Carlos Sainz wins the 2010 Dakar

Carlos Sainz will have held on until the end. Put under pressure by an over-motivated Nasser Al-Attiyah during the last week, the double world rally champion managed to keep his lead to win this Dakar 2010, 2:12?? ahead of his Qatari rival and teammate. Left this Saturday with a lead in the general classification of 2?48?? on Al-Attiyah, Sainz did not fear much given the absence of difficulties of the course. However, his challenger went all out, grabbing seconds with each score. But Al-Attiyah?s last stand was not enough, despite having taken more than twelve minutes from Sainz during the last six stages.

In the lead since the evening of the fifth stage thanks to the setbacks of Stéphane Peterhansel (BMW), who had lost two hours following a broken driveshaft, Carlos Sainz therefore took up the challenge of maintaining control until the end . Winner of two special stages on this Dakar, Sainz showed great consistency when his opponents were more aggressive. His duel with Nasser Al-Attiyah even went very far, on the track and verbally, with both men accusing each other of lack of sportsmanship on the evening of the thirteenth and penultimate stage of the Dakar.

Carlos Sainz therefore won his first Dakar during his fourth attempt, a year after failing close to the goal, leaving the victory to Giniel de Villiers in 2009. He allowed Volkswagen to win for the second consecutive year, while being the first Spaniard to win the Dakar in the car category.