2024 Dakar Rally spans 7,891 km

The 2024 Dakar Rally will be the fifth in Saudi Arabia, though sixty percent of the route will proceed through ground not previously visited. The full route was revealed Monday, spanning 7,891 kilometres with 4,727 km in Selective Sections.

The route is shorter than the 8,549 of the 2023 race, though it has more Selective Sections-the actual part of each stage where competitors are timed-than last year’s 4,704. However, the 4,727 km still falls just short of the highest Saudi SS of 4,767 in 2021.

Al-‘Ula will kick off the rally on 5 January with a 27-km loop, serving as its start and finish. The race “formally” begins with Stage #1 heading to Al Hinakiyah followed by Dawadmi the day after.

Marathon rules, which prohibit crews from assisting drivers and bikes, apply in Stages #3 and #4. Both will serve as a warm-up of sorts for the bigger Chrono Stage that will run for forty-eight hours in Stage #6, taking competitors to and from Shubaytah in the easternmost part of the country. Once it is 4 PM on 11 January, teams must report to the nearest rest area, of which six are available, where they camp through the night before resuming the Chrono Stage the next morning. Once they complete the stage, they head to Riyadh for the rest day on 13 January as they did in 2023.

The second half of the rally, a trip westward, commences on the 14th with the longest total stage back to Dawadmi at 873 kilometres. A stop in Ḥa’il is followed by a return to Al-‘Ula. Yanbu will host the twelfth and final stage on 19 January with another loop.

The Stage #1 start date of 6 January is the latest for the Dakar since 2020, intended to give teams time to celebrate the new year. They will head to Barcelona at the end of November for inspection before shipping out to Saudi Arabia.

2024 Dakar Rally route