Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah clinched his maiden Dakar Rally victory after
long-time leader Carlos Sainz lost a lot of ground in sand dunes on stage eight earlier
this week. Sainz tried to fight back only to suffer even worse delays with
various damaged components on stages 10 and 11, pushing him back to third in an
all-VW podium behind Giniel de Villiers.
"It means a lot to win a Dakar, for me, for my people, for my country and for
my team. It is a great victory. It's hard to explain everything that goes
through your head. But it is a very nice feeling," said Al-Attiyah.
He also hopes the result will help put Qatar on the world motorsport map.
"I think that now people will finally know where Qatar is located," Al-Attiyah
joked.
Second place on yesterday's final
181-kilometer blast back to Buenos Aires gave Al-Attiyah a final winning margin
of nearly 50 minutes over de Villiers, who was in turn half an hour clear of
Sainz.
X-Raid BMW driver Stephane Peterhansel had been in thick of a
three-way battle with Sainz and Al-Attiyah during the first week of the event,
before a series of punctures saw him lose touch with the lead fight, and
eventually fall right back to finish in fourth place.
His team-mate
Krzysztof Holowczyc completed the final top five, ahead of VW's fourth works
driver Mark Miller, as the leading drivers cruised to the finish without
incident.
Pos |
Driver |
Car |
Time/Gap |
1. |
Nasser Al-Attiyah |
Volkswagen |
21h16m16s |
2. |
Giniel de Villiers |
Volkswagen |
+ 49m41s |
3. |
Carlos Sainz |
Volkswagen |
+ 1h20m38s |
4. |
Stephane Peterhansel |
BMW |
+ 1h43m48s |
5. |
Krzysztof Holowczyc |
BMW |
+ 4h11m21s |
6. |
Mark Miller |
Volkswagen |
+ 4h54m42s |
7. |
Ricardo Leal dos Santos |
BMW |
+ 6h50m07s |
8. |
Christian Lavieille |
Nissan |
+ 7h57m18s |
9. |
Guilherme Spinelli |
Mitsubishi |
+ 8h23m37s |
10. |
Matthias Kahle |
SMG |
+ 15h11m56s |