The French rider finished the last stage in 9th place, just over 7 minutes from winner Sébastien Loeb.
For Stéphane Peterhansel, as in yesterday's special, all it took was to control the risks and manage the advantage achieved in the previous stages. The driver in command of the Peugeot 2008 DKR16 finished “only” with the 9th best time, enough to secure his 12th victory in the Dakar.
Sébastien Loeb redeemed himself from a much more modest 2nd week and won the 180km special, with a 1m13s advantage over Mikko Hirvonen, who almost couldn't climb the podium in his first participation. With this combination of results, Nasser Al-Attiyah (Mini) and Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) held second and third places overall, respectively. The Qatar driver finished with a delay of 34m58s for Peterhansel, while the South African registered a difference of 1h02m47s for the French.
Despite Peugeot's dominance in the first week of competition, Stéphane Peterhansel started the Dakar in a discreet way, unlike his compatriot Sébastien Loeb. The French driver, debuting on the Dakar, surprised the competition by winning 3 of the 4 first stages.
However, Loeb was unable to adapt to the more sandy conditions and saw the Spaniard Carlos Sainz, winner of the 7th and 9th stages, take the lead. But on the 10th stage, Peterhansel picked up the pace and performed an almost perfect race, surpassing his teammate in the general classification. From there, the Frenchman asserted his consistency and managed until the end, winning another title to add to his vast curriculum.
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On bikes, there were no surprises either: Australian rider Toby Price finished fourth in today's special, securing his first win and 15th in a row for KTM on the Dakar. Hélder Rodrigues was the highest ranked Portuguese, after Paulo Gonçalves, favorite for the final victory, had retired due to an accident. The Yamaha rider was third on arrival at Rosario and completed his 10th participation in fifth place in the overall standings.Thus, another edition of the Dakar ends, which, like many others, had a little of everything: strong emotions, surprising performances and some disappointments. For two weeks, pilots and machines were put to the test and were able to show their dexterity and determination in the most diverse types of surface and weather conditions. The “World's Greatest Adventure” ends today, but don't worry, next year is over!