And six for Nasser Al-Attiyah. The Qatari (Dacia) won his sixth Dakar rally this Saturday, January 17 at the end of the 13th and final stage of the legendary race in Saudi Arabia, after finishing ninth in this final 105-kilometer stage.
After his coronations in 2011, 2015, 2019, 2022 and 2023, the 55-year-old driver won a sixth time, almost ten minutes ahead of his runner-up, the Spaniard Nani Roma. Ford also took third place on the podium with Swede Mattias Ekström, winner of the last stage ahead of Frenchman Sébastien Loeb (4th overall).
Two seconds apart in the motorcycle race
“It’s incredible, thank you to the whole team, we worked so hard. I still have a hard time believing it. I’m so happy for Fabian, it’s his first victory,” said Nasser Al-Attiyah at the finish, crowned alongside his Belgian co-driver Fabian Lurquin.
The motorcycle race delivered a completely crazy scenario with the smallest gap ever recorded between the first two in the general classification. It was the Argentinian Luciano Benavides (KTM) who took advantage of a navigation error by the American Ricky Babrec (Honda) during the last stage to win his first Dakar. The Spaniard Tosha Schareina (Honda) closes the podium.
Despite his three minutes lead, Babrec narrowly missed his third title (after 2020 and 2024) by taking the wrong route in the last kilometers and letting the final victory slip away in Benavides… by two short seconds, establishing the new record for the event by beating that of his older brother Kevin (45 seconds over Toby Price in 2023).
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