DAKAR: BENAVIDES AND PETERHANSEL WIN
Argentinian Kevin Benavides has become the first rider from South America to win Dakar after completing 12 stages and more than 8,000 kilometres through Saudi Arabia.
By RHYS VANDERSYDE
The factory Honda rider bounced back from a nasty crash on Stage 5, in which he broke his nose, to charge through the second week of the rally to take the win.
“It was absolutely crazy. I started third and after fifty kilometres I was in front opening the stage.” said Benavides.
“I feel that everything was complicated, because Ricky started to catch up with me. I started to push a lot, all day, and stayed focused, so I did a good job today.”
“Also, I went at one hundred and ten percent, but now it’s true: I’ve won the Dakar – I’m so, so happy!”
I” did some mistakes, for sure. I think it’s impossible to do a perfect Dakar. The important thing is to always continue, to stay calm and focused day by day and to work hard day by day.”
“On stage 5 I was worried, because I crashed so fast and hit my head and my ankle and felt a lot of pain. On that day I said maybe the Dakar is finished for me. But I continued pushing.”
“Now I still have some pain, but at the moment I am more happy than in pain, so it’s no problem.”
“I think I where I won the race was today, in the last kilometres! You couldn’t think of winning during this Dakar, you had to keep focused. You don’t think, you just concentrate on the action and nothing else, because everything can change in one second.”
“I am really proud to be the first South American winner. My dream was also to make history and now I am the first South American guy to win the Dakar. That is amazing for me.”
“For sure, we did a really good job all throughout the Dakar like team-mates. Nacho had a really bad crash and also Joan, but we did a really good job as a team.”
Last years winner Ricky Brabec made it a 1-2 result for Honda, this first for the brand since 1987, with a solid ride to win the final stage and move up the overall order at the end of the rally.
After charging through the penultimate day, KTM’s Sam Sunderland had the difficult task of leading the field into the stage. The British rider lost time as the first bike out, as well as making a navigational error to miss a waypoint, ultimately dropping down to third overall.
Australian Daniel Sanders ended his debut Dakar campaign in fourth overall. The KTM rider cruised through the final stage to make it to the finish as easily the top rookie in this years field.
American Skyler Howes on the BAS Dakar KTM Racing entry rounded out the top five.
In the car class, it was a dominant performance from X-Raid Mini’s Stephane Peterhansel which saw the Frenchman, known as “Mister Dakar”, maintain the overall lead from Stage 2 to take the win, the 14th of his career.
“It’s still the same emotion for the 14th victory. Like I said, to win the Dakar is always really complicated.” said Peterhansel.
“There are no easy victories on the Dakar. This one from the outside maybe looked easy, but it was not easy every day to manage the small gap over Nasser.”
“There was a lot of pressure on the body. We felt every day that we had everything to lose, so it was complicated to manage, but in the end we did a really good job together with Edouard for his first race in a top car.”
“It was a really incredible job, with good navigation but also he was really calm.”
“For sure, it is one or two more records for me: 14 victories, on three continents and also on the anniversary of my first victory 30 years ago today. It’s a long career in motorsport.”
“Experience and being able to stay calm helped to win, I think, but I don’t know… The difference was probably that Nasser made the first mistake on the prologue.”
“He won the prologue and I think it was his first mistake. He probably lost the Dakar because he wanted to win the prologue. The duo with Edouard is really fantastic, I have to say that. He has all the qualities to be the best co-pilot in rally-raids and he learned really quickly.
“He made no mistakes and he understood everything really quickly as well. We share the same passion because he was a biker in the past. He did the Dakar once on a motorcycle, but he also took part in ten or fifteen Enduro du Touquet races, so he’s really a biker and we have the same spirit a little bit.”
“It’s nice to drive with him. The first victory on the motorcycle is my favourite, because it was the one that I dreamed a lot of and now it’s really a bonus. Winning is always a big emotion, but the first victory was the best one.”
One difficult stage for Toyota’s Nasser Al-Attiyah was all that it took for Peterhansel to build a margin that he was able to maintain all the way to the finish.
Al-Attiyah put in another fightback drive on the final stage but was unable to make significant ground into the overall lead to finish a comfortable second place.
Carlos Sainz (X-Raid Mini) took the final stage win of this years Dakar, rounding out the final place on the podium.
Jakub Przygonski (Orlen Team Overdrive) and Nani Roma (Bahrain Raid Extreme) completed the top five in the car class standings.
BIKES & QUADS
CARS
LIGHTWEIGHT
TRUCKS
Of the starters 63 bikes, 11 quads, 49 cars, 41 lightweight vehicles and 29 trucks made it to the finish of this years gruelling Dakar Rally.
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