DirtFish has watched the organizers' onboards for next week's finale to reveal what can be expected
Words by DirtFish Staff
The World Rally Championship is poised for one of its biggest ever unknowns next week.
A brand-new event to the calendar always provides intrigue, but Rally Saudi Arabia is so unique that nobody truly knows what they are in for at the 14th and final round of the year.
DirtFish can help with that.
As the world championship fight goes down to the wire between Elfyn Evans, Sébastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä, we’ve had a look at all the different stages to deliver you an exclusive flavor of what’s in store in Saudi Arabia.
Take a deep breath, Taka… this is the sort of stage Katsuta-san has been having nightmares about. For 3.24 miles, or 5,220 meters, the road is lined by water-filled plastic barriers – the same sort which ended the Japanese driver’s dreams of a home win last time out.
On the face of it, it’s a car park next to the service park, not far from the airport and across King Abudulaziz Street from the German Consulate. But on Wednesday (and Thursday) night it will be transformed into a spectacular almost all-asphalt stage. The gravel comes on the jump which sits halfway through the test. For the drivers, it’s going to feel fairly monotonous with corner after corner in a tunnel of plastic barriers – but it’s going to have the crowds on their feet from the get-go.
Real mixture of sand, made and re-made roads running in between the pylons – and really quick for large sections. After an initial dash, there are a series of junctions which slow progress. During the recce it will be hard to find definition, but once the roads are taped and marked for the event, that won’t be an issue.
At times in the first half, you could almost imagine the dunes lining the roads were snowbanks – but it’s almost certain there will be some rocks hiding in the sand. The second half runs through a boulder field, where the rocks are really not to be messed with. Again, there’s a slower, more technical section towards the finish – not junctions, just tighter corners. In places, quite rough and some fairly soft sand. A few jumps will doubtless give the cars some day one desert air time.
Safest bet for co-drivers at the start of this stage is to issue one, stage-long DON’T CUT! The only approach to this one is the middle of the road – there’s so much jeopardy sitting in wait on either side. Some of the rocks are just enormous.
It’ll be tricky to find a rhythm, certainly in the first section, but the surface in here looks to be good gravel, nice and smooth and with what looks to be fairly uniform decent grip. If it doesn’t rain (which it’s fairly unlikely to) it’s highly likely this one will clean a fair bit. Certainly the first half is going to be hard on the tires, it’s corner-corner-corner all the time, so managing those Hankooks will be a significant Thursday task.
The second half of the stage is generally a bit quicker, with the occasional flat-out section for a few hundred meters as the road heads towards the mountains. Interesting technical section through what looked to be a camel farm towards the finish. Is it like driving on the moon? Yes, the universal rock floor for the first half definitely gives it a lunar feel.
If the moon had mountains, it would look quite like this. After Thursday’s first two stages have run fairly well through a desert-like vista, Khulays definitely takes the crews to the hills. Elevation approaches 400 meters, but doesn’t really go north of that – so not sure we can call them mountains. But what this one does bring is significant elevation change and lots and lots of undulation.
From the get-go, the feeling is very different. It’s almost like starting out of a quarry, but then you pop out and the hills roll away before you. The road is quick in places, but narrow and really technical at times. The surface is a finer gravel than in the Moon Stage, but it will clean a lot and some of the downhill braking sections are going to put the tires and brakes, given the ambient temps expected, to the test.
There’s more of a rhythm in here than in the previous two stages, but it’s not an easy road for the eye to follow. There are generally less big rocks at the side of the road, but there are some fairly significant drops, most of which have shiny new Armco lining them.
Saturday’s action begins with considerably the day’s shortest stage, but Alghullah still packs a punch.
Starting on the desert floor, the stage is quite open before climbing up to a narrower section with big rocks either side of the road. Suddenly, the road drops down and into a sequence of tight, rock-strewn hairpin bends before opening back out on flatter ground.
Small kinks and tight 90-degree turns will keep the drivers and co-drivers busy throughout the test, with tracks on the surface tempting to follow. A big straight where high speeds can be achieved gives way to a large mud hole that signals the final challenge: a rocky incline.
Precision will be required as the stage snakes through the stones before a sharp decline to finish.
Saturday’s longest stage, and the second-longest of the entire rally, Um Al Jerem starts downhill between the rocks as the narrow track weaves its way down to more open, flatter ground with plenty of vegetation lining the route.
There’s a fast, flowing nature to the stage, particularly in the first half with a hard-packed gravel base and a couple of crests drivers must judge correctly, with corners immediately after them.
The road surface gradually softens but the stage retains its character before a tight hairpin right, followed by a square right, marks a shift to more desert-style terrain. Speed remains relatively high though, before the stage gains elevation and gets narrower.
The final third is fast with nothing but the odd electricity pylon on the horizon – drivers will be begging for a sixth gear! Undulating to the end, the stage weaves down to the desert floor for the flying finish.
A stage of two halves with completely contrasting tempo.
Drivers have little more than a car’s width to play with throughout the entire test, but the stage starts out fast with plenty of long straights and medium-speed corners – although beware of a brief switch to a bumpy surface.
Even when the road begins to climb, the natural flow is retained with one brief respite down a wide section offering a chance to breathe. But this is also when the stage shifts character.
The final eight miles are incredibly tight and rocky with several treacherous crests, acute hairpins and jaggy rocks waiting to snag rally cars. Patience will be rewarded on this stage, as will accuracy with both pacenotes and positioning of the car.
The rally-ending, season-ending powerstage is a reasonably twisty affair. There’s plenty of right-angled corners to start with and lots of loose gravel on the top to be swept away, which could make Super Saturday tricky for anyone who landed in strife earlier in the rally and desperately needs to put a final few points on the board.
There’s a brief section with massive piles of rocks towering high that feels El Condor-like, albeit with a smoother road than those found in Argentina. After a quick transition on asphalt (it’s onto a very slow and twisty section) there’s a long blast down a very long straight and then into a rare bit of flowing medium-speed turns which blend together nicely, with a couple of jumps peppered in.
Once it gets narrower and slower again the risk increases, the road cutting through vast fields of large rocks – a feature that’s likely to become a trademark of this new event with the frequency it features. After a quick blast of speed dipping down the side of a hill and rising up to the top of the next and more driving through fields of rock, the stage ends in what feels like a quarry, the road double-backing on itself in a bowl-shaped arena.
Saudi Arabia’s longest stage couldn’t be more different from Saturday’s other test. Most of the mileage is on wide open plains with a sandy base, at times with little to demarcate road from off-road.
The beginning is a very fast sequence of corners with what appears plenty of room to go off-line – but there’s some little lips at the edge of the road and tracks merge that split, risking rollover if hit at the wrong angle.
A short run through one of the twisty and rocky sections is followed by Saudi’s answer to the Mulsanne Straight in Le Mans: a four-kilometer straight punctuated by a couple of brief medium-speed sections. There’s a brief section where it narrows in between hillsides and there’s banks on the outside to hit – and once back in the plains again, newly-built gravel tracks where the roadway is more defined.
The final part feels much different from the rest: the road transitions onto a hard gravel base that’s quite bumpy, rising up the hillside to the finish.
Tags: Rally Saudi Arabia, Rally Saudi Arabia 2025, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date November 20, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/11/LHmWqsar-Juho-Hanninen-2-780x520.jpg November 20, 2025
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