Qatari Nasser Al Attiyah has won his third Dakar Rally title, this time driving for the South African Toyota Gazoo team. The bike race was won by Australian Toby Price.
The 2019 edition of the race ended where it started, in the Peruvian capital Lima.
Nasser Al Attiyah has driven the almost perfect race for ten days. He won three stages, but in all the others stayed up with the leaders, and made few mistakes, while all around him got caught in the sand.
An Olympic bronze medallist in shooting, Al Attiyah has an extraordinary Dakar record, with 7 podium finishes since 2010.
“You know, it’s fantastic. No mistake during all this rally. It was a very, very difficult rally for everybody. The good thing from day three we are leading and we build our times every day, you know” says Al Attiyah.
Second was the Mini of Nani Roma, more than 46 minutes adrift.
In the bike section, the only real challenger on the final day was Husqvarna’s Pablo Quintinilla. But he fell out of the top 20 when he crashed. He did get up to finish the race though.
That gave the podium to KTM. Toby Price led the team after riding the entire rally with a broken wrist. He was followed in the general classification by Matthias Walkner and Sam Sunderland.
“I’m over the moon. I’m so damn stoked and it’s been a long ten days and now I just wait and see what damage I’ve done to the wrists. At the end of the day, the pain and the torture’s been worth it” says 2019 Dakar Rally Motocycle Champion, Toby Price.
Price’s win in the final stage was his first of this year’s race.
