The Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota) conquered this sunday his fifth Touaregthe second in a row, in the last stage of the Dakar, which the Frenchman won Guerlain Chicherit (Prodrive).
The five-time Dakar champion was able to take the last day calmly, without taking any risks, as he had more than an hour and twenty minutes of rent in front of the overall. Al-Attiyah, who finished with 1h18:49 over the second, the French Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive), he has not come down from the second drawer of the raid podium for six consecutive editions, with three wins (2023, 2022 and 2019) and three second places (2021, 2020 and 2018).
The Qatari fended off problems from start to finish in his title defense and benefited from those faced by his rivals, including the Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Audi), who came to lead the standings after winning the first special and then had to retire, and Loeb, who won seven stages, six of them consecutive, after an unfortunate start to the rally.
Al-Attiyah only needed three partial wins and manage a comfortable lead to retain the title. With his fifth Dakar (2011, 2015, 2019, 2022 and 2023) He surpasses the Finnish Ari Vatanen in the list of winners and is only ahead of the Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel, who has eight gimped.
In the last stage and after having established the new Dakar record with six wins in a row, Loeb relented. For the first time in the last week of competition, the Alsatian, who also equaled Sainz with seven stage victories in one edition of the Dakar, was unable to secure the first position.
Another Prodrive and another Frenchman, Guerlain Chicherit, set the best time at the first checkpoint, the one at kilometer 33 of the final stage of the raid, between Al-Holuf and Dammam (Saudi Arabia), with 281 liaison kilometers and 136 of special, with some dirt, even mud towards kilometer 29, a lot of sand and a small section through a dry lake.
The Argentinian Sebastian Halpern (Mini) was 16 seconds behind Chicherit in the first set and the South African Henk Lategan (Toyota) passed third to 31. Loeb gave up more than a minute and Al-Attiyah, who counted the kilometers towards the finish line and the Touareg, dropped 1:47.
The sheikh did not want unnecessary risksThey don’t attract trouble either. What happened to the French Mathieu Serradori (Century), who broke the engine of his buggy after 10 kilometers. He was ninth overall and second in the two-wheel-drive standings before this stage, 2:30 behind Chinese Wei Han (SMG).
Halfway through the stage, Chicherit consolidated the lead with 43 seconds over the Swede Mattias Ekstrom, the only survivor of Audi in the Dakar after the withdrawals of Sainz and Petterhansel. Halpern dropped to fourth place, 1:10 behind the stage leader.
Ekstrom closed the deficit to 40 seconds at the last intermediate point, the one at kilometer 102, but gave up at the finish line, where Chicherit left his time in 1h09:24with 1:36 over the Swede and eight seconds more than the South African Henk Lategan.
Halpern finished 1:53 behind the stage winner. Loeb left 2:48 and Al-Attiyah, 5:41, but it didn’t matter. The Toyota man completed the Dakar in 45h03:15 and won his fifth Touareg, with the Alsatian second at 1h18:49 and the Brazilian Lucas Moraes (Toyota) third at 1h36:31.
