Paulo Fiúza: First Portuguese Dakar Winner | Dakar Rally 2024

The Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia) won this Saturday the car competition in the 48th edition of the off-road Dakar rally, which took place in Saudi Arabia, but for the Portuguese the highlight goes to Paulo Fiúza, navigator of the Lithuanian Vaidotas Zala (Iveco), e who became the first Portuguese to win a general classification category in the Dakar rally, in this case in trucks.

Fiúza’s team finished the 2026 Dakar 20m18s ahead of Czech Ales Loprais (Iveco) and 29m03 ahead of Dutch rider Mitchel van den Brink (TRK), after finishing the 13th and final stage of the race in sixth place.

Speaking to Lusa from Yanbu, next to the Red Sea, in Saudi Arabia, the 50-year-old Portuguese navigator said that he had fulfilled a dream that had lasted for 20 years.

“What I can say is that it’s a dream. Twenty years later [da primeira participação no Dakar] Being the first Portuguese to win the overall in a category is fantastic”, highlighted Fiúza, who teamed up with Lithuanian driver Vaidotas Zala and mechanic Max van Grol.

Paulo Fiúza, who had already finished third alongside Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel in cars in 2020, confessed that he “couldn’t be happier” with this achievement.

“I want to thank everyone who was part of this dream”, concluded the Portuguese navigator, who has 19 participations and six stage victories.

Nasser Al-Attiyah confirms favoritism

In cars, Nasser Al-Attiyah, who started this final stage around Yanbu, covering 105 timed kilometers, with a 16.02s advantage over the second placed, the Spaniard Nani Roma (Ford), won the Dakar with a lead of 9m42s.

This is the sixth triumph for the Qatari driver, who the day before equaled Stéphane Peterhansel and Ari Vatanen with 50 stage victories, and had already won in 2011 (VW), 2015 (Mini), 2019, 2022 and 2023 (with Toyota), making Dacia the 14th manufacturer to win the rally.

On motorcycles, the triumph belonged to Argentine Luciano Benavides (KTM), with Portuguese Martim Ventura (Honda) finishing third in the Rally 2 class.

Benavides, who started the last stage, 3m20s behind the leader, finished the race with two seconds ahead of the North American Ricky Brabec (Honda), who got lost in the last kilometers as he opened the way.

This is the Argentine driver’s first victory in the Dakar, after his brother, Kevin, won in 2021 and 2023 with Honda, managed by Portuguese Ruben Faria, which saw Martim Ventura debut with a podium in the lowest category.