After gruesome two weeks, Mr Dakar has taken home the trophy of the 2021 Dakar in Saudi Arabia on Friday. Taking the lead right after Stage 2, Stephane Peterhansel and his co-driver Edouard Boulanger never left the top spot in the overall leaderboard. Despite the tough competition from Nasser Al-Attiyah in his Toyota Gazoo along with teammate and defending champion Carlos Sainz, Peterhansel’s win makes him the only driver to win the Dakar title on all three continents.
30 years after his first victory on a bike in the Dakar, Stephane Peterhansel newest win comes as the 8th one behind the wheel of a four-wheeler. His X-Raid Mini JCW buggy finished with an overall time of 44:28:11, a comfortable 13:51 seconds clear of Nasser. The three-way battle in the top of the leaderboard was the highlight of the 2021 season. Al-Attiyah managed to win five stages more than any other driver this year 2021, but he never recovered from the 12 minutes he lost in the opening Special Stage. Although Carlos Sainz had to settle for third, he is 59 years old and still a force to reckon with. Sainz won the Stage 12.
Finishing fourth was Jakub Przygonski which is commendable since the Polish driver was participating as a privateer amongst some of the best run factory teams. Meanwhile, Nani Roma took his all-new BRX buggy to a comfortable fifth-place finish where rest of his teammates had to retire early, including WRC champion Sebastien Loeb. Vladimir Vasilyev took the sixth-place finish in his X-Raid Mini 4x4 with his consistent top 10 finishes in the entire season. Coming in next was Khalid Al-Qassimi who also had a very efficient run this season in his PH Peugeot for Abu Dhabi Racing.
Attiyah’s teammate Giniel de Villiers was another Toyota Gazoo in the top 10 finish who took the eight place in the overall standings. Trailing him was the sole Ford privateer Martin Prokop for Benzina Orlen Team. Rounding off the table was another Dakar Legend Cyril Despres who was also a consistent performer for Abu Dhabi Racing with his teammate Al-Qassimi.
Special mention goes out to Yazeed Al Rajhi who won two stages this year. But he was pushed down to 16th place finish after an engine failure on the final Stage. Moreover, there were three Dakar Novices of Team BAIC ORV. They took 13th, 14th and 15th place in the overall standing. Brian Baragwanath of Century Team also managed to impress with his buggy finishing in top 10 on many occasions.
Of the 64 drivers who started the Dakar 2021 on 3rd January, only 48 managed to finish this season. Henk Lategan was one of the Dakar debutants who showed great promise in the first few stages. But his campaign ended sooner than expected after a crash and dislodged collar bone. We hope to see him next time.
