Скачать или смотреть AP photographer explains how he covered the famous Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia's desert

(16 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Al-Duwadimi, Saudi Arabia – 12 January 2025
+++OVERLAID WITH STILLS AND CUTAWAYS+++
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Christophe Ena, AP Photographer:
“I take pictures of the drivers during the race in the helicopter from the top or land in a spot we choose before. I use my classic equipment, wide and long lenses and I need to be very careful – the sand is dangerous. It’s often very windy. We have the dust too. Sometimes rain. So I avoid changing lens and clean often.
(Where is my tent? Where is my tent?)
We sleep in our tent at the bivouac, eat together and share the same atmosphere of race. We are in the desert but there is never silence. People arriving, setting up tents, mechanics testing engines. If you don’t like engine noises, it’s not a good place to stay. For more than 45 years, the Dakar rally remains a great adventure for drivers, motorcycle riders, mechanics as well as for followers during the 15 day race.”

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Hail, Saudi Arabia – 11 January 2025
2. STILL Mitchell Guthrie and co-driver Kellon Walch compete during the sixth stage

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Al Duwadimi, Saudi Arabia – 12 January 2025
3. STILL Driver Simon Vitse and co-driver Max Delfino compete during the seventh stage

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Saudi Arabia – 10 January 2025
4. Ena kneeling down to take photo of rider driving past

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Hail, Saudi Arabia – 11 January 2025
5. STILL Driver Toby Price and co-driver Sam Sunderland compete during the sixth stage
6. STILL A rider jumps during the sixth stage of the Dakar Rally between Hail and Al Duwadimi

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saudi Arabia – 10 January 2025
7. Ena filming himself sitting in helicopter with door open and closing eyes as sand whips him in the face
8. Tents ++NIGHT SHOTS++
9. Interior shot of Ena’s tent

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Saudi Arabia – 11 January 2025
10. Various of encampment and rally departure and arrival hub

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Hail, Saudi Arabia – 11 January 2025
11. STILL Dacia driver Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Edouard Boulanger compete during the sixth stage

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Al Duwadimi, Saudi Arabia – 12 January 2025
12. STILL Rider Daniel Sanders competes during the seventh stage of the Dakar Rally

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bisha, Saudi Arabia – 5 January 2025
13. Various STILLS of driver Joao Ferreira and co-driver Filipe Palmeiro, in the on the left, competing during stage one of the Dakar rally




STORYLINE:
The famous Dakar Rally being raced in the deserts of Saudi Arabia is to come to a conclusion on Friday.

AP photographer Christophe Ena has been capturing the off-road motorsport event frame-by-frame.

His images capture the speed, driving skill and spectacular scenery of one of the world's most difficult racing events.

The Dakar Rally began in 1978 as a contest across the Sahara Desert, stretching from the French capital Paris to Dakar, the capital of Senegal in West Africa.

But it hasn't been held in Africa since 2007.

After security concerns forced the 2008 edition to be canceled, the Dakar Rally moved first to South America and then in 2020 to Saudi Arabia.

This year's rally runs nearly 8,000 kilometers (nearly 5,000 miles) across the deserts of the kingdom and finishes Jan. 17 in Shubaytah, in the east of Saudi Arabia.

Henk Lategan and Yazeed Al-Rajhi are dueling for their first Dakar Rally title after swapping the lead a few times.

South Africa's Lategan leads his Saudi rival by 2 1/2 minutes going into the 11th and penultimate stage in the Empty Quarter dunes on Thursday.


AP video and stills by Christophe Ena

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