Epic new Dakar Rally route announced for 2024

The 46th edition of the Dakar Rally and the fifth held in Saudi Arabia will present competitors with a new route in 2024 for the January 5-19 event.

Kicking off the five round FIM-FIA World Rally Raid Championship, competitors will again face a day of prologue, and 12 stages across the 14 gruelling days.

The 12 stages will encompass 7,974 km traversing the Kingdom’s many terrains with a huge 60% of the course covering all new ground.

Also included is an all new stage called the 48-Hours Chrono Stage where competitors will take on the vast Empty Quarter over two days with Marathon stage restrictions.

Drivers and crews will be spread out over eight separate bivouacs, and are only permitted to assist each other with repairs and assistance in the evening.

When the clock strikes four on both evenings, riders and drivers will be forced to stop at the closest bivouac, meaning there’s no connection and visibility of opponents across the stage, with the restart coming at 7am the next morning to complete the remainder of the route, with 600 km of special times stage to counted within that time.

Also, within the two day Empty Quarter course, the cars and bikes will operate on completely different routes, meaning competitors can’t follow each other’s track , adding in a tough element to the already difficult challenge of navigation.

The rally will begin with the Prologue on January 5th in the historical AlUla area – a UNESCO World Heritage site – with 5000 km of Special Timed stages to follow, criss-crossing from east to west via Al Henakiyah, Al Duwadimi, Al Salamiya, and Al-Hofuf.

Rally legend Sebastien Loeb crossing the vast Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia. Image/main Image: Red Bull Content Pool

After crossing those areas and entering the eastern Empty Quarter, competitors move back north to Riyadh for the Rest Day on January 13th.

The rally resumes on January 14th, making its way its way further north to Hail, then back to AlUla, ending 14 days of the toughest racing on planet earth on the shores of the stunning Red Sea in the City of Yanbu.

This year’s Dakar Rally in January was the closest in History, as legendary Aussie KTM rider Toby Price fell agonisingly short of a third Dakar win, 43 seconds short of Argentine Kevin Benavides in a remarkable finish that’s unlikely to ever again be replicated.

DAKAR SAUDI ARABIA 2024 ROUTE OVERVIEW

Prologue (Fri 5th Jan): Al-Ula – Al-Ula (157 km)

Stage 1 (Sat 6 th Jan): Al-Ula – Al Henakiyah (532 km)

Stage 2 (Sun 7 th Jan): Al Henakiyah – Al Duwadimi (662 km)

Stage 3 (Mon 8 th Jan): Al Duwadimi – Al Salamiya (733 km)

Stage 4 (Tues 9 th Jan): Al Salamiya – Al Hofuf (631 km)

Stage 5 (Wed 10 th Jan): Al Hofuf – Shubaytah (727 km)

Stage 6 (Thu 11 th  Jan): Shubaytah – Shubaytah (818 km)

REST DAY (Sat 13 th Jan): Riyadh

Stage 7 (Sun 14 th Jan): Riyadh – Al Duwadimi (873 km)

Stage 8 (Mon 15th Jan): Al Duwadimi – Ha’il (678 km)

Stage 9 (Tues 16 th Jan): Ha’il – Al-Ula (639 km)

Stage 10 (Wed 17 th Jan): Al-Ula – Al-Ula (609 km)

Stage 11 (Thurs 18 th Jan): Al-Ula – Yanbu (587 km)

Stage 12 (Fri 19 Jan): Yanbu – Yanbu (328 km)

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