MOTORSPORT: Stephane Peterhansel wins 13th Dakar

It takes something special – lots of special things – to win the Dakar Rally.

Stephane Peterhansel is someone very special – a marathon rally champion who has now won the Dakar seven times in cars after six victories on motorcycles. That’s 13 triumphs in the two-week event through some of the world’s harshest terrain, highest altitudes and temperatures, and climates – initially in Europe and Africa and now, for almost a decade, in South America.

No wonder the Frenchman is called, reverentially, Monsieur Dakar.

This time (through Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina) Peterhansel headed a 1-2-3 for French manufacturer Peugeot with its 3008DKR.

After 8823km, including 4093km of competition, Peterhansel beat nine-times world rally champion compatriot, Sebastien Loeb, by a little more than five minutes. Another Frenchman, Cyril Depres, was third by more than 32 minutes.

It was Loeb’s second Dakar – and both times he has finished runner-up. To guess who? Peterhansel.

An engine issue on the fourth of the 12 days of scheduled competition (two stages were cancelled because of heavy rains and flooding) lost Loeb 26 minutes. That, and a puncture on the second last day, cost him victory.

However, he and his long-time co-driver, Daniel Elena of Monaco, won the most stages – five to the three of Peterhansel and fellow Frenchman and co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret.

Depres, a five-time Dakar victor on motorcycles, won his first stage in three years on four wheels with David Castera, while Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah had won the short first stage in Paraguay in a Toyota Hilux.

Al-Attiyah and Peugeot’s fourth driver, Spanish legend Carlos Sainz, both previous Dakar winners, were early retirements this year.

Peugeot’s victory is its sixth in the seven Dakars the manufacturer has contested and its second in a row after returning to the event in 2015 with its two-wheel-drive machinery – initially the 2008DKR – against the four-wheel-drive MINIs and Toyota Hiluxes.

The French marque won four Dakars in a row with its 205 and 405 T16s in 1987-1990, in the last of those – led by Finnish icon Ari Vatanen – snaring a trifecta as it did this year.

Peugeot Sport’s director and Dakar team manager Bruno Famin said “unfavourable changes” to the event’s regulations this year, especially a bigger air restrictor on the 3008DKR, had to be overcome but that work on the its engine and suspension in recent months had paid big dividends.

“The biggest step forward was the car’s reliability,” Famin said.

“We didn’t have any mechanical issues, with the exception of a small problem which, it can be said, deprived Loeb an Elena of the win. All our work upstream of the event paid off in the form of enhanced performance.”

Famin said there was never a thought of imposing team orders as Peterhansel and Loeb battled for the honours.

“The thought of issuing team orders was inconceivable. As a result, everyone was able to savour the intensity of the fight to the end,” he said.

Peterhansel, who felt denied a victory by X-Raid team orders in 2014, appreciated that there were no instructions on finishing order from Famin.

“A great show of fair play put us all on an even footing,” Peterhansel said.

“It was an open fight all the way to the finish. We faced stiff competition, not only from our own teammates, with three other strong drivers in the squad, but also from the other teams.

“My duel with Sebastien was intense and also quite stressful. At the same time, we had tremendous fun,” Peterhansel stated.

Loeb was gracious in conceding Peterhansel’s incredible ability to get to the end of the world’s toughest rally first.

“It was a good event for us and, even though we ended up second, we were involved in the thick of the fight for first place from start to finish,” Loeb said.

“After the small engine problem we suffered early on, we never stopped pushing. It was very exciting because we were flat out all the time.

“This year it was much more complicated [than last year’s debut]. We had a few minor navigation mistakes, but it’s a shame our scrap ended when I punctured on Friday.

“My aim is [still] to win it some day.”

Behind the third Peugeot of Depres, the Toyotas of Spaniard Nani Roma and South African Giniel de Villiers rounded out the top five – 1 hour 15 minutes and 1 hour 49 minutes behind Peterhansel respectively.

In the truck category, Russian Eduard Nikolaev restored Kamaz to its former glory and took his second Dakar victory ahead of teammate and fellow Russian Dmitriy Sotnikov. Dutchman Gerard De Rooy was third in an Iveco.

In the bikes, Sam Sunderland became the first Brit to win in any category of the Dakar, ahead of Austrian teammate Matthias Walkner – stretching KTM’s domination of the event’s two-wheel section to 16 years. This was despite the early exit of its defending champion, Australian Toby Price, with a broken leg.

Russian Sergey Karyakin took the honours in the quads as Yamaha scored a trifecta in that category.