MOTORSPORT: Toby Price triumphs in 2019 Dakar Rally

Australian Toby Price delivered a heroic final stage in the 2019 Dakar Rally overnight to seal his second motorcycle title.

Having broken the scaphoid bone in his right wrist weeks before the race, Price pushed through the pain barrier during the South American event to find himself at the pointy end of the field in the final stages. The KTM rider arrived at the 10th and last leg on Thursday after racing almost 5200km, holding a slim one-minute lead over rival Pablo Quintanilla.

In typical Price fashion, the 31-year-old Queensland-based rider won the final stage by more than 2 minutes to seal a second Dakar, following his triumphs in 2016.

"Pretty much all I can say is that it feels like there are about five people driving a knife in my wrist now," Price said after 10 agonising days in the world’s most gruelling motorsport event.

"It's not very comfortable, it's not very enjoyable. Now I'll just wait and see what damage I've done to my wrist.

"At the end of the day, the pain and torture has been worth it."

Quintanilla was the man most likely to stop Price, and he put it all on the line on day 10.

But just 10 kilometres into the dune-heavy, 112-kilometre final stage from Pisco to the Peruvian capital, Quintanilla suffered a nasty fall and lost 19 minutes. Price stopped to assist the Chilean, before riding on to claim the stage win – his first of this year’s race.

There were emotional scenes from the Aussie as he realised the significance of his achievement, which comes only weeks after clinching the 2018 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship.

"I thought I would only be able to do two stages and then pull out and that would have been me done, but the support from everyone back home in Australia, and then having some things go my way and a bit of luck, it just worked out in the end," Price said.

"It's very crazy to sit here and say that we won the Dakar Rally with no stage victories until today. It's really crazy. I'm over the moon."

Quintanilla re-mounted his machine to ultimately ride home to fourth outright in the 2019 event.

Defending champion Matthias Walkner — who started the stage only six minutes behind overall — threatened early but faded to finish the stage third. That handed the Austrian rider second place overall at the event.

Another KTM rider, Sam Sunderland, was third overall in the motorcycle class. His performance completed a top three lockout for the Austrian bike manufacturer, which also secured its 18th consecutive Dakar.

Meantime, in the cars division, Nasser Al-Attiyah won his third Dakar Rally crown after taking a 51-minute lead into the final stage. He allowed others to toil for the stage victory, cruising home to secure a 46 minute stranglehold over nearest rival Nani Roma, the 2014 champion.