road.
« It was very loose gravel, so we need to manage, but we did a good job and don’t lose a lot of time. If we start behind I can gain a lot of time and I’m quite happy from the performance of our Dacia Sandrider. »
Sébastien Loeb (France), driver, The Dacia Sandriders : « It was not the best Prologue of my life, we made a mistake so we lost a bit of time. But, at the end, the Prologue is just a question of road order position for tomorrow so it’s not so bad. Tomorrow is a new stage and a new start but we have a first idea of the stages, they’re quite tricky with a lot of junctions so we need to be careful tomorrow. »
SOUTH AFRICAN SAFARI RALLY PROLOGUE RESULTS
Sun City
Stage distance: 9km / Liaison distance: 26km / Total distance: 35km
13th: Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Édouard Boulanger (FRA), 6m58.6s
35th: Sébastien Loeb (FRA)/Fabian Lurquin (BEL), 9m22.5s
SOUTH AFRICAN SAFARI RALLY: THE BIG NUMBER
37: The Dacia Sandriders’ onsite team for its first visit to South Africa consists of 37 dedicated and highly expert personnel. The number is higher than on other W2RC events due to the increased workload resulting from the two-day test in the country where several updates to the Dacia Sandrider were trialled.
THE DAY AHEAD: STAGE 1, MAY 20
South Africa’s first FIA World Rally-Raid Championship event, and round three of the 2025 W2RC season, begins in earnest tomorrow (Tuesday) with Stage 1, a loop stage southwest of the Sun City Bivouac. Located approximately 200 kilometres west of Sun City, the opening stage puts crews to the test on farmland tracks and roads around Lichtenburg.
The stage also includes sections on sand tracks and open bush and is the rally’s second longest in terms of competitive kilometres covered.
Stage distance: 285km / Liaison distance: 286km / Total distance: 571km
Linda Hirvonen,