The Dacia Sandriders crew with number 299 consisting of Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin, during the Dakar rally Photo: Profimedia
Dacia Sandriders won the 2026 Dakar Rally with the crew of Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin. It is the second participation in the Dakar Rally for the manufacturer from Romania, a participation that ended with a victory. Thus, during the competition, the Dacia cars, driven by Nasser al-Attiyah, Sebastien Loeb, Cristina Gutierrez and Lucas Moraes, were well placed, writes GOLAZO.ro, the sports site of HotNews.
The number 299 crew of Qatari driver Nasser Al Attiyah and his Belgian co-driver Fabian Lurquin of Dacia Sandriders finished first after the 13 stages of the rally with a total time of 48 hours, 56 minutes and 53 seconds.
Before this year's victory with Dacia, Al-Attiyah had already achieved five victories at the Dakar:
- in 2011 with Volkswagen Motorsport (at the wheel of a Volkswagen Touareg)
- in 2015 with the Qatar Raid Team (at the wheel of a MINI All4 Racing)
- in 2019, 2022 and 2023 with Toyota Gazoo Racing (at the wheel of a Toyota Hilux)
The second best result of the Dacia Sandriders team in the competition that took place between January 3 and 17 belongs to the crew formed by Sébastien Loeb – Edouard Boulanger, fourth place.
In addition, the other two Dacia teams – Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz / Cristina Gutierrez and Pablo Moreno – finished in 7th and 11th place, respectively.
The Dacia Sandriders team participated for the second time in the Dakar Rally, a competition organized for the first time in 1978, which is considered the toughest in the world.
Last year, the best-placed driver at the end of the Dakar rally was the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah. However, he then finished in fourth place.
GOLAZO.ro, the sports website of HotNews, was the only publication from Romania invited to Saudi Arabia, where it visited the stand of The Dacia Sandriders team before the start of the competition.
