Well it’s all done. It was pretty hard to follow in any sort of detail, maybe not suprising given the nature of the event and where it was being run. I guess it just goes to show how well resourced the Dakar is on the media side.
For me just a brief run down of each day, or even each couple of days would have made a massive difference. In terms of understanding what dramas were unfolding. Anyway, it’s early days for the event in this form, so lets hope they can improve that element a bit for next year.
Despres won the cars easily in the end. Making this his first win after switching from bikes. From his earlier performances it didn’t seem like he was even in the ball park in terms of pace for the established Rallye Raid stars, I guess he is used to playing the long game... With the Peugeot’s seemingly dominant in terms of performance at least this should spice up the inter-team battle come Dakar.
Loeb was penalized 4 hours after missing way points (could be by no more than 40 metres he claims), meaning 2nd went to Al Rajhi and 3rd to the Russian, Vasilyev. Both in Mini’s.
The awesome sounding Hilux’s didn’t really figure (are there any modern categories now where the front running cars sounds any good?), a suprising number of more normal vehicles finished too, which at over 6000 miles long, finishing is an achievement in itself, like no other event.
In the trucks, the might of Kamaz finally over hauled Van der Brink, with Mardeev and Sotnikov passing him at some point in the second half. Not sure what happened there, but was there ever any doubt Kamaz was going to win? Just sayin.
Despite my first world whinging, I’m glad events like this exist. There is still something raw about them, that is very rare in modern motorsport. That appeals to me in the same way, that going out and exploring the wilderness does.
Here are some videos. Two slickly produced efforts, and a longer, less slick one that shows a bit more detail and variety. Have a good weekend everyone.