Defending car champion Yazeed Al-Rajhi faces an uphill battle at the 2026 Dakar Rally after a troubled opening stage, in which he lost significant time and incurred a heavy penalty.
Shortly after his Dakar victory in 2025, Al-Rajhi and navigator Timo Gottschalk suffered injuries that forced them to miss several rounds of the World Rally-Raid Championship. The Saudi driver and his German co-driver were only able to contest a handful of - admittedly unremarkable - warm-up events late in the year before starting their title defence this weekend.
