The Dakar Rally 2019 has concluded after 10 grueling stages. This year’s event was the 11th consecutive time that the rally was held in South America. This year’s edition took competitors through a 5598km circuit across Peru flagging off and finishing in the capital city of Lima.
Here are the top three winners category-wise:
Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah, driving a Toyota Hilux, has claimed the first Dakar Rally win for Toyota in the 2019 edition of the race with a timing of 34hours, 38 minutes and 14 seconds. His win also makes him the first driver who has won with three different manufacturers, as Al-Attiyah previously won in 2011 with Volkswagen and then again in 2015 with Mini.
The second place went to Nani Roma from Spain who was driving a Mini 4X4. Roma’s second place is a vindication as he could not finish last year’s rally. He had, however, won the 2014 edition of Dakar, also in a Mini.
Rounding off the podium was nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb from France who was driving a Peugeot. Loeb, just like Roma, could not finish last year’s Dakar rally.
Eduard Nikolaev from Russia and driving a Kamaz truck, won this year’s rally in the truck category with a timing of 41 hours, one minute and 35 seconds. This was the fifth win for Nikolaev, who has already won the Dakar rally four times before (2010, 2013, 2017 and 2018) of which his previous three titles were with the Kamaz team.
Second place went to Dmitry Sotnikov, also driving a Kamaz. This was Sotnikov’s fifth time at the Dakar rally at the wheel of a Kamaz truck. His best performance was in his 2017 attempt, where he had finished second, again behind Eduard Nikolaev. Apart from that, he was 10th in last year’s edition, 15th in 2016, 5th in 2015 and 4th in 2014.
The third spot in the trucks category went to Gerard De Rooy from Netherlands, who was driving an Iveco. De Rooy is already a two-time winner (2012 and 2016) with the Iveco team and his third-place finish this year comes after a one-year gap as he was not a contender in last year’s Dakar rally.
Argentina’s Nicolas Cavigliasso won the 2019 Dakar Rally with a time of 43 hours, one minute and 54 seconds on a Yamaha YFM700R. Additionally, Cavigliasso also won nine of the ten stages at this year’s rally. This is his second attempt at the Dakar and his victory comes after a second-place finish at last year’s event, also on a Yamaha quad.
The second place went to Jeremias Gonzalez, also from Argentina, also riding a Yamaha. Prior to this, Gonzalez had finished 5th in 2016 and 2nd in 2015, which was also when he achieved the distinction of the youngest rider (19 years and one month) to have won a Dakar rally stage.
At third place was Gustavo Gallego, again an Argentine on a Yamaha. This year’s third place comes after two years of misfortune for Gallego, as he was unable to finish his two previous attempts at the Dakar rally (he had to abandon his Dakar bid at stage 6 in 2017 and at stage 10 in 2018).