Forty-six-year-old Loprais, in his 19th participation in the famous rally, made it to the imaginary podium for the fourth time overall and the third time in a row
However, the nephew of the six-time winner Karel Lopraise is still waiting for the triumph. Aleš Loprais was third last year, second the year before.
In the final stage, the participants of the famous competition completed a speed test with a total length of 105 km, followed by a ceremonial finish.
Among the trucks, the fastest was Kay Huzink from the Netherlands, who started from the back positions and eventually managed to beat compatriot Mitchel van den Brink. He ended up third overall. Loprais was third in the last stage, Macík fourth. Martin Šoltys was deprived of a place among the three fastest by a half-minute penalty
Attíja caught up with Karel Loprais in the number of triumphs
Násir Attíja won the Dakar in the car category for the sixth time, but for the first time in history with Dacia. Martin Prokop was twenty-third in the main Ultimate category.
Qatar’s Attíja started today with a lead of 15 minutes over the second Spaniard, Nani Roma, and safely controlled the victory. The fifty-five-year-old Attíja followed up on the wins from 2011, 2015, 2019, 2022, 2023, thus matching Karel Loprais in the historic taqbulka.
He succeeded with the fourth mark and secured Dacia’s first triumph in history.
He was almost nine minutes behind the fastest Mattias Ekström today, and finally beat Roma by less than ten minutes. Ekström finished third overall, when he managed a fight with the star Frenchman Sébastien Loeb, who eventually finished by 37 seconds.
Prokop said goodbye to the rally with the eighth stage time. “It certainly didn’t turn out the way we wanted. But we are at the finish line and we certainly did not embarrass ourselves. Dakar had the right balls and was difficult for everyone,” said Prokop on social networks.
Team rider Orlen Jipocar made it three times among the top three, but an accident and subsequent technical problems in the 9th stage eliminated him from the top ten.
“The guys in the team took care of us and the car perfectly, and the only one who messed it up is the crew. This time it’s my fault, which I’m sorry for. There’s nothing you can do about it, you can’t undo it and we didn’t do it on purpose,” added Prokop.
“We are healthy at the finish line and the partial results showed that it was not so bad,” navigator Viktor Chytka added.
The motorbikes decided in just two seconds
The motorcycle category had the most dramatic ending. Luciano Benavides was happy with the victory, after he overtook the American Ricky Brabec in the last stage.
The factory KTM rider ended up winning by just two seconds, following brother Kevin’s two triumphs. The best of the trio of Czechs who reached the finish line of the 48th edition was Milan Engel, who finished 20th.
Brabec, who won the legendary competition twice, entered the final stage with a lead of 3:20 minutes over Benavides and was expected to hold the lead.
However, the Honda factory rider made a navigation error in the end, and the Argentine was happy with the overall triumph. The difference of two seconds is the smallest in history. The stage was won by the Spaniard Edgar Canet.
Engel clocked the 21st time today, 6:52 minutes behind Canet, and he failed to attack the 19th overall Spaniard Josep Pedro.
Before today he was losing 20 seconds to him, in the end they were separated by 58 seconds. In his twelfth Dakar participation, Engel broke into the top 20 for the third time, his highest being 15th place from 2019.
“Emotions were great. I was happy that I reached the finish line, on (motorcycle) Kove. Not many people believed in it, but we did it. We believed in it from the beginning. The bike worked perfectly, I had a good feeling about it,” said Engel and was satisfied with the overall result.
“I’m especially glad that I finished in good health, because there were a lot of falls and crashes on the track,” he said.
Ondřej Klymčiw took second place in the accompanying Classic category, in which historic vehicles start and the rules of the competition are similar to regularity driving.
The former motorcyclist, who finished eleventh at the Dakar in 2017 and had a serious accident a year later, took care of the best Czech result in history. The classics raced for the sixth time this year.
“We are at the finish line, we managed to make it there. I thank everyone for their support, even though it is no longer a Škoda, which would be nice if it was standing here. In the end, we were safe,” said Klymčiw, who in the past started in the competition with a Škoda 130 LR.
This year he replaced it with a Mitsubishi Pajero. Its launch again had a charitable undertone, this time supported by the Pink Bubble Foundation.
Dakar Rally – final 13th stage: Janbú – Janbú (138 km overall/105 km special stage):
Cars (Ultimate Category): 1. Extrial, Bergkvist (Streat./Ford) 46:14, 2. Loeb, Boulanger (Fr./Dacia) -8, 3. Lategan, Cummings (JAR/Toyota) -13, …8. Prokop, Chytka (CZ/Ford) -1:18, 29. He messed up, Sýkora (CZ, SR/Ford) -6:47, 35. Thorny, Pritzl (CZ/Ford) -8:38.
Final ranking: 1. Attíja, Lurquin (Cat., Belg./Dacia) 48:56:53, 2. Roma, Haro (Sp./Ford) -9:42, 3. Ekström, Bergkvist -14:33, …23. Prokop, Chytka -4:23:34, 38. Thorny, Pritzl -11:54:47, 39. He messed up, Sýkora -12:00:06.
Motorcycles: 1. Canet (Sp./KTM) 49:03, 2. L. Benavides (Arg./KTM) -6, 3. Schareina (Sp./Honda) -47, …19. Drdaj (ČR/KTM) -6:16, 21. Engel (CZ/Kove) -6:52, 51. Pabiška (CZ/KTM) -17:39.
Final ranking: 1. L. Benavides 49:00:41, 2. Brabec (USA/Honda) -2, 3. Schareina -25:12, …20. Engel -7:03:41, 36. Pabiška -13:28:19, 40. Drdaj -15:31:56.
Rally 2 (riders with stock bikes): 1. Mulec (Slovenia/KTM) 51:57:59, …10. Engel -4:06:23.
Original by Motul (riders without assistance): 1. Melon (Fr./KTM) 55:48:52, …7. Pabiška -6:40:08.
SSV (buggy) – final ranking: 1. Heger, Eddy (USA/Polaris) 55:11:56.
Challenger (buggy) – final ranking: 1. Navarro, Rosa (Sp./Taurus) 54:46:21.
Stock – final standings: 1. Baciuška, Vidal (Lat., Sp./Defender) 58:09:45.
Trucks: 1. K. Huzink, Buursen, Schoneveld (Niz./Renault) 54:41, 2. Mitchel van den Brink, Van Heun, Van de Pol (Niz./MM Technology Iveco) -1:14, 3. Loprais, Křípal, Stross (CZ/Iveco) -1:27, 4. Macík, Tomášek, Švanda (CZ/MM Technology Iveco) -1:35, 5. Šoltys, Šikola, Miksch (ČR/Buggyra) -1:51, …7. Valtr, Kvasnica, Chaplain (CZ/Iveco) -2:46, 9. Last, Skrobánek, Schweiner (CZ/Tatra) -4:00.
Final ranking: 1. Žala, Fiuza, Van Grol (Lit., Port., Niz./Iveco) 56:58:38, 2. Loprais, Křípal, Stross -20:18, 3. Mitchel van den Brink, Van Heun, Van de Pol -29:03, 4. Macík, Tomášek, Švanda -4:36:06, …6. Valtr, Kvasnica, Chaplain -6:18:19.
Classic (final order): 1. Raisys, Marques (Lit., Fr./Land Rover) 735 penalty. points, 2. Klymčiw, Josef Brož (ČR/Mitsubishi Pajero) 1003, …36. Trace, Dočkal, Burner (CR/Tatra 815) 6462, 61. Vanova, Vanya (CZ/Toyota 4Runner) 17,932, 85. Cheers, Nettle (CR/Mitsubishi Pajero) 40,727.
