2011 Dakar Rally


The 2011 Dakar Rally was the 33rd running of the event. It was held in Argentina and Chile for the third successive time, and ran from 1 to 16 January. The Amaury Sport Organisation and the governments of Argentina and Chile agreed to a return to South America for the event on 23 March 2010.
The rally concluded in Buenos Aires, with Vladimir Chagin of Russia achieving a record seventh victory in the truck division, at the wheel of his Kamaz, thus becoming the most successful driver in a single category in the history of the event. Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar and Timo Gottschalk of Germany won in the car division, giving Volkswagen their third successive victory in the car class. Marc Coma from Spain won his third Dakar in the motorcycle category, and Alejandro Patronelli of Argentina repeated the feat of his brother—Marcos Patronelli in 2010—to win the class for quad-bikes.

Entrants

407 Teams started the race with 200 motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles, 140 cars, and 67 trucks on the podium across from the Obelisk, on the 9th of July Avenue; one of Buenos Aires' major boulevards. 203 of the crews finished the event.

The route

The race began on New Year's Day in downtown Buenos Aires. The total racing distance was for cars, for bikes and quads and for trucks. Of these distances, was timed special stage for cars, with for bikes and quads and for trucks. Of the thirteen stages, six were in Argentina, five in Chile with two stages cross-country.

Stages

Stage results

Motorcycles

's Cyril Despres won the first two stages of the rally, to take an early lead of over two minutes on fellow KTM rider Marc Coma. Coma closed the gap to just fourteen seconds after his win on the third stage, and took the overall lead on stage four with his second stage win as Despres lost over ten minutes on the stage, dropping him to second in the standings. Coma maintained his lead overall until the end of the race, taking further stage wins in stages eight, ten and twelve en route to his third victory in the event. Despres, a three-time winner himself, won stage eleven but ended the rally fifteen minutes behind Coma in second place. Aprilia's Francisco López moved into third position after the fourth stage, and having won the seventh stage, had been set to complete the podium behind Coma and Despres. However, on the final stage, López suffered a mechanical failure from the finish line and lost over an hour to his rivals. His misfortune allowed Hélder Rodrigues, riding a Yamaha to take third place. López took fourth position, almost half an hour behind Rodrigues.

Quads

Cars

Trucks

Final overall standings

Motorcycles

Quads

Cars

Pos.No.DriverCo-DriverMakeEntrantTimeDifference
1302VolkswagenVolkswagen Motorsport45h 16' 16"+ 00' 00"
2308VolkswagenVolkswagen Motorsport46h 05' 57"+ 49' 41"
3300VolkswagenVolkswagen Motorsport46h 36' 54"+ 1h 20' 38"
4301BMWMonster X-Raid Team47h 00' 04"+ 1h 43' 48"
5307BMWTeam X-Raid49h 27' 37"+ 4h 11' 21"
6304VolkswagenVolkswagen Motorsport50h 10' 58"+ 4h 54' 42"
7313BMWMonster X-Raid Team52h 06' 23"+ 6h 50' 07"
8312NissanTeam Dessoude53h 13' 34"+ 7h 57' 18"
9310MitsubishiMitsubishi Brazil53h 39' 53"+ 8h 23' 27"
10314SMG BuggyHamburger Software SMG60h 28' 12"+ 15h 11' 56"

Trucks

Pos.No.DriverNavigatorMechanicMakeTimeDifference
1500Kamaz48h 28' 54"+ 00' 00"
2502Kamaz48h 58' 58"+ 30' 04"
3512Kamaz51h 49' 11"+ 3h 20' 17"
4518Kamaz54h 13' 50"+ 5h 44' 56"
5507MAN54h 14' 31"+ 5h 45' 37"
6506Iveco55h 44' 55"+ 7h 16' 01"
7508MAN59h 10' 57"+ 10h 42' 03"
8537Kamaz59h 38' 39"+ 11h 09' 45"
9526noneHino62h 50' 22"+ 14h 21' 28"
10528MAN66h 06' 29"+ 17h 37' 35"

Deaths

A total of four people were killed in Dakar-related incidents during the rally. A 28-year-old female spectator was killed when a competitor lost control of his vehicle in the first stage, while two mechanics were killed in separate electrical incidents and a driver lost his life in a collision with a rally competitor following the tenth stage.