Unfortunately this Dakar was marked by the death of 3 people, 2 spectators and a pilot, but in the end there were no major surprises in relation to the winners.
The Frenchman Cyril Despres (KTM) won the Dakar for the fifth time in the bikes category, ahead of the Portuguese Ruben Faria (KTM), with just one win away of matching the also French Stéphane Peterhansel (Mini) record with six. Peterhansel that won for the fifth time in the cars category, has now 11 victories in total, with the South African Giniel de Villiers coming in second, and the Russian Novitskiy in third.
In the Quads the Argentinean Marcos Patronelli (Yamaha) won with an advantage of almost two hours over the second place, Ignacio Casale (Chile), while in the truck category the winner was Pieter Versluis (Team Veka-MAN) followed by Ayrat Mardeev (Team Kamaz).