Dania Akeel completes toughest Saudi Dakar in ninth place in the W2RC T3 standings 17.01.2023: Dania Akeel finished the most challenging of the four Dakar rallies to be staged in Saudi Arabia thus far, steering her Maverick X3 to 28th in the T3 category and ninth in the W2RC T3 classification at the finish in Dammam on Sunday. Driving a lig

Dania Akeel finished the most challenging of the four Dakar rallies to be staged in Saudi Arabia thus far, steering her Maverick X3 to 28th in the T3 category and ninth in the W2RC T3 classification at the finish in Dammam on Sunday.
 


Driving a lightweight prototype four-wheel drive machine, Akeel and her Uruguayan co-driver Sergio Lafuente showed a remarkable run of consistency in the second half of the event, following a lengthy time penalty following an accident in the first week, which has seen the Saudi driver become a regular front-runner on the world stage in a short space of time.  
 


This year’s Dakar was the longest and most difficult since the event left South America in 2020 and included several demanding special stages in a route that started with a short Prologue near Yanbu on New Year’s Eve and headed across the breadth of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, before venturing into the vast Empty Quarter in the south-east of the country for the first time.
 


Dania Akeel said: “I am so happy to have finished the Dakar again. This was the toughest of the four races that have been held in Saudi Arabia and I learned so much from this amazing experience. I thank my co-driver Sergio for his hard work and support over the last two weeks and all the team for making this finish possible.”
 


After a first week of high drama after New Year and a day of car rebuilds, media interviews and rest for the competitors in Riyadh on January 9th, action got underway again last Tuesday with a varied ninth stage of 359km between the Saudi capital and the town of Haradh. This included passages over flooded ground and a treacherous river crossing that had been made worse by recent heavy rain.
 


Akeel began the final week with great vigour and was running amongst the frontrunners in T3, before reaching the finish in a fine seventh overall – her best stage result of this year’s Dakar. The performance on a stage where there was a lot of standing flood water and boggy sections maintained the Saudi’s position in the rankings.
 


The 10th stage of 114km between Haradh and the oil production hub of Shaybah took competitors close to the vast Empty Quarter for the first time. The remote settlement that housed the bivouac was located 40km from the northern edge of the Rub Al-Khali and 10km from the border with neighbouring Abu Dhabi.
 


Akeel lost time on the short and tricky special stage with technical issues and as a result earned the 35th quickest time.
 


Stage 11 was the first part of a two-day Marathon epic without service assistance that looped through the towering dunes of the Empty Quarter for 275km close to the UAE frontier and finished in close proximity to the border with the Sultanate of Oman.
 



The second part of the Marathon stage was the 185km return loop through the dunes and chotts close to the Oman frontier and a liaison section back to Shaybah.
 


She then completed the penultimate 153km stage south of Shaybah in 15th and that preceded a 511km road liaison to the final overnight halt in Al-Hofuf. This enabled the Saudi to start the last stage to Dammam from 28th overall and ninth in the T3 W2RC rankings.




The final test of 138km ran close to the Arabian Gulf after a liaison of 167km from Al-Hofuf. A second link section of 100km then guided teams to the finish in Dammam. There were no late dramas for Dania and she safely drove through the mud and sand to reach the finish in Dammam in 28th overall and ninth of the registered W2RC T3 crews.




Dania has a multi-year title sponsorship partnership with ALJ Toyota and is receiving additional support from Tamer, Hertz, Toyota Motor Oil, BF Goodrich and Femi9 for her challenge for honours in 2023.
 




45th Dakar Rally – FIA T3 standings:



1.    Austin Jones (USA)/Gustavo Gugelmin (BRA) Can-Am Maverick X3    51hr 55min 53sec*
2.    Seth Quintero (USA)/Dennis Zenz (DEU) Can-Am Maverick X3    52hr 47min 58sec*
3.    Guillaume de Mevius (BEL)/François Cazalet (FRA) GRallyteam OT3    53hr 31min 35sec
4.    Cristina Gutiérrez (ESP)/Pablo Moreno Huete (ESP) Can-Am Maverick X3    54hr 52min 13sec*
5.    Francisco Lopez (CHL)/Oriol Mena (ESP) Can-Am Maverick X3    54hr 55min 41sec*
6.    Saleh Al-Saif (SAU)/João Pedro Ré (PRT) Can-Am Maverick X3    56hr 10min 01sec
7.    Ebenhaezer Basson (ZAF)/Bertus Leander Pienaar (ZAF) GRallyteam OT3    56hr 49min 59sec
8.    Hans Weijs (NLD)/Rudolf Meijer (NLD) Arcane T3    58hr 08min 58sec
9.    Santiago Navarro (ESP)/Adrien Metge (FRA) Can-Am Maverick X3    58hr 30min 40sec
10.    Ignacio Casale (CHL)/Alvaro Leon (CHL) Yamaha YXZ 1000 R    58hr 49min 20sec
28.    Dania Akeel (SAU)/Sergio Lafuente (URY) Can-Am Maverick X3    87hr 39min 22sec*



* denotes registered for the W2RC



Simon Melluish - photos ASO