Carlos Sainz, the 61-year-old Spaniard and father of the Ferrari Formula One driver sharing his name, clinched his fourth Dakar Rally victory in Saudi Arabia on Friday, while Audi celebrated its inaugural title in the car category.
American Honda rider Ricky Brabec claimed victory in the motorcycling category for the second time in the 46th edition of the grueling two-week race.
Sainz finished the 12th and final stage in Yanbu, on the Red Sea coast, with a lead of one hour, 20 minutes, and 25 seconds over Belgian Guillaume de Mevius for Overdrive Toyota, with France's Sebastien Loeb in third.
Loeb, a nine-time world rally champion and Sainz's main rival until mechanical problems ended his challenge on Thursday, won the final stage in a Prodrive Hunter for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team.
Sainz has now secured Dakar victories with four different manufacturers – Volkswagen in 2010, Peugeot in 2018, and Mini in 2020. Notably, this time, he did not win any of the individual stages.
Audi, which has been targeting the Dakar since 2022, is the first to win with a car powered by an electric drivetrain. The Audi RS Q e-tron utilizes an energy converter, featuring a 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbo engine, to charge the car's high-voltage battery while driving.
The Dakar Rally originated in 1978 as a race from Paris across the Sahara to the Senegalese capital but switched to South America in 2009 for security reasons.
It moved to Saudi Arabia in 2020 and is now the flagship of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship.
