Argentine rider Kevin Benavides (KTM) won his second Dakar Rally this Sunday by winning the last stage of the raid, recovering the 12-second deficit he had with Australian Toby Price and finishing with a 43-second lead overall following 14 special stages and the prologue.
The excitement on the bikes continued until the last day of the rally, which saw three riders with options to become champions. The one from Salta, who had won the Dakar in 2021 with Honda, took the title.
The final stage of the Dakar, between Al-Holuf and Dammam (Saudi Arabia), with 281 liaison kilometers and 136 special, was expected to be fast, next to the beach, with some dirt, a lot of sand and a small section by a lake dry
The pilots even found mud (around kilometer 29) due to the rainfall of the last few days, the last stumbling block of the raid.
The starting order was the reverse of that of the general classification, started by the Spanish Rubén Saldaña and finished by the three candidates for the title: the American Skyler Howes (Husqvarna), Kevin Benavides and Toby Price. This time the bonuses for opening the track were not at stake for the best, which had allowed Price to save the lead on the penultimate day by just 12 seconds.
Howes, who was 1:31 behind the leader, had already discarded himself on the eve of the final. No sooner said than done. At the first checkpoint, he gave up 1:40 to Kevin Benavides. Thus it was confirmed that the Dakar was going to be a duel between two.
After the first 33 kilometers, the Argentine had deducted from Price the 12 seconds that he had in the general classification. After more than 43 hours of specials over fourteen stages and the prologue, everything was even.
Benavides went further and endorsed Price 1:49 at kilometer 68. After the first half of the special, the Dakar began to lean towards the Argentine. The Australian Daniel Sanders (GasGas) also fought for the stage, just 19 seconds behind the South American.
Price was not willing to throw in the towel and pressed. In the last intermediate step, Benavides’ advantage in the stage was reduced by twenty seconds, to 1:29 (1:17 overall). There was still some excitement.
At the finish line, the Argentine built the best time (1h15:17), 35 seconds better than the one set by Sanders. Only Price was missing to confirm that the Dakar was going to South America.
So it was. The Australian pulled another 34 seconds back but fell just short. He finished the stage 55 seconds behind Benavides and 43 seconds overall in the rally.
The Valencian Tosha Schareina (GasGas) was the best Spaniard in the last stage, ninth, at 5:47 behind Benavides, and Lorenzo Santolino (Sherco) from Salamanca finished twelfth at 7:37, but finished the Dakar in the top 10, ninth at 1h38:04.
The overall podium was completed by Howes, who took the last stage calmly and finished at 5:04 behind the champion.
