Dakar Rally victory for Al-Attiyah in cars after strong first week

Nasser Al-Attiyah secured overall car victory in the Dakar Rally on Sunday. The Qatari's victory came by no means as a surprise, as the rally driver had been well ahead of the competition for a week.

After the third stage, Al-Attiyah grabbed first place in the rankings and he cleverly extended that lead in the days that followed. It ensured that he was already well ahead of the competition after the first week and a Dakar Rally victory could hardly escape him.

However, this was partly due to disappointing results among the competition. Sébastien Loeb was one of the drivers who experienced bad luck in the first seven days, but he tried to fight his way back in the second half of the event. It earned him no less than six stage wins in a row.

For Al-Attiyah, however, this did not create any extra excitement at all, as he maintained a lead of over an hour over Loeb. He thus took his fifth ever victory in the Dakar Rally. Only Stéphane Peterhansel set a higher number. The Frenchman celebrated overall victory eight times.