Al-Attiyah dominates to third Dakar Rally win

Nasser Al-Attiyah has capped a dominant 2019 Dakar Rally by securing his third career victory at the gruelling event winning by over 46 minutes from Nani Roma.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver, who has clinched victory at the iconic rally with Volkswagen in 2011 and Mini in 2015, sealed his third Dakar triumph with a conservative final stage run but with a healthy time lead he secured the overall win by 46m 42s from X-Raid Team’s Roma.

Last year’s Dakar Rally winner Carlos Sainz grabbed the final stage victory by 42 seconds from Sebastien Loeb, who saw his faint overall victory hopes extinguished after losing over an hour on the penultimate stage, but the nine-time World Rally Champion did enough to take the final podium spot for PH-Sport – 1hr 54m 18s behind Al-Attiyah at the finish.

In a dramatic finish in the Moto class, Toby Price clinched his second Dakar Rally win, and KTM’s 18^th consecutive victory, in a storming Red Bull KTM 1-2 as Mathias Walkner moved up to second place after Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Pablo Quintanilla fell during the final stage battling for victory against Price.

Quintanilla trailed Price by less than one minute at the start of final stage and while fighting to make up time the Chilean crashed off and injured his foot in the process but recovered to take the final spot on the podium.