Daniel Sanders wins 2025 World Rally-Raid Championship

Australia’s Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders has won the 2025 World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC). Capping off a year that started with victory at the Dakar Rally, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider also won the W2RC rounds in Abu Dhabi and South Africa. Victory at the W2RC Rally Raid Portugal in September meant Sanders secured the championship with a round in hand.

At the Rally Raid Portugal, Sanders started by winning the prologue, then the first two stages on his factory KTM 450 Rally. Second on stage three, Sanders pushed hard to take victory again on stage four, meaning he would head into the final day’s stage five with an overall advantage of more than three minutes.

While Sanders’s team mate Luciano Benavides won stage five, second for the Aussie on the final day was enough to win the overall by a comfortable three minutes and 40 seconds. The win also gave Sanders an unassailable 44-point lead in the W2RC championship – 113 points to Benavides’s 69 – ahead of the Rallye du Maroc finale on 10-17 October.

“It’s a dream come true to win the world championship,” Sanders said. “You think about it when you’re a kid, no matter what sport you do, but I chose motorbikes, and it worked out really well.

“The race [in Portugal] has gone so well, and the bike has been perfect, so a massive thank you to the team for all the hard work they put in.

“It’s very rare to have this sort of consistency in rally as it’s often so unpredictable. But up to now, we’ve put in a perfect season, and we’ll be aiming to carry that into Morocco.

“It’s still all sinking in, really. I’m happy to get the world championship here in Portugal and hopefully, there’s a lot more to come.”

Andreas Hölzl, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Rally Team Manager, praised Sanders for his dominant season.

“Obviously, I’m really happy for Chucky to be a world champion. He really is a pro athlete – from Dakar onwards, to win every single race and so many stages, it just shows what an amazing job he’s doing.”