RALLY DAKAR 2019

Historical victory of Nasser al-Attiyah

First, Le Mans, now the Dakar. After several disappointments in recent years in the competitions where it is officially involved, Toyota has been reconciled with the story. After winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2018, for the first time, now the triumph in the Dakar. Never in 40 editions of the race, the Japanese had seen a car of their in the highest place of the podium, but that ends today.
As for Nasser Al-Attiyah, the Qatar rider secured his third Dakar win. The first took place with the VW Race Touareg in 2011, the second with the Mini All4 Racing in 2015, the third now with Toyota. Three wins, with three different cars.
The last stage was won by Carlos Sainz, who beat Sébastien Loeb for 42 seconds, with Cyril Després finishing on the podium of the stage. Nasser al Attiyah or the top 10 of the stage stayed, but arrived and left to reach his third Dakar win, finishing 46m42s ahead of Nani Roma, with Sébastien Loeb finishing on the podium, almost two hours behind the winner.
Great news for the Portuguese colors, with Filipe Palmeiro and Boris Garafulic finishing eighth overall, the long-awaited top 10 they have long sought, and that they achieve this year.
Jakub Przygonski was fourth at 2h28m31s of the winner, with Cyril Despres in charge for fifth place, after a troubled Dakar, which started early in the race.
Martin Prokop also had a bad start, with a 44th place, but from then onwards he always went up. They reached the top 10 in step 5 but continued their rise, finishing sixth.
Yazeed Al Rajhi finished seventh, after much promise in the first week of the race, but everything collapsed when he fell from second in step 3 to 10th in step 5. All because of being lost twice. After that, the delay was enormous, he recovered positions, like several others, at the cost of abandonments. Step 10: Toby Price wins and extends KTM's victorious legacy
And the 41st edition of the Dakar, played this year in Peru, has finally come to an end. After 10 intense days of competition and considerable uncertainty as to the final winner is found the rider who will today sing victory in the podium of Lima.
We are talking about Toby Price, who for the second time in his career won the race after his debut in 2016. The Australian made a very regular race and no mistakes of relief to win the sand that marked the course of the exercise organized by Amaury Sport Organization. A very tasty victory, as Price did all the hurting of his right wrist, in an injury that contracted a month before the start of the event. And to close with a golden key, the 'Aussie' won today's draw, having imprinted a devilish rhythm even though he knew that he only had to meet schedule, after what happened to Pabo Quintanilla.
A result that also allowed KTM to increase its legend in the Dakar, as it obtained its 18th consecutive victory in the event, in what is already one of the most brilliant victorious sequences in the history of the sport. And in addition he added a double, which certainly would not be in the main plans of those responsible for Mattighofen to this day.
On a day that was expected to be very tight, the first two overall were separated by 1m02s, everything was decided at kilometer 10 of today's 112 times. There Pablo Quintanilla, second of the general, did not avoid a fall and delivered the 'gold' not to the bandit, but to Toby Price. In the air was also the second place in exchange with Matthias Walkner, the winner of the race in 2018. A punishment too heavy for the Chilean, but the Dakar is nonetheless.
Other highlights include the fourth and fifth places of Andrew Short and Xavier de Soultrait, riders who achieved their best performances on the Dakar. Soultrait even ended up being the best Yamaha rider in competition, after yesterday Adrien Van Beveren left with a broken engine in his Yamaha.
As for the Honda, after the reason that had with the departures of Joan Barreda Bort, Paulo Gonçalves, Ricky Brabec and to which the penalization of Kevin Benavides was added had in Jose Ignacio Cornejo the survivor. The Chilean rider, who still dreamed of victory in today's stage, was seventh in a race that will certainly give a lot of thought to the Japanese officials.
Luciano Benavides and Sam Sunderland followed, allowing KTM to put four of their six official drivers in the top 10. Oriol Mena, the best Hero, and Daniel Nosiglia from Bolivia completed the top ten. Alexandre Melo /José Luis Abreu, direto de Portugal