Overview
- Luciano Benavides claimed his first Dakar motorcycle crown by the smallest recorded margin, edging Ricky Brabec by two seconds after the American took a wrong turn seven kilometers from the finish.
- Edgar Canet won the final bike stage, while Honda’s Tosha Schareina secured third overall behind Benavides and Brabec; Skyler Howes finished fourth and Daniel Sanders rode to fifth despite a broken collarbone.
- Nasser Al-Attiyah delivered Dacia its first Dakar win, finishing 9m42s ahead of Ford’s Nani Roma, with Mattias Ekström (Ford) third after winning the final stage.
- Al-Attiyah’s victory follows his 50th career Dakar stage win on the penultimate day, tying Ari Vatanen and Stéphane Peterhansel for the car-category stage-win record.
- Final car order behind Al-Attiyah, Roma and Ekström was Sébastien Loeb in fourth and Carlos Sainz in fifth, capping a rally notable for mixed manufacturer stage winners and costly navigation errors.