Al-Attiyah, Coma win Dakar Rally

BARADERO – Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar made up for heartbreak a year ago by finally winning his first Dakar Rally title on Saturday and becoming the first Arab champion of the world’s toughest rally.

Al-Attiyah only had to avoid mistakes on the 13th and last stage, a 181-kilometre sprint on gravel from Cordoba to the Baradero race track, to win the Dakar at his sixth attempt.’We did it,’ Al-Attiyah said. ‘I am so happy.’Spanish rider Marc Coma won the race for the third time on his motorbike, and Vladimir Chagin of Russia won a record seventh truck title. Namibia’s sole representative Ingo Waldschmidt finished Stage 13 at 62 to end an impressive 38th overall.Al-Attiyah’s rally credentials were impressive, with six various championships in classic and cross-country rallying since 2008 alone. But until this year, the Dakar had been a mainly frustrating experience. In 2009, Al-Attiyah had to pull out when his engine overheated on the sixth stage while he held an overall lead of more than 20 minutes. Then last year, he chased Spanish teammate Carlos Sainz all the way to the end, losing by only 2 minutes in the closest Dakar finish ever.This year, he overtook Sainz on Monday in the Atacama Desert and held his nerve and the overall lead to the finish line, calling the victory with his German navigator Timo Gottschalk ‘the biggest moment of my career.’’It means a lot to win a Dakar, for me, for my people, for my country and for my team,’ he said. Giniel de Villers of South Africa, the 2009 champ, finished 49 minutes, 41 seconds behind Al-Attiyah for second. Sainz won the 13th stage, and his seventh this year, to hold onto third. Teammate Mark Miller of the United States, runner-up in 2009 and third last year, finished sixth this time.In motorbikes, Coma, like Al-Attiyah, was all but ensured of victory going into the final stage, but Coma said even then he could not relax on his KTM.He finished fifth in the stage, two minutes and 16 seconds behind winner Frans Verhoeven of Belgium.Overall, Coma ended up 15 minutes and four seconds ahead of defending champ Cyril Despres of France. Helder Rodrigues of Portugal was third, one hour, 40 minutes and 20 seconds back.’What was really tough was that I could not let my guard down, not even for a second,’ the Catalan said. ‘Truth is that with the race and the permanent tension I did not have time to think about anything else in a long time.’ – Nampa-AP