4-time Dakar Rally winner Carlos Sainz will sit out the second spherical of the 2025 World Rally-Raid Championship in Abu Dhabi as M-Sport Ford carries out its first deliberate crew rotation of its maiden rally raid marketing campaign.
M-Sport has 4 contracted crews, all of whom contested January’s Dakar, and can alternate its lineups between two of its Ford Raptors for the rest of the W2RC season.
Dakar podium finisher Mattias Ekström and co-driver Emil Bergkvist will take the beginning of the thirty fourth version of the Abu Dhabi Desert Problem, as will Mitch Guthrie Jr alongside Kellon Walch after their fifth-place end final month.
Sainz and team-mate Nani Roma – who gained the occasion again in 2013 – have spearheaded the event of the Raptor since its launch final 12 months however endured a troublesome Dakar; Sainz was pressured out of the occasion after a heavy crash whereas Roma suffered an engine failure within the first week.
The Abu Dhabi Desert Problem kicks off on Saturday with a Prologue across the rally headquarters of Al Ain earlier than the five-day occasion begins in earnest on Sunday. For the primary time within the rally’s historical past, a marathon stage will characteristic on the itinerary, mirroring the format used within the Dakar Rally whereby crews must spend an evening at a distant bivouac with out outdoors mechanical help.
Over 600 miles of particular stage might be lined and should show to be a turning level within the wider W2RC title race with a number of frontrunners from the Dakar registered for the total season on the entry checklist.
