2019 DAKAR RALLY

Photos, ASO, HRC, Yamaha-Racing, Red Bull Content Pool

Every Dakar Rally is tough, so any thoughts that this year’s Dakar would be easier just because it was shorter were instantly dismissed who’ve experienced the event in the past.

Despite being around 3,500km shorter than the 2018 rally, this year’s “100% Peru” Dakar saw experienced and rookie competitors alike succumbing to the seemingly endless dunes of Peru’s desert regions.

KTM came into the 2019 Dakar having won the motorcycle division for the past 18 years, but for the bulk of the event it looked like that winning streak would finally be broken. First Husqvarna, then Honda led the general classification, with KTM’s 19th straight win only guaranteed on the final day. The man who delivered that win was Australia’s own Toby Price.

Price won only one of the ten daily stages that made up this year’s Dakar, which led some to dismiss his win as a “Bradbury,” but the 31-year-old was in the leading pack throughout and, more impressively, won the rally while carrying a debilitating wrist injury.

In mid-December, while training for this year’s Dakar, Price broke the scaphoid bone in his right wrist, requiring surgery. The ten-day, 5,000+km Dakar would put that injury to the test and Price himself thought he’d be capable of only completing a few days before retiring.

As it turned out, the Aussie not only completed the rally, but took the win, backing up the breakthrough victory – the first for an Australian in any Dakar category – that he achieved in 2016

Champions and Challengers

Price was part of the Red Bull KTM Factory Team that was unchanged from last year, with team mates including 2017 motorcycle division winner Sam Sunderland and last year’s winner Matthias Walkner. Luciano Benavides was the ‘water carrier’ for the Red Bull KTM squad, while Laia Sanz also ran with KTM support. The top-placed female rider in recent years, Sanz is also the only competitor, male or female, to have completed the Dakar for eight successive years.

Up against KTM would be squads from sister brand Husqvarna, as well as factory-backed teams from Yamaha, Honda, Sherco and Hero (aka Honda India).

Of those challengers, Honda has looked the most likely to knock KTM off its perch, as team riders Joan Barreda and Kevin Benavides had scored stage wins and led the general classification in recent years, but were never in a winning position on the final day.

Alongside Barreda and last year’s runner-up Benavides in the factory Monster Energy Honda Team were the experienced Paulo Goncalves, American Ricky Brabec, and last year’s rookie sensation, Jose Ignacio Cornejo.

Yamaha’s factory squad was unchanged for 2019, with Adrien van Beveren, Xavier de Soultrait, Franco Caimi and Australia’s Rod Faggotter all returning to the Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team.

Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing came to Peru with the two-man squad of Pablo Quintanilla and Andrew Short. While Short is inexperienced, with only one Dakar campaign under his belt, Quintanilla is a veteran, with a best overall placing of third (2016) in his six previous participations leading up to this year’s rally raid.

Hero Motorsports Team Rally fielded a pair of experienced riders in Oriol Mena and Joaquim Rodrigues, as well as Santosh Chunchunguppe Shivashankar.

Sherco TVS Factory Rally had the experienced brothers Adrien and Michael Metge guiding Aravind Prabhakar and Dakar first-timer Lorenzo Santolino.

Outside of these teams, there was a mixed bag of semi-supported and privateer outfits, as well as solo competitors.

Beyond Price and Faggotter, there were two other Aussies in the motorcycle category this year: Ben Young, making his Dakar debut with the support of the Duust Rally Team from Poland; and James Ferguson, another Dakar debutant who was facing the additional challenge of being in the ‘Original by Motul’ category where entrants are required to be self-sufficient, providing their own tools and spares, and doing their own servicing and repairs at the daily bivouacs.

Young came to his first Dakar with some experience under his belt, having competed in Morocco’s Merzouga Rally and the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. The 47-year-old from Victoria had also spent time training with the Red Bull KTM Factory team, so had a good idea of what he was in for. Ferguson, on the other hand, was less experienced, although the 33-year-old did compete at last year’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.

Rookies like Young and Ferguson made up just over a third of the 149 motorcycle entries at this year’s Dakar.

In the quad bike division that covers the same route as the bikes, the South Americans have been dominant in recent years. Argentina’s Patronelli brothers, Marcos and Alejandro, won from 2010 to 2013, with Marcos also winning in 2016, while Chile’s Ignacio Casale was victorious last year and in 2014.

The only Aussie in the quad class this year was 48-year-old John Maragozidis. A three-time winner in the quad class at the Australasian Safari, Maragozidis was making his Dakar debut in a self-funded effort, but this was actually his second visit to South America. Maragozidis had entered himself for last year’s rally, but a pre-event injury prevented the South Australian from competing, so he followed the rally as a spectator to get a taste of what he’d be in for.

Finally, Side by Side (SxS) vehicles also compete at Dakar and have had their own category since 2017. Competing alongside the cars, not the bikes, the two recognised SxS winners to date have both been from Brazil.

Peru Only

In the eleven years since the Dakar relocated to South America, the annual rally raid has been held across a number of countries, including Peru, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.

Due to economic and environmental concerns, a number of those countries pulled out of hosting a leg of the 2019 rally, and the whole event looked to be on the verge of cancellation before an agreement was reached with Peru to host this year’s Dakar in its entirety.

With Peru confirmed, a course was selected that would consist of a large loop, starting in Lima and venturing south into the country’s challenging deserts before returning to the capital.

The 5,537km route for the bikes this year included 2,951km of timed special stages, with seven of these daily stints comprising more than 300km and one marathon special of 405km. More than 70 per cent of the total competitive kilometres would be on sand, too, including the very fine, powdery, energy-sapping and engine-destroying sand known as ‘fesh-fesh’.

Starting on 7 January, this year’s rally was made up of ten stages, split by a rest day on 12 January, and concluding in Lima on 17 January.

Here’s how this year’s Dakar panned out and how Toby Price achieved glory.

Stage by Stage

Stage 1 – Lima to Pisco

The opening day’s timed stage, an 84km special starting and finishing in Pisco after a long liaison (transit) section from Lima, gave little indication of what was to come, but Honda nevertheless made a statement with Barreda winning this stage and Brabec finishing third; the Honda pair split by Quintanilla.

The KTMs took it relatively easy in the broken dunes that made up most of the special, Sunderland the best placed in fifth, while defending champion Walkner was seventh, blaming a training programme interrupted by illness.

Less than six minutes covered the top ten that included van Beveren and de Soultrait, but Faggotter was cautious, finishing 29th, while Sherco placed three of their riders - including rookie Santolino - inside the top 25.

Young and Ferguson completed the first day in 87th and 119th, respectively.

Stage 1 - 84km special, 331km total

Stage winner – Barreda (Honda)

Overall leader – Barreda (Honda)

Price - 6th stage, 6th overall

Stage 2 – Pisco to San Juan de Marcona

Starting the day after the cars meant there were tracks to follow, but there were still navigational challenges through the Ica dunes beyond Pisco and the fesh-fesh that followed before respite came with a period of beachside riding.

Brabec led for most of the stage, but would be pipped for the day’s win – by only 22 seconds - by Walkner. Price finished in third place, three minutes further back.

Of Brabec’s team mates, Barreda finished the day third overall, with Benavides eighth, Cornejo eleventh and the injured Goncalves twelfth.

Best of the Yamahas was van Beveren in seventh, while de Soultrait lost time again on this stage to finish twelfth. Faggotter held station in 28th.

Young finished 100th on the stage and Ferguson 109th.

Stage 2 - 342km special, 552km total

Stage winner – Walkner (KTM)

Overall leader – Barreda (Honda)

Price - 4th stage, 5th overall

Stage 3 – San Juan de Marcona to Arequipa

The third day turned the rally on its head with ten retirements, including race leader Barreda and Yamalube Yamaha’s Caimi and Faggotter.

Another day of dunes, this stage also took riders through fesh-fesh, on to the shore of the Pacific Ocean and into the mountains, specifically the 2,000+mt Cobrepampa region, and it’s here where heavy fog descended and made navigation even harder.

Walkner and Brabec went off course early on this stage, losing 20 minutes in the Acari Dunes due to what they claimed was a discrepancy between the actual waypoint and its position on the roadbook. Price also lost time here, while Barreda benefitted, but only briefly.

Leading the field in fog that dropped visibility to less than 2 metres, Barreda dropped into a steep ravine in the Cobrepampa that proved impossible to turn around and ride out of. Searching for another way out was equally fruitless and the Spaniard eventually had to give up, ending his 2019 Dakar on only the third day. Walkner almost suffered the same fate, but managed to pull up in time.

The only good news for Honda was Benavides finishing the day in second and moving up to third overall.

Stage 3 was also one of mixed fortunes for Yamaha, with Faggotter retiring with an undisclosed mechanical failure and Caimi with injury, but de Soultrait and van Beveren finally found their groove. Winning his first ever Dakar stage, de Soultrait moved up to sixth in the general classification, while van Beveren was fourth for the day and improved to the same placing in the overall.

The day’s big winner was Quintanilla, who inherited the general classification lead and would take an advantage of over 11 minutes into Stage 4.

Young was 84th in the general classification at the end of Stage 3, after an impressive 59th for the day, while Ferguson finished in 106th place.

Stage 3 - 331km special, 798km total

Stage winner – de Soultrait (Yamaha)

Overall leader – Quintanilla (Husqvarna)

Price - 9th stage, 5th overall

Stage 4 – Arequipa to Moquegua

The bikes and quads took a slightly different route to the cars for this day - the first part of the marathon stage - where all riders, including the factory-backed teams, would be responsible for their own repairs and maintenance at the evening bivouac and could not call on support crews.

For the Original by Motul entrants like Ferguson, this was nothing new, but for the factory riders, a minor mechanical malady here could end their rally.

With challenging stony trails and fesh-fesh sand making up the bulk of the stage, most riders were cautious, wary of avoiding bike damage they’d have to repair themselves. That included de Soultrait and Quintanilla, who finished more than 20 minutes adrift of the stage winner.

That winner was Brabec, who also inherited the general classification lead thanks to his aggression on the stage. Only Walkner and Price were able to finish relatively close to the American, six and seven minutes behind, respectively, with Walkner suffering an ankle injury near the end of the stage.

Goncalves impressed on this stage, too, finishing in sixth and the best Honda behind Brabec, while Santolino once again outperformed his experienced Sherco team mates, finishing part one of the marathon in tenth.

Sunderland struck trouble, losing time getting out of a shallow ravine and negotiating large rocks on his way to a checkpoint, but still managed to finish in fifth place.

On a day that saw another ten riders either retiring or excluded, Young and Ferguson finished the day in 67th and 99th, respectively.

Stage 4 – 351km special, 509km total

Stage winner – Brabec (Honda)

Overall leader – Brabec (Honda)

Price - 3rd stage, 3rd overall

Stage 5 – Moquegua to Arequipa
The second part of the marathon and the last stage before the rest day, Stage 5 would see the fifth different stage winner in as many starts when Sunderland prevailed.

After a solid, but unspectacular beginning to the rally, the Brit was on the pace through the Tacna Dunes that made up the bulk of Stage 5.

Riders started the day motocross-style, in groups of ten on the beach, hitting 150km+ speeds before turning inland.

Deep in the dunes, at the 155km mark, Goncalves crashed heavily, suffering head and neck injuries, as well as a suspected fracture in his right hand. Sunderland lost ten minutes rendering assistance to the Portuguese veteran but would have this time re-instated at the end of the day.

With Goncalves out, Honda was down to three riders – Brabec, Benavides and Cornejo. Brabec struggled in the mixture of fesh-fesh, narrow rocky canyons and dunes on this stage, finishing outside the top ten and reducing his lead in the general classification to just 59 seconds over Sunderland.

“The Dakar is never easy, but I never thought that I actually could be in the overall physical lead,” Brabec said on the eve of the rest day.

“I would like to have a bigger margin overall [but] I’m hoping that I can make it to the [final] motocross start with a good lead. It would be making history on two counts: 1 – being the only American to win the Dakar and; 2 - breaking KTM’s winning streak. There's a lot of weight on my shoulders, but I’m not going to let it get to me.”

Standing in Brabec’s way, those KTMs included Price and Walkner, who despite completing the day in ninth and eleventh, respectively, still held fourth and seventh overall, with Price less than three and a half minutes off the lead, while Walkner had been slugged with a three-minute penalty for speeding on the liaison.

Stage 5 was a good day for the Yamahas, with de Soultrait third and van Beveren fifth, but Sherco’s Santolino starred, taking fourth on the stage and moving up to eleventh in the general classification.

Young completed Stage 5 in 80th place and Ferguson in 83rd, with the pair going into the rest day in 75th and 89th overall.

Stage 5 – 345km special, 774km total

Stage winner – Sunderland (KTM)

Overall leader – Brabec (Honda)

Price - 9th stage, 4th overall

Stage 6 – Arequipa to San Juan de Marcona

With the rally raid now starting to make its way back to Lima, some thought that racing sections of the same stages they’d completed the week before would make things easier, but running these routes in reverse was just as difficult, as evidenced by a further ten retirements on Stage 6.

The highest profile of these was Santolino, who’d had a stellar debut, but crashed heavily only 33km into the stage. Van Beveren stopped to assist until the Spaniard was choppered out and like Sunderland on Stage 5, would have this time re-instated. The next-best rookie, Skyler Howes, also struck trouble in the Tanaka Dunes and would retire on this stage.

Quintanilla seemed to benefit the most from the rest day at Arequipa, fast on this stage and finishing the day first, despite losing his roadbook and having to follow Benavides to stay on course.

Sunderland lost time with rear brake damage that forced him to make some emergency repairs, while Brabec also lost time in the dunes.

Finishing more than seven minutes behind Quintanilla meant Brabec lost the overall lead to the Chilean, but Honda still had two riders in the top five, while KTM had Price holding down third overall and both Walkner and Sunderland within striking distance inside the top ten.

Yamaha’s van Beveren and de Soultrait were still in the top ten, too, although the latter had his day interrupted when his Iritrack monitoring system malfunctioned on the start line.

Young finished the stage 52nd and Ferguson 75th.

Stage 6 – 317km special, 837km total

Stage winner – Quintanilla (Husqvarna)

Overall leader – Quintanilla (Husqvarna)

Price - 4th stage, 3rd overall

Stage 7 – San Juan de Marcona loop

With a 323km loop that comprised large sandhills of the Duna Argentina, but with some fesh-fesh and a rocky plateau also on the stage, compounded by heavy fog which led to the race being halted temporarily, there were challenges aplenty on Stage 7.

Those challenges were starting to grind on Price, who was clearly struggling with his wrist injury and even riding passages with his hand off the throttle for relief. As such, the Aussie finished eighth on the stage but retained his third placing in the general classification.

Navigational problems in the dunes undid Quintanilla’s good work from the day before, the Chilean losing almost ten minutes to the stage winner and the overall lead to Brabec.

Van Beveren excelled in the sand, finishing the stage in fourth and improving to second overall after a time penalty robbed Price of one and a half minutes. The Frenchman’s team mate, de Soultrait, continued his consistent run in the back half of the top ten, but was also hit with a time penalty.

Young and Ferguson finished the day in 69th and 87th respectively and 17th and 25th for the rookie category. With the retirements of Santolino and Howes the previous day, Botswana’s Ross Branch was now the leading rookie, 17th on the stage and an impressive 16th overall.

Sunderland was the stage winner ahead of Cornejo, but seemed less than thrilled with the result, which may have explained what is alleged to have taken place on the following stage.

Stage 7 – 323km special, 386km total

Stage winner – Sunderland (KTM)

Overall leader – Brabec (Honda)

Price - 8th stage, 3rd overall

Stage 8 – San Juan de Marcona to Pisco

Tasked with leading the field for the 360km stage after completing the previous day on top, Sunderland had problems with his Iritrack on the start line, which led to Cornejo and Brabec being the first bikes away. As this stage was also a ‘Super Ica’ special, it meant the frontrunning bikes, cars and trucks would start together rather than in their own categories, making leading the field even more difficult.

Before the stage had even been completed, there were accusations of deliberate sabotage of the Iritrack by Sunderland or his team, ensuring he wouldn’t have to open the course and potentially lose significant time making navigational mistakes that those following could avoid.

Mistakes actually cost lead-off rider Cornejo around 14 minutes and van Beveren almost 12, so there was some merit to the accusations.

When Sunderland finally did start, he finished the stage in fourth place, but race organisers would later apply an hour time penalty to the Brit for Iritrack tampering, ending any hopes of a podium, let alone a win.

That had no impact on stage winner Walkner, who finished the tough special through the Ica Dunes 45 seconds ahead of Quintanilla, with Price a further 30 seconds back.

The hard luck story of this day was Brabec. Less than 57km into the stage, the American’s Honda came to a halt with terminal engine failure. Brabec’s third straight Dakar retirement was also the hardest to take, as he was in a genuine position to win.

In his tenth Dakar start, Stefan Svitko (KTM) also retired on this stage after a crash left him with a suspected head injury.

With Brabec’s retirement and Sunderland’s penalty, Price led the general classification for the first time at the end of this stage, which was also the first time any KTM had held the overall lead in this year’s rally.

However, Price had only a minute’s lead over second-placed Quintanilla, so another KTM win was far from guaranteed.

With two stages to go, Walkner was third overall, while fourth-placed van Beveren was an outside chance for the win, despite being almost ten minutes behind.

Young completed the stage in 59th and Ferguson in 79th.

Stage 8 – 360km special, 573km total

Stage winner – Walkner (KTM)

Overall leader – Price (KTM)

Price – 3rd stage, 1st overall

Stage 9 – Pisco loop

After the drama with Sunderland on Stage 8, shenanigans reared their head again, with claims that Honda’s Benavides had hidden extra route notes - additional to the standard roadbook – on his bike for Stage 8. This was reportedly witnessed by another competitor, who informed race officials. Finding proof of the unauthorised notes (which are forbidden), officials imposed a three-hour penalty on Benavides for unsportsmanlike behaviour.

Honda claimed inconsistency in enforcing this rule and were considering an appeal, while KTM were also considering appealing Sunderland’s penalty as Stage 9 got underway. With riders starting in groups of ten in the Ica Dunes outside of Pisco, it made for a spectacular sight, but also made it hard for frontrunners and those more skilled at navigation to break away from the pack.

Only 17km from the end of the stage, van Beveren’s Yamaha expired with apparent gearbox failure while de Soultrait continued to fall further back, but was at least able to finish the stage.

At the end of the day, it was a breakthrough first stage win for both Michael Metge and the Sherco TVS Rally Team. Metge’s first stage win came after six Dakar starts, including campaigns as part of Yamaha and Honda factory teams.

Behind him on the stage was Daniel Nosiglia (Honda), with Quintanilla third, but thanks to the group starts, the Chilean managed to pinch only a second off Price.

Going into the final day, Price’s lead was one minute and two seconds over the Chilean, so either rider could take the win. A further five and a half minutes behind, Walkner was ready to pounce should both riders trip up.

On the penultimate stage, Young finished 62nd and moved to 53rd overall, with Ferguson 74th and 69th overall.

Stage 9 – 313km special, 409km total

Stage winner – Metge (Sherco)

Overall leader – Price (KTM)

Price – 5th stage, 1st overall

Stage 10 – Pisco to Lima

With everything to play for, the final day of Dakar 2019 got underway with a reverse order start, so Quintanilla and Price would be the last two riders away on the 112km special into the Ica dunes before a long liaison back to Lima.

Aiming to put a gap on Price and keep him guessing just how far ahead he was, Quintanilla went out hard and fast, but only 10km into the stage, he misjudged a jump and landed heavily. By the time Price arrived on the scene a few minutes later, Quintanilla was already in the hands of medical staff and while the Husqvarna rider was able to rejoin the stage, he had lost a bunch of time.

With a podium now the goal, Quintanilla continued, carrying what was later diagnosed as a fractured left ankle for more than 100km and finishing the stage almost 20 minutes behind Price. That would have been good enough for third overall, but overnight, officials reversed the time penalty applied to Sunderland, so Quintanilla’s efforts were ultimately for nothing.

At the front, though, it was all about Price. The man whose team bosses call ‘The Animal’ won his first and only stage on the final day of this year’s Dakar in what was a fitting finish to a gutsy performance.

“It’s very crazy to sit here and say that we won the Dakar rally with no stage victories until today - it’s really crazy,” Price said.

“It’s been a long ten days. Now I’ll just wait and see what damage I've done to my wrist [but] at the end of the day, the pain and torture has been worth it.

“I thought I would only be able to do two stages and then pull out and that would have been me done, but the support from everyone back home in Australia and then having some things go my way and a bit of luck, it just worked out in the end. It’s been an unreal rally.

“At the end of the day I was just happy to make the finishing line. I didn’t think I was even going to be able to do that, [but] I just don’t like giving up, I don’t like quitting.”

Price’s win maintained KTM’s record of success at Dakar; the unbroken winning streak now stretching back to 2001. Walkner’s second place and the overturning of Sunderland’s penalty meant there was a KTM lockout of the podium, too.

The attritional nature of this year’s Dakar meant that only 75 riders finished - half of those who started. However, amongst those finishers were the Aussie rookies Young and Ferguson, who completed the rally in 51st and 67th position overall.

In the smaller quad field, Maragozidis also completed his debut Dakar, finishing 15th overall with a best stage finish of 10th. The victor in the quad category was Argentina’s Nicolas Cavigliasso, who won nine of the ten stages, finishing almost two hours ahead of the next best rider.

Stage 10 – 112km special, 359km total

Stage winner – Price (KTM)

Overall leader – Price (KTM)

Price – 1st stage, 1st overall

2019 DAKAR RALLY – Top 10 overall results