The Dacia Sandriders has won the 48th Dakar Rally, the toughest test of car and crew in international motorsport, with Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin claiming a memorable and highly impressive victory by almost 10 minutes.
An outstanding achievement in only its second participation on the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship event, Dacia’s famed expertise of designing and building robust and outdoor ready vehicles has been recognised once again.
The Dacia Sandriders had further reason to celebrate as its other three crews all reached the finish this afternoon.
Sébastien Loeb and Édouard Boulanger returned to the final bivouac on the banks of the Red Sea in fourth position, as Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz completed their first Dakar Rally with the team in seventh place. Cristina Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno took 11th overall, having started the final stage in 12th.
During 13 days of intense and gruelling competition over a total distance of 7,976 kilometres, including 4,809 against the clock, The Dacia Sandriders claimed two stage victories and only slipped outside the top three overall positions on one occasion.
Its success on the hugely challenging Saudi Arabian stages – a mix of undulating rock-strewn tracks, sand dunes, fast open sections and more – was not only down to the performance of its drivers and navigators. The Dacia designed Sandrider, alongside the hard work, dedication, and unwavering commitment of all of its team members, partners and suppliers played a key role.
Katrin Adt, Dacia CEO, said: “We did it! What an achievement, what an adventure, what a performance! Today is a historic moment and the proudest moment for the whole Dacia brand. It is the result of so much hard work by so many talented people, and it shows that The Dacia Sandrider, like our road cars, is reliable and robust.
“All the team members deserve this result, and they should be so incredibly proud for what they have done, achieving victory so early on in Dacia’s Dakar journey.”
HOW THE FINAL DAY OF THE DAKAR UNFOLDED
After their stage-winning heroics on Friday’s penultimate run, a performance that put them within touching distance of victory, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin took a lead of 16m02s into the final stage of the 2026 Dakar Rally, a 105-kilometre timed loop around Yanbu, where the event got under way with the Prologue on 3 January.
Featuring gravel tracks through a mountainous landscape, on which careful cornering was highlighted by the organisers as being essential, Al-Attiyah and Lurquin drove with utmost caution to ensure victory by 9m42s after going 36th quickest.
But it was a different story for Sébastien Loeb and Édouard Boulanger. Starting Stage 13 a mere 29s adrift of the podium, the Frenchmen knew they would have to give their all to snatch third place. Despite their best efforts, they missed the Stage 13 win by eight seconds and ultimately came up short of what would have been Loeb’s sixth Dakar podium by a slender margin of 37s. But having suffered several time-consuming delays during the event, fourth place was fitting reward for their tireless endeavour.
Defending world champion Lucas Moraes, for whom the Dakar Rally was his first event for The Dacia Sandriders and his first alongside navigator Dennis Zenz, was 18s adrift of sixth place starting Stage 13. After registering the 16th quickest time once a one-minute speeding penalty was added, they secured seventh in the final order, 1m48s down on sixth.
Cristina Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno moved up from 12th to 11th in the overall ranking after they recorded the 10th best time on the deciding stage of the event.
