JAKARTA - Qatar racer Nasser Al-Attiyah on Sunday won the Dakar Reli title for the fifth time after the endurance race completed its final stage in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
The 52-year-old Toyota team defended his title after winning three stages in this edition of the Dakar and bagged a one-hour 20-minute lead over French racer Sebastien Loeb of the BRX team, who also finished runner-up last year behind Al-Attiyah, Dakar's official website said.
Al-Attiyah took over the leadership of the car category after the third stage, and built a distance quite far from his rivals in the first week.
Then after the break, the rider who is also an athlete shooting the Olympics went ahead with a safe play strategy in the second week to maintain his lead in the standings.
Loeb, the nine-time rally world champion, tried his best to win his first title at Dakar and was able to set a record with six consecutive stage wins in the second half.
But the 48-year-old French racer had lost quite a bit of time in the first part of the rally.
The two main rivals of Al-Attiyah and Loeb, namely Carlos Sainz and Stephane Peterhansel, failed to finish the race due to an accident.
Al-Attiyah finished eighth in the stage 14 from Al-Hofuf to Dammam, losing just five minutes 41 seconds to Loeb's teammate Guerlain Chicherit who recorded the fastest time on the special stage as far as 136km today.
"We just finished and I am very happy," said Al-Attiyah, who also won in 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2022.
"Ini adalah Dakar yang sulit bagi semua orang. Mengahankan titel saya ini sebenar gila. Saya sangat senang bisa menang lima kali."
Also driving a Toyota, Lucas Moraes of the Overdrive team is entitled to bronze.
Giniel De Villiers and Henk Lategan finished in the top five when four Toyota cars dominated the top of the standings.
Meanwhile, the motorcycle category title fell into the hands of Kevin Benavides who overtook his KTM team-mate Bart Price after turning a 12-second deficit to a 43-second lead in the final standings.
Skyer Howes from the United States brought home bronze for the Husqvarna team.
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