Peterhansel Wins Twelfth Dakar

The 2016 Dakar Rally has come to a close and three competitors added to their Dakar legacy while one joins an elite list of winners.

Stéphane Peterhansel won in the car class, his 12th Dakar victory, sixth in the car class. This is the Frenchman's first victory since going back-to-back in 2012 and 2013. This is Peugeot's first Dakar victory since Ari Vatanen won in 1990. Mini had won the last four Dakars in the car class.

Sébastien Loeb won the final stage. It was Loeb's fourth stage victory. He won by a minute and 13 seconds over Mikko Hirvonen. Nasser Al-Attiyah finished a minute and 36 seconds back in third on the same time as Cyril Despres in fourth. Leeroy Poulter was fifth, two minutes and four seconds back. Nani Roma and Orlando Terranova finished sixth and seventh. Roma finished a second behind Poulter and Terranova finished 34 seconds behind Roma. Giniel de Villiers finished three minutes and eight seconds back ahead of Vladimir Vasilyev in ninth, four minutes and 33 seconds back and Erik Van Loon finished tenth, five minutes and 19 seconds back.

Peterhansel finished 13th on the stage, over seven minutes back.

Peterhansel won overall by 34 minutes and 58 seconds over Al-Attiyah. Over an hour back was de Villiers in third. Hirvonen finished just under three minutes off the podium. Poulter finished an hour and a half back. Roma, Despres, Vasilyev, Loeb and Harry Hunt rounded out the top ten.

Other notables in the car class: Romain Dumas finished 20th and Robby Gordon finished 25th.

Toby Price became the first Australian to win the Dakar Rally in any class as he took the bike title. It is KTM's fifteenth consecutive victory in the bike class.

Pablo Quintanilla won the stage by a minute and 41 seconds over Kevin Benavides. Hélder Rodrigues finished two minutes and 37 seconds back in third. Price was fourth, four minutes and 22 seconds behind Quintanilla. Štefan Svitko was fifth, six minutes and 24 seconds back. Gerard Farres finished over ten minutes back in sixth. Ivan Cervantes was seventh, 11 minutes back with Ricky Brabec less than a minute behind Cervantes in eighth. Adrien Van Beveren and Mario Patrao rounded out the top ten on the stage.

Price took the overall victory by 39 minutes and 41 seconds over Svitko. Quantanilla finished 48 minutes and 48 seconds back in third. Benavides finished over 54 minutes back in fourth and Rodrigues was 55 minutes back in fifth. Van Beveren, Antoine Meo, Farres, Brabec and Armand Monleon were the back half of the top ten.

Marcos Patronelli became the first rider to win the Dakar Rally three times in the quad class. Patronelli previously won in 2010 and 2013. Yamaha has won all eight times quads have participated in the Dakar Rally.

Brian Baragwanath won his third stage by seven minutes and 44 seconds over Giuliano Giordana. Sergei Karyakin finished 11 seconds behind Giordana. Jeremias González finished fourth, 11 minutes and 45 seconds back. Walter Nosiglia rounded out the top five on the stage, 12 minutes and 43 seconds back. Alejandro Patronelli finished sixth, over 15 minutes back, Alexis Hernandez finished seventh and Marcos Patronelli finished eighth, exactly a minute behind his brother.

Marcos defeated this brother Alejandro by five minutes and 23 seconds in the overall standings. Baragwanath finished an hour and 41 minutes seconds back in third. Karyakin was fourth, an hour and 44 minutes back and González finished over two hours back in fifth.

Gerard de Rooy won his second Dakar Rally as the Dutchman took the truck class. His previous Dakar victory came in 2012 and that was the last time Iveco won until this year. Kamaz had won the three previous editions.

Hans Stacey won by a minute and 45 seconds over Pieter Versluis for the stage victory. Eduard Nikolaev finished two minutes and eight seconds back in third with Martin Kolomy in fourth, 44 seconds behind the Russian. Airat Mardeev finished fifth, three minutes and 13 seconds back with Federico Villagra three seconds behind him and de Rooy finishing five minutes and 56 seconds back in seventh.

De Rooy took the overall victory by an hour and ten minutes over Mardeev. Villagra was third, a half hour behind Mardeev. Stacey and Ton Van Genugten rounded out the top five and both finished over two hours behind their fellow Dutchman.