Argentine couple Nicolás Cavigliasso and Valentina Pertegarini won the 2025 Dakar Rally in the Challenger class on Friday. With Cavigliasso driving and Pertegarini as navigator aboard a Taurus T3 Max racecar, the couple lifted their first ever title together, and the second for Cavigliasso.

The duo arrived as one of the main candidates at the beginning of the race, having finished as driver’s runner-up and navigator world champion respectively in the 2024 Rally Raid World Championship. The Challenger class, where they’ve been competing since 2024 is where UTV prototypes and sand vehicles compete.

Cavigliasso and Pertegarini, both from General Cabrera, Córdoba, took an early lead, winning three out of the four first stages. In the first week they built a 29-minute lead over main rival Gonçalo Guerreiro. Despite never finishing in the podium again, they were able to maintain their lead and crowned the win on the last stage.

It’s the 11th title for an Argentine in the historic rallying competition that took place in the country between 2009 and 2019. Marcos Patronelli won the Quads title in 2010, ‘13 and ‘16, while his brother Alejandro lifted the trophy in 2011 and ‘12. Manuel Andujar, also in Quads, won in 2021 and ‘24, while Kevin Benavides achieved two titles in Bikes, in 2021 and ‘23.

It’s also the second Dakar crown for Cavigliaso, who won the Quads title in 2019.

“This is the result of a whole year’s work,” Cavigliasso told Argentine media outlet InfoBae. “We really went for it this year, sacrificing a lot, but I think we arrived much better physically and mentally.”

“Since we started racing the World Championship with Nico, we wanted to win it,” Pertegarini told the Herald in October, after winning the navigators world title. “There was no other option for us. To be able to achieve what you set out to do is an incredible feeling.”