They Dreamt, They Dared & They Lived It at Dakar

Overall Results for Bikes

Overall Results for Quads

                                Overall Results for SxS

Overall results for Cars

                                Overall results for Trucks

The winners are each of the participants at the Dakar who may or may not have completed the 13 stages of the rally (Of the 14 stages, one was cancelled). Because at Dakar they say Dream, Dare and Live it. The ones who got off the starting line at Lima in Peru need to be saluted for having dreamt, dared and lived it. And that does not just include the gritty men but also the several female participants who proved to the world that they too are made of the sterner stuff.

Two Indian motorcycle companies Hero MotoCorp and TVS Motor Company too need to be applauded for getting three riders each to compete in the rally. While a rookie for Hero MotoSports Team Rally Oriol Mena came in 7^th overall, for Sherco TVS Rally Factory it was a 40 year old man with a massive build Juan Pedrero Garcia who was the sole rider to finish the race and come in 11^th overall. Our very own Indian rider from Hero MotoSports Santosh Chunchunguppe Shivashankar or as CS Santosh as he is known here in India, came in 34^th overall.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO OF INTERVIEW WITH SHERCO TVS RIDERS

While Hero’s Joaquim Rodrigues was knocked off the contention very early in the race, Sherco TVS’ Adrien Metge and Aravind KP too withdrew after being injured.

A special mention needs to be made of Laia Sanz the gritty female rider representing KTM Factory Racing Team who completed the race and came in 12^th overall. In the quad section too, Olga Rouckova, another female rider, representing Moto Racing Group (MRG) finished the race in 26^th position.      

The rally which started on January 6, 2018 ended on January 20 with one day of rest and one cancelled stage. It crossed three countries starting from Peru, then to Bolivia and finally ended in Argentina’s Cordoba.

This was the 10th Dakar to be held in South America. Córdoba was host to the Dakar finish line for the first time. The race which started from South America’s Lima in Peru to Pisco to San Juan De Marcona to Arequipa to La Paz in Bolivia, then to Uyuni to Tupiza and Salta, Belen, Chilecito and then San Juan and finally to Cordoba in Argentina was no ordinary track. The race was divided into 14 stages covering more than 9000 km. Stage 9 was cancelled because of bad weather. Seven of the stages consisted of 100pc dunes and off-road.

When the race started more than 500 competitors were in the fray. There were 11 women on the start list. The traditional motorcycle, quad, car and truck categories was joined by the S×S for the second year running. These light-weight buggies limited to 1000 cc saw 11 crews participating this year. Around 188 motorcycles and quads, 103 cars and S×S and 44 trucks were cleared to start the 40th edition of the Dakar. Around 114 of the 523 competitors made their Dakar debut, while 51 had already taken part in 10 editions or more.

In the last stage, the victories achieved by Kevin Benavides in the bike race, Ignacio Casale in the quad category, Giniel de Villiers in the car race and Ton van Genugten in the truck category did not affect the positions at the top of the rally’s hierarchy. Matthias Walkner became the first Austrian winner on a bike, with Austrian brand KTM continuing to dominate the event thanks to a 17th

consecutive success. For its last participation, Peugeot also retained the title, but this time only one of their cars was on the podium, namely the 3008 Maxi driven by winner Carlos Sainz. Under threat until the day before the finish from Federico Villagra, in the end Eduard Nikolaev obtained a third title behind the wheel of his Kamaz. As for Chilean Ignacio Casale, to win his 2^nd Dakar he dominated the general standings from start to finish.

In total, 191 vehicles completed the 40th edition: 85 bikes, 32 quads, 49 cars including 6 SxS and 25 trucks, meaning 55% of the competitors that set out from Lima two weeks ago reached the finish. More open than ever before, the bike race soon produced its first surprise with the premature exit from the rally of Sam Sunderland in the dunes of San Juan de Marcona on only day 4 of the rally. The title holder and winner of 2 out of the first 3 stages left the field clear for a hungry chasing pack led by the new guard represented by Adrien van Beveren and Kevin Benavides. The two men challenged the usual domination of KTM, exchanging the lead in the general standings on several occasions. This battle was interspersed with exploits from Joan Barreda or Antoine Meo, before an intense and devastating tenth stage. A day which should have allowed the young Argentinean to triumph in his home country instead put an end to his hopes due to a terrible navigational error in the river beds of Belén towards the end of the special. He dragged a good number of the favourites down with him, including Toby Price, with Matthias Walkner and Van Beveren the only leading riders to come

out unscathed. However, the Yamaha rider did not remain unharmed due to a terrible fall 3 km from the finish, which put the Austrian in sole command of the Dakar. Controlling the race perfectly up to the end of the event, at the age of 31 years the Austrian has grabbed the biggest prize of his career, allowing KTM to continue an incredible sequence of 17 consecutive triumphs.

The day after his first stage victory and the 10th of his career on the Dakar, Sébastien Loeb was forced to exit the race, undone by the Tanaka Desert’s dunes! It was not the first or last dramatic turn of events in this unpredictable and untameable Dakar: Nani Roma rolled out of the rally early, on the loop around Pisco, whilst Stéphane Peterhansel lost the lead of the rally following an accident on the marathon stage at Uyuni. Even a dunes specialist like Nasser Al Attiyah got stuck in the sand around San Juan de Marcona and lost more than one hour after just four days of racing! In the midst of this carnage, Carlos Sainz put in a faultless performance which nobody had been expecting from him. “El Matador” was precise in his attacks, reeled in the lead and then controlled the race with assurance behind the wheel of his 3008 Maxi. In Córdoba, he climbed onto the top step of the podium that is strikingly similar to that of 2010, when the Spaniard also beat Al Attiyah (by just 2 minutes). Giniel de Villiers finished in the top 3 for the 8th time in 15 participations, while Stéphane Peterhansel missed out, after slipping off the podium the day before the finish.

With three consecutive victories on the first three stages, Ignacio Casale spread panic among his rivals in the quad category. Sergey Karyakin, the distanced title holder, exited the rally injured, just like Rafal Sonik, the winner in 2015. In imperial form in the dunes, the Chilean was also able to boss the rest of the pack, whilst allowing leeway for expression on their home terrain to two young Argentineans who represent the future of the discipline: Nicolas Cavigliasso, 26 years old, and Jeremias González Ferioli, 22. The three men made up the final podium in this order.

Eduard Nikolaev started his eighth Dakar at one hell of a pace. Thanks to imperial performances in the Peruvian dunes, the 2017 champion soon opened up big gaps over all his rivals, except for the tenacious Federico Villagra. The Argentinean was the only driver able to take the battle to the Kamaz clan leader and had to grin and bear it during the first week, before putting the Russian under pressure as well as taking the general standings lead from him. However, a gearbox problem put paid to the Iveco driver’s hopes as he exited the race the day before the finish. This let Nikolaev triumph for the 3rd time on the Dakar. The runner-up, Siarhei Viazovich, finished the rally more than 4 hours behind him.

For the second year of the SxS category, Reinaldo Varela displayed superb consistency at the forefront of the category, with 5 stage victories enabling him to occupy the top step on the podium. The Brazilian was involved in a fierce battle with Frenchman Patrice Garrouste, who also picked up 5 stage wins.

Source: Dakar Media Room