Peterhansel wraps it up
Stéphane Peterhansel completed the formality of winning the 26th Dakar Rally today (Sunday). The flag fell on the marathon after Colin McRae won the traditional final stage by Lac Rose on the coast near the Senegalese capital.
The stage was just 27 kilometers long, but McRae won it by 41 seconds and can thus come away with another satisfying section win on his first attempt at the Dakar. His race was ruined by major breakdowns earlier on, but the Scot showed that he had speed enough to win.
The overall win for Peterhansel - who had led most of the event - was never in doubt and the Frenchman could afford to finish the stage down in 19th, more than four minutes off McRae. His final margin of victory for the rally was just under 50 minutes. McRae's final position was 20th - a mere day behind the winning time!
With Peterhansel's Mitsubishi team-mate Hiroshi Masuoka taking second, more than two hours ahead of Jean-Louis Schlesser's self-built buggy, Mitsubishi showed again that they are the masters of the desert endurance race. This was despite increasingly serious efforts from the likes of Nissan and BMW.
Peterhansel (Mitsubishi) 53h47m37s
Masuoka (Mitsubishi) +49m24s
Schlesser (Schlesser-Ford) +3h00m33s
Alphand (BMW) +3h55m58s
Mayer (Mitsubishi) +5h46m17s
Saby (Volkswagen) +6h54m03s
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