Defending champion Carlos Sainz is nearly an hour off the pace in the Dakar Rally after his car flipped in the Saudi Arabia dunes.

About 327 kilometers into the 2025 Dakar rally, defending champion Carlos Sainz rolled his shiny new Ford Raptor down a dune on stage 2. While he and co-driver Lucas Cruz were able to get righted again,

His Ford Raptor was in no fit state to continue after being flipped on its head the day before. Read more at straitstimes.com.

(Reuters) -Nine-times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb is out of the Dakar Rally after he rolled his Dacia in the Saudi desert on Tuesday as the race continued to take a toll of the big names after the exit of 2024 winner Carlos Sainz.

Carlos Sainz's defence of his Dakar Rally title ended prematurely on Monday when the Spaniard was forced to pull out after the marathon 48-hour stage won by Lithuanian driver Rokas Baciuska."It's the end of the adventure for four-time Dakar winner and defending champion Carlos Sainz and his co-driver Lucas Cruz.

Saudi driver Yazeed Al Rajhi held on to his overnight lead to win the second stage of the Dakar 2025 rally on Monday, the fearsome '48-hour Chrono' while defending champion Carlos Sainz limped in 1h 30min behind.

Carlos Sainz's Dakar Rally ended on Monday after the defending champion's damaged Ford Raptor was ruled out after just two stages of the gruelling two-week race in the Saudi Arabian desert. The 62-year-old Spaniard,

Yazeed Al-Rajhi came out on top in the 48-hour chrono stage at the Dakar Rally as Henk Lategan took the overall lead. Toyota privateer Al-Rajhi finished with a time of 10h32m54s, 4m29s up on Dacia's Nasser Al-Attiyah after the duo pulled clear on the first day of the mammoth stage.