Nasser al-Attiyah (Toyota) for cars and Kevin Benavides for motorcycles won the Dakar 2023, the 45th edition of the legendary rally raid.
This is the fifth victory for the Qatari rider, after the successes of 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2022, at the end of the 14th and last stage up to Dammam (Saudi Arabia).
Three times stage winner, the reigning champion finished more than an hour ahead of Frenchman Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) and young Brazilian Lucas Moraes (Toyota).
In the lead from the third stage of the rally which started last December 31 with a prologue from the shores of the Red Sea near Yanbu, the 52-year-old driver found himself 20 minutes ahead of Stephane Peterhansel and 33 minutes ahead of Carlo Sainz, both on Audi, but the abandonment of the two main rivals who traveled on the powerful hybrid of the Four Rings,
on 6 and 10 January respectively, he opened the way to success: the rest of the match was for al-Attiyah only control and management of the advantage.
In tandem with French navigator Mathieu Baumel, for whom this is the fourth crowning in the legendary rally, the Qatari, who also boasts an Olympic medal in skeet (the official name of clay pigeon shooting at the Olympics), has never been under pressure.
Victory in stage 14 went to the Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit (Prodrive), very far in a general classification in which Loeb finished second for the third time after the 2017 editions on Peugeot and 2022 already on Prodrive.
The Frenchman - who immediately paid homage to the winner "did an excellent race and made no mistakes" - nonetheless marked the history of the Dakar in this edition, snatching six consecutive stage victories, a record for the legendary race and for the rider nine times world rally champion.
Encore of the Argentine Benavides among the bikes, after 15 days of fierce battle in the queen of the categories.
The 34-year-old, who had already won in 2021, preceded the Australian Toby Price (Ktm), while the US rider Skyler Howes (Husqvarna) finished third, but much further behind.
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particularly tight edition - marked by the abandonment of the holder of the title, the British Sam Sunderland, due to a bad fall in the first stage of January 1 -, Benavides was second in the standings for 12 seconds at the start of the last stage but prevailed in the special of 136 km between Al-Hofuf and Damman and took 55 seconds from Price, overtaking him in extremis.
After nearly 45 hours of racing and more than 8,000 km covered, Benavides won by just 43 seconds.
"It's incredible to get the win in this crazy crazy Dakar, and with such a small gap - said the 34-year-old -. I'm also the first to win with two different bike brands and that makes me very proud."
The race reserved for quads saw the success of the Frenchman Alexandre Giroud, who repeated the victory obtained in the last edition.