Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar won the Dakar Rally car crown for the sixth time on Sunday, while Argentine KTM rider Kevin Benavides won his second title in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Attiyah, the defending Toyota champion with co-driver Mathieu Baumel, finished the final 14th stage to Dammam on the Gulf coast ahead of France’s nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb.
The Qatari, who led from stage three while opponents struggled, is now second all-time in the automobile category, trailing only France’s eight-time champion Stephane Peterhansel.
Mr. Dakar, who retired from this year’s race after wrecking his electric hybrid Audi, has previously won the motorcycling title six times.
Loeb had won six stages in a row for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme squad up until Sunday, but teammate Guerlain Chicherit snatched the win in Dammam.
Brazilian rookie Lucas Moraes finished third overall in an Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux.
Benavides won the final sprint to triumph by 43 seconds over Australian Toby Price, a double Dakar champion who had started the day 12 seconds ahead.
Skyler Howes of the United States finished third overall for the Husqvarna factory squad.
“The first item to mention is a disappointment. We’ve gone a long way, but look at Kevin’s work “Price had to circle around due to two missing waypoints, which lost him the race.
“Hard to take at the moment, but at the end of the day I’m going home in one piece and we got a Dakar trophy. It hurts a little bit.”
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