Al-Attiyah claims first Dakar win
Volkswagen's Nasser Al-Attiyah clinched his maiden Dakar Rally victory with the second-fastest time on the final stage, which was won by his team-mate Carlos Sainz
Al-Attiyah hit the front of the legendary event when long-time leader Sainz lost a lot of ground in sand dunes on stage eight earlier this week. Sainz tried to fight back only to suffer even worse delays with various damaged components on stages 10 and 11, pushing him back to third in an all-VW podium behind Giniel de Villiers.
Second place on today's final 181-kilometre blast back to Buenos Aires gave Al-Attiyah a final winning margin of nearly 50 minutes over de Villiers, who was in turn half an hour clear of Sainz.
X-Raid BMW driver Stephane Peterhansel had been in thick of a three-way battle with Sainz and Al-Attiyah during the first week of the event, before a series of punctures saw him lose touch with the lead fight, and eventually fall right back to finish in fourth place.
His team-mate Krzysztof Holowczyc completed the final top five, ahead of VW's fourth works driver Mark Miller, as the leading drivers cruised to the finish without incident.
Stage 13 results: Pos Driver Car Time/Gap 1. Carlos Sainz Volkswagen 1h16m08s 2. Nasser Al-Attiyah Volkswagen + 38s 3. Krzysztof Holowczyc BMW + 1m25s 4. Giniel de Villiers Volkswagen + 1m58s 5. Mark Miller Volkswagen + 2m02s 6. Stephane Peterhansel BMW + 2m57s 7. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi + 3m58s 8. Erik van Loon Mitsubishi + 6m26s 9. Alfie Cox Nissan + 8m47s 10. Christian Lavieille Nissan + 8m59s Final overall positions: Pos Driver Car Time/Gap 1. Nasser Al-Attiyah Volkswagen 21h16m16s 2. Giniel de Villiers Volkswagen + 49m41s 3. Carlos Sainz Volkswagen + 1h20m38s 4. Stephane Peterhansel BMW + 1h43m48s 5. Krzysztof Holowczyc BMW + 4h11m21s 6. Mark Miller Volkswagen + 4h54m42s 7. Ricardo Leal dos Santos BMW + 6h50m07s 8. Christian Lavieille Nissan + 7h57m18s 9. Guilherme Spinelli Mitsubishi + 8h23m37s 10. Matthias Kahle SMG + 15h11m56s
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