After near-misses in the previous two years, Al-Attiyah led the 44th running of Dakar from start to finish in the new Toyota Hilux T1+, eventually taking the top honours by 27m46s over Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive/Bahrain).
The Qatari driver won only two of the 12 stages, both in the first week, but showed remarkable consistency throughout the rally-raid, while his rivals fell by the wayside with navigational errors or mechanical problems.
The result makes Al-Attiyah the second-most successful driver in the history of Dakar’s cars category, tied with Finland’s Ari Vatanen and only behind Stephane Peterhansel’s tally of eight wins.
The key to Al-Attiyah’s overall triumph was the opening stage near Ha’il, where he and co-driver Matthieu Baumel correctly found a tricky waypoint that caught out the majority of the field, including Audi’s Carlos Sainz.
That left Loeb as Al-Attiyah’s sole remaining rival, but the Frenchman too was forced to play catch-up when a propshaft on…
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