2024 Dakar Rally

The 2024 Dakar Rally was a rally raid event held in Saudi Arabia. It was the 46th edition of the Dakar Rally, organized by Amaury Sport Organisation, and the 5th time Saudi Arabia has hosted the event.
The event took place between 5 and 19 January 2024. For the third year running, the event was also the first round of the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship.
The outline of the race route was presented on 3 June 2023. This year the route started at Al-'Ula, then across the Empty Quarter, and finished in Yanbu. The race format consisted of a prologue and 12 stages, including a 48-hour marathon stage - dubbed as a '48h chrono stage', which covered over 600km with a midnight halt. The new format marathon stage included time limit for stopping at 4pm, and setting off the next day at 7am. The route featured 60% new tracks compared to the previous edition, comprising 5,000 kilometres of special stages.

Timeline

3 June – 20 October 2023: Registrations
End of November 2023: Press conference
1 December 2023: Scrutineering and vehicle loading in Barcelona
1 January 2024: Offloading vehicles in Yanbu
5 January 2024: Starting podium and the Prologue Stage
6 January 2024: Race start
19 January 2024: Race finish and finish podium

Entry list

On 13 December 2023 ASO announced the list of competitors.

Number of entries

Stage	Bikes	Quads	Cars	Challenger	SSV	Trucks	Total	Classic Cars	Classic Trucks	Total Dakar Classic
Entry list	136	10	73	43	36	47	345	65	15	80
At start line	132	10	73	42	36	47	340	64	14	78
Rest day	113	9	65	38	33	40	298	61	14	75
Finished	96	7	55	28	26	20	232	57	14	71

Competitor list

Note
– The "Dakar Legends" - competitors that participated in 10 or more Dakar events.
– The first time starters - "rookies".
– Competitors that were not able to start the race.
– Competitors participating in "Original by Motul" — limited assistance marathon class.

No.

Driver

Bike

Team

Class

Stages

The 2024 Dakar route was revealed on 20 November 2023, totaling, and consisting of special stages. The race features a new two-day marathon stage, where all participants will need to stop at the nearest bivouac after 4pm. There will be 8 bivouacs setup, with drivers having no contact with their teams, but allowed to work on other vehicles.

Stage results

Challenger (T3)

Notes:

Eryk Goczał and Michał Goczał were disqualified on the rest day following Stage 6 for using an unauthorised carbon clutch. Eryk led the general classification by over an hour at the time, having won the prologue and four of the stages.

Incidents

Stage 1

Near the start of stage 1, French driver Lionel Baud collided with a Russian spectator in a segment far from the race organizers' designated spectator area. The stage was briefly halted for the cars category while the spectator was evacuated to hospital, where he was diagnosed with a broken tibia and fibula from the impact.

Stage 2

Near the end of stage 2, Spanish motorcyclist Carles Falcón suffered a major accident. Race director David Castera indicated that Falcón was initially found by medics with no pulse before being resuscitated and airlifted to hospital in Al-Dawadmi in serious condition. After arriving at hospital, Falcón was found to have a fractured C2 vertebra and to be suffering cerebral edema. Falcón was placed in an induced coma due to the injuries. Isaac Feliu, Falcón's teammate, withdrew from the rally following the accident. Falcón died from his injuries on 15 January. He was 45 years old.