Sam Sunderland has achieved his second ‘Touareg’ on a motorcycle after conquering the final victory in the 44th edition of the Dakar. The British rider, Dakar champion in 2017 with KTM, has achieved the victory of the ‘banished’ and after leaving the ranks of KTM to make room for Kevin Benavides, success has knocked on its doors at GasGas. Although the Catalan brand is still a subsidiary of KTM, the victory in Sunderland breaks the duopoly that KTM and Honda have maintained for years and gives Spanish motorcycling a great success. Pablo Quintanilla and Matthias Walkner complete the final podium of the Dakar in motorcycles.
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The short special that put the icing on the Dakar has not offered great complications to the new champion. Sunderland has been able to manage his advantage and although Pablo Quintanilla and Matthias Walkner have finished ahead of him, as well as Joan Barreda, the difference has not made him fear at any time for the final victory. In fact, Sunderland closed the special with 3 minutes and 25 seconds of loss with Pablo Quintanilla. The Chilean Honda rider had to settle for second place overall, although Quintanilla accompanied this result with the stage victory.
Beyond the partial result of today’s stage with victory for Pablo Quintanilla ahead of Ricky Brabec and Toby Price, in a special in which Joan Barreda finished fifth, it is worth noting the equality in which the Dakar has moved in the motorcycle category. Different actors, different brands and the podium of the 44th edition of the rally is built in a final difference of 6 minutes and 47 seconds after 38 hours of rally. For its part, Joan Barreda closes this Dakar in fifth position, 25 minutes and 42 seconds behind Sunderland, while Lorenzo Santolino has been left at the gates of the ‘top 10’.