The 2020 Dakar Rally will be held in Saudi Arabia for the first time

The Dakar starts on January 5, 2020 with a mammoth 752 km stage from Jeddah to Al Wajh thanks to special stages. In 12 stages, the participants will cross 7,500 km of desert sand, scree, parched savannah and stony trails to arrive in Qiddia on January 17, 2020. In addition to legendary drivers like Stéphane Peterhansel, rookies like ex-Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso will also be among the drivers. You can never talk about favorites in such a demanding race, the dangers and the demands on man and machine are too unpredictable. But it's clear that successful drivers like Nasser Al-Attiyah, Stéphane Peterhansel or Matthis Walkner and Sam Sunderland have their sights set on the motorcycles.

Despite a strong drive on the 1st stage, in which Nasser Al-Attiyah was well in the running for a long time, he had to settle for 5th stage place in the end. Veteran Peterhansel moved up to second place and rookie Fernando Alonso, whose ambition is well known from Formula 1 racing, made it to a respectable 15th place.On the bikes, the guys from Red Bull can clap their hands as they entered with three riders at once, Australian Toby Price, Austrian Matthias Walkner and Englishman Sam Sunderland, who were able to place among the top 5. This does not mean too much for now, the race is still long and goes on 6,01,2020 already on its 2nd stage over 393 km from Al Wajh to Neom.