Sports News

Dakar Rally: Al-Attiyah wins a sixth car title as Benavides takes the bikes by two seconds

Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah won his sixth Dakar Rally car title on Saturday, 17 January, at the end of the 13th and final stage, a 105km run along the Red Sea coast into Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. Driving a Dacia with Belgian co-driver Fabian Lurquin, he finished almost 10 minutes ahead of Nani Roma (Ford), with Mattias Ekstrom third.

The bike race was settled far more narrowly. Argentina's Luciano Benavides (KTM) won by two seconds, which AP called “the smallest margin ever”, after American Ricky Brabec (Honda) made a navigation error minutes from the finish.

Gulf Times focused on the home hero's place in history. It noted Dacia won at only its second attempt and that Al-Attiyah is now two wins clear of Ari Vatanen and Carlos Sainz, behind only Stephane Peterhansel's eight. It also recorded that Benavides's brother Kevin, a two-time winner, once won by 43 seconds.

“I still need to break Peterhansel's record.” — Nasser Al-Attiyah, via Gulf Times

How each outlet framed it

• Gulf Times — the “desert king” is back: records, Dacia's breakthrough and the other classes.
• AP (via The Bakersfield Californian) — the record-small bike margin and Brabec's wrong turn.

Where the numbers differ: both outlets give a two-second bike margin, but a photo caption on the specialist site Dirt Sports World says “by 2 minutes”, which looks like a slip. Lithuania's Vaidotas Zala won the truck title and American Brock Heger the SSV class.