The Dacia Sandriders is Iberia-bound next week as the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship enters its decisive phase, with an exciting cross-border event.

Taking place between 21 – 28 September and forming part of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) for the second time, Rally-Raid Portugal includes stages in the host country as well as in neighbouring Spain. It covers a total competitive distance of 1,433.05 kilometres.

The Dacia Sandriders takes on round four of the five-event W2RC season as a three-strong line-up once again, having entered two of its sustainably fuelled and BFGoodrich-equipped Dacia Sandrider cars on the previous events in Abu Dhabi and South Africa.

It follows the return of Spain’s Cristina Gutiérrez to the attack alongside Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah and Frenchman Sébastien Loeb.

With a win in Abu Dhabi and a podium in South Africa, The Dacia Sandriders heads to Rally-Raid Portugal second in the W2RC Manufacturers’ ranking and first in the Drivers’ and Navigators’ standings courtesy of Nasser Al-Attiyah and Édouard Boulanger.

For the remainder of the 2025 W2RC and January’s 2026 season-opening Dakar, Boulanger will partner with his compatriot Loeb, with Loeb’s navigator, Fabian Lurquin from Belgium joining forces with Al-Attiyah. The Cristina and Pablo partnership remains unchanged.

Tiphanie Isnard, Team Principal of The Dacia Sandriders, explained: “In rally-raid, our strength as a team lies in creating the best possible conditions for our crews to perform at their highest level. The bond between driver and navigator is crucial, and sometimes evolving the pairings allows new synergies to emerge. We believe these new collaborations will bring greater stability, renewed confidence, and the determination needed to push even further together.”

The penultimate round of the 2025 W2RC marks more unchartered territory for the team, with mainly gravel stages akin to a world championship rally. Covering 2,368.97 kilometres, including 1,433.05 against the clock, the route of Rally-Raid Portugal has undergone several changes following the inaugural W2RC edition in 2024.

Based in Grândola. 100 kilometres south of Lisbon, the event begins in earnest with the Prologue on the afternoon of 23 September. The opening stage on Wednesday 24 September takes crews southwest towards Beja on what organisers have described as “fast, winding dirt tracks” before a sandy section in the closing 30 kilometres prior to the overnight halt in Grândola.

Stage 2 on Thursday 25 September marks the start of the journey into Spain and the bivouac in Badajoz. At 649.98 kilometres, it’s the event’s longest stage. The action continues with Stage 3 on Friday 26 September when the entire competitive route will be held in Spain on terrain similar to that encountered during Stage 1.

From Spain, the event heads back to Portugal on Saturday 27 September and the bivouac in Lisbon from where a loop stage will decide the outcome of Rally-Raid Portugal on Sunday 28 September.

KEY QUOTES

Tiphanie Isnard, Team Principal, The Dacia Sandriders, said: “It’s back-to-school time for the team and an opportunity to discover a new rally on a surface still unexplored by the Dacia Sandrider. To tackle it in the most favourable conditions possible, we have undertaken a full week of testing. Our goal on Rally-Raid Portugal is clear: to be ready to maximise points and strengthen our position in the Drivers’, Navigators’ and Manufacturers’ championships. The event will also be about continuing to build Sébastien’s confidence after his podium in South Africa, and welcoming back Cristina and Pablo as we prepare both the end of the season and the fast-approaching Dakar. The team is now entering a very intense phase with eight consecutive weeks of travel between testing, Rally-Raid Portugal and Rallye du Maroc. We are fully focused on finishing the championship in the best possible way and on preparing our Dakar challenge under the best conditions.”

Nasser Al-Attiyah, Driver, The Dacia Sandriders explained: “After a really good collaboration on Baja Aragón, I’m happy to continue the adventure with Fabian as my new navigator. Rally-Raid Portugal is a great event, and we are really looking forward to it. We can expect a lot of fans and a really great atmosphere because the passion for motorsport is real in Portugal and Spain. The target is always very clear: to keep the lead in the championship by scoring good points and to have a great event.”

Cristina Gutiérrez, Driver, The Dacia Sandriders, added: “We are really looking forward to re-starting our rally-raid season and kicking off our preparations for Dakar Rally. I’m happy to be competing on Rally-Raid Portugal, as racing at home is always special and we have great memories from this event. Together with Pablo, we are excited to reunite with the whole Dacia Sandriders team. The goal is to get back into the rhythm and to feel good in the car. As always, we’ll do our very best. We want to make the most of these last two races of the championship to arrive fully prepared for the Dakar Rally, the biggest challenge of all.”

Sébastien Loeb, Driver, The Dacia Sandriders said: “It feels great to be getting back into the Dacia Sandrider after quite a long break since South Africa. I’m really looking forward to starting this new chapter with Édouard. We’ve already done some testing together in Morocco and everything went very well, so I’m confident our collaboration will be a good one. I can’t wait to get back to the racing feeling and to meet the Portuguese and Spanish fans, who are always so passionate and create an incredible atmosphere on every stage.”

THE DACIA SANDRIDERS RALLY-RAID PORTUGAL LINE-UP

#200: Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) / Fabian Lurquin (BEL)
#212: Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP) / Pablo Moreno (ESP)
#219: Sébastien Loeb (FRA) / Édouard Boulanger (FRA)

RALLY-RAID PORTUGAL: THE BIG NUMBER

2,368.97: The Rally-Raid Portugal covers a total distance of 2,368.97 kilometres.

The Dacia Sandriders will go from its stage-winning Dakar Rally heroics to bidding for victory in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, which takes place between 22 and 27 February 2025.

Another untried event for the team, which made a winning start to cross-country competition with victory at the Rallye du Maroc in October, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is six days against the clock in the spectacular sand dunes to the east and south of the emirate.

For round two of the 2025 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), The Dacia Sandriders has entered a sustainably fuelled Dacia Sandrider for Nasser Al-Attiyah / Édouard Boulanger and for Sébastien Loeb / Fabian Lurquin.

Having impressed during the Dakar Rally with four top-10 stage times, Cristina Gutiérrez and Pablo Moreno will resume their W2RC campaign later this season.

Al-Attiyah, from Qatar, is a four-time Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge winner, including in 2024, when Boulanger navigated him to victory for what was the Frenchman’s second first-place Desert Challenge finish. Loeb, who is also from France, and Belgian Lurquin placed eighth overall in 2022.

The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is based in close proximity to Saudi Arabia’s Dakar Rally and gets under way a little more than a month after the W2RC season opener to limit transportation and reduce logistics costs.

The timescales have made for an intense period for The Dacia Sandriders, as team principal Tiphanie Isnard explained: “The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is like a continuation of the Dakar because we finished that event in the Empty Quarter, and we are starting round two of the W2RC in the Empty Quarter. There has been very little time between the team’s return from the Dakar and to be ready to start the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, but they’ve done a great job to be ready in what have been intense conditions. They’ve remained focused despite a heavy workload and the fatigue they experienced working on an event as physically and mentally difficult as the Dakar.

“But we are intent on capitalising on everything we achieved and learned on the Dakar – not just with the Dacia Sandrider, but how we operate and how our crews work – and putting it all to good use on the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.

“Even though there hasn’t been much time since the Dakar, we’ve debriefed extensively with our crews and taken their feedback into account to be even stronger for the second event of the W2RC season when maximum points and progress will be the key targets.

MARATHON STAGE IN STORE FOR THE DACIA SANDRIDERS
Following the 72-kilometre Prologue stage in Al Ain on 22 February, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge begins for real with the first of five competitive stages the day after. A 400-kilometre route takes crews from Al Ain to Mezeer’ah, where the 302-kilometre Stage 2 starts and finishes on 24 February. Stage 3, the day after, forms part one of the inaugural Marathon Stage, which means crews will turn mechanics at the completion of the opening 388-kilometres due to regulations preventing assistance from team personnel. Stage 4 begins from the Marathon Camp on the morning of 26 February with a 394-kilometre route taking crews back to Mezeer’ah. Stage 5 on 27 February starts there and finishes 364-kilometres away in Abu Dhabi.

Excluding the Prologue, a total of 1,175 timed kilometres counts towards the final classification.

KEY QUOTES
Nasser Al-Attiyah, Driver, The Dacia Sandriders explained: “The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is my favourite rally, and we have a lot of experience of this type of terrain. After Dakar we are well prepared to fight in Abu Dhabi and to be in the lead of the world championship, as it’s the target for me and Édouard to be world champion and also for the team. We’re expecting a strong entry so it will be nice to see most of the top drivers competing in this race.”

Sébastien Loeb, Driver, The Dacia Sandriders added: “I’m really happy to be back in the car after a frustrating Dakar, which ended far too early for us after we showed a lot of potential early on. The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is always a special rally with a lot of big dunes, it’s nearly only sand and dunes so it’s very different from most of the other rounds of the championship. I enjoy driving in the dunes a lot. As I didn’t do many kilometres in the dunes on the Dakar, I hope to do much more in Abu Dhabi and get a better result.”

ABU DHABI DESERT CHALLENGE 2025: THE BIG NUMBER
1,920: Including the Prologue, the 2025 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge covers a total distance of 1,920 kilometres.