The fortieth edition of the Rally Dakar 2018 ended this Saturday in the mountains of Cordoba (Argentina) after covering the fourteenth and final stage that had as its starting and finishing point the mentioned Argentine city.
The winners of each category were already almost decided due to the wide advantage they had over their main pursuers. In the case of cars, Spanish driver Carlos Sainz (Peugeot) was 43 minutes ahead of Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota), and over an hour ahead of the rest of the competitors, so he won his second Dakar after having won it for the first time in 2010.
On the other hand, Austrian rider Matthias Walkner (KTM) became the first man from his country to win the Dakar with the more than 15 minutes advantage he had over Argentine rider Kevin Benavides (Honda) and Australian rider Toby Price (KTM).
Chilean rider Ignacio Casale had an even clearer path to win his second Dakar in quads, as he had over an hour and a half lead over the rest of his Argentine rivals Nicolás Cavigliasso and Jeremias Gonzalez.
A similar situation was faced by Russian driver Eduard Nikoalev (Kamaz) in trucks, as he defended his title after Argentine driver Federico Villagra (Iveco) retired from the race on Friday due to mechanical problems, when he was only one second away from the first position.
Finally, Reinaldo Varela was the overall winner in the UTV's category and gave Brazil its second victory in this category.