Overdrive Racing’s Dania Akeel and her French navigator Sebastien Delaunay recovered strongly from a first-stage setback to finish 17th overall in the 13th Baja Greece, round three of the 2026 FIA World Baja Cup.
The Jameel Motorsport-backed Toyota Hilux duo came into the race weekend with five-point leads in their respective Drivers’ and Navigators’ Championships and a similar advantage in the Ultimate category after the opening two rounds in Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
But the Saudi slid off the road on the opening stage on a treacherous mountainous track in the Vitsi area of western Macedonia. She was unable to continue on the day and incurred a fistful of time penalties as a result.
An impressive performance on the first stage on Sunday morning was followed by the third quickest time in stage four and Akeel remains firmly in contention to continue her FIA World Baja Cup title challenge.
Akeel said: “What an interesting weekend for us. Day one did not go according to plan and we had a nice top three finish on day two, so we’re going home with some very valuable World Cup points.
“On stage one, I approached a nice corner but there were a lot of leaves and, when I was slowing down, I locked the wheels and the brakes and slid in very slow motion down off the track into a kind of a small river. I learned a lot, I really did.
“We put all that learning to the test on the second day. I’ll try to come back next year and have two very good, very fast stages!”
Action got underway with a short Prologue of 6.17km on Friday afternoon to determine the start order for the first of two passes through a 162.95km stage through the mountainous Vitsi area on Saturday. Akeel stopped the clocks in 4min 04.1sec and that put the Saudi in sixth position.
Akeel started the first stage from fifth on the road but she slid off the track on a slippery corner and was unable to continue. The regulations dictate that she could not start the second stage in the afternoon and incurred hefty time penalties as a result and slipped to 19th overall.
But the Saudi was able to restart on Sunday and tackled two passes through a Kranionas special of 108.98km. She was fifth quickest and second in the Ultimate section through the opener and finished strongly with the third fastest time on the re-run of the special.
The FIA World Baja Cup continues with the Italian Baja on June 25th-28th.
2026 Baja Greece – result:
1. Mitchel van den Brink (NED)/Bart Heun (NED) Can-Am Maverick R 8hr 01min 51.9sec*
2. Mansour Al-Helai (UAE)/Khalid Al-Kendi (UAE) Can-Am Maverick R 8hr 24min 01.2sec*
3. Hedda Hosas (NOR)/Pol Tibau (ESP) Can-Am Maverick R 8hr 32min 07.3sec*
4. Karel Trnený (CZE)/Václav Pritzl (CZE) Ford F-150 Evo 8hr 34min 43.2sec+
5. Murat Kapanoglu (BGR)/Aleksandr Trendafilov (BGR) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR 8hr 41min 38.2sec+
6. Lionel Baud (FRA)/Lucie Baud (FRA) X-Raid Mini JCW 3.0d 8hr 42min 14.4sec*
7. Magdalena Zajac (POL)/Blazej Czekan (POL) Toyota Hilux 8hr 44min 13.2sec+
8. Costel Casuneanu (ROU)/Sergiu Itu (ROU) Mini R60 CC 8hr 49min 41.1sec+
9. Yagiz Birinci (TUR)/Ugur Tepe (TUR) Can-Am Maverick R 8hr 54min 01.5sec
10. Khalid Al-Jafla (UAE)/Andrei Rudnitskiy (LTU) Toyota Hilux Evo 9hr 02min 40.3sec*
17. Dania Akeel (KSA)/Sebastian Delaunay (FRA) Toyota Hilux Evo 15hr 34min 24.4sec*
*denotes registered for FIA World Baja Cup
+denotes registered for FIA European Baja Cup
