Qatari driver Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah has emerged as the champion of the Dakar Rally.

Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah

Qatari driver Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah has emerged as the champion of the Dakar Rally for the fifth time at Dammam, Saudi Arabia, which hosted the rally competitions. The competition consisted of 820 drivers and navigators, representing 68 countries.

Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah was crowned as the champion previously in the Rally held in 2011, 2015, 2019, and, 2022.

Al Attiyah was the leader at the 45th edition by more than an hour ahead of Sebastien Loeb of team Prodrive, who is a 9-time world rally champion, while Brazilian youth Lucas Morais of team Toyota finished third, 1 hour, 1 minute and 3 seconds behind.

Al Attiyah was crowned champion after successfully completing the rally’s 14 stages with a total time of 45 hours and 3:15 minutes, which made the Qatari rally racer become the second most successful driver in terms of the number of victories. 

Sebastian Loeb finished second in the overall standing and was behind Al Attiyah by 1 hour and 20 minutes and 49 seconds. He also set a record yesterday by winning six consecutive stages.

The final stage was won by Guerlain Chichery after completing a distance of 136 km within 1 hour, 9 minutes, and 24 seconds.

Brazil's Lucas Moraes grabbed P3 overall and he would have secured the double for Toyota but Loeb's aggressive crawl this week stopped him from doing so.