Spaniard Carlos Sainz claims second Dakar Rally title

  • 21/01/2018
Sainz and his Peugeot teammates celebrate victory at the end of the final stage.
Sainz and his Peugeot teammates celebrate victory at the end of the final stage. Photo credit: Getty

Spanish driver Carlos Sainz has won his second Dakar Rally title.

The Peugeot driver finished in 49 hours, 16 minutes, 18 seconds overall on Saturday, and was 43 minutes ahead of second-place Nasser Al-Attiyah of Toyota.

South African Giniel de Villiers won the final stage in Cordoba, Argentina. with Sainz ninth.

Austrian Matthias Walkner was the overall winner in the motorcycle race, with Australia's Toby Price (KTM), winner of the 2016 Dakar bike race, third in the general classification.

"I am very happy because this was a very difficult Dakar, I needed this victory," Sainz said.

Walkner, who finished second last year, became the first Austrian to win the world's most daunting rally race and also provided another victory for Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM, which has dominated Dakar for 17 years but faced stiff competition in 2018 from Honda and Yamaha.

The Austrian finished the race in a time of 43:06:01, while Argentina's Kevin Benavides, who was bidding to become the first South American to win Dakar, won the 14th and final loop stage around Cordoba and posted an overall time of 43:22:54.

Benavides' second-place finish was the best ever by a South American in the bikes category.     

EFE