The 2019 Dakar Rally stage 10, the final competitive leg, took place between Pisco and Lima. The final stage of the 2019 edition was almost a reverse of the opening day of racing. A 247 km liaison was followed by a short 112 km timed section.

At the start of Dakar Rally stage 10 the organisers threw another spanner into the works by having the field start in reverse order of their overall rankings. This meant that race leader Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota) was the last man to set off from the start-line. In a support role to his leading team-mate, Giniel de Villiers waited patiently for 55 min so he could follow home the Qatari. Al-Attiyah headed into the final stage with a comfortable lead of 51 minutes over Nani Roma.

Click here to read the stage 9 results.

A late stage win                                                                                                                                  

Carlos Sainz (Mini) remained without a stage win until the final leg of the 2019 Dakar. With nothing to lose El Matador, as he is known, threw caution to the wind and took the early stage lead. But the Spaniard was not having it all his own way. Sebastien Loeb (Peugeot) was looking to end the 2019 event in style and chased hard constantly closing the gap. Nani Roma (Mini) was also getting in on the action, setting fast times.

With his handy buffer to those behind Al-Attiyah was happy with a far more sedate pace than his fellow competitors.

Stage honours and standings

Carlos Sainz has managed to bag the stage victory. The Mini driver beat Sebastien Loeb by just 42 seconds at the finishing line. Cyril Despres was 3rd, 2 min 31 sec behind the Spaniard.

The 2019 Dakar Rally win went to Nasser Al-Attiyah and his navigator Mathieu Baumel (on is his birthday). The pair hardly put a foot wrong from a driving or navigation point of view and their South African-built Hilux never skipped a beat. This is Al-Attiyah’s third overall win at the gruelling event.

Giniel de Villiers was classified 10th in the overall rankings.

Check out the official Dakar YouTube channel for a video review of the day.

1 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel Toyota 34 hr 38 min 14 sec

2 Nani Roma/Alex Haro Bravo Mini +46 min 42 sec

3 Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena Peugeot +1 hr 54 min 18 sec

4 Jakub Pryzgonski/Tom Colsoul Mini 2 hr 28 min 31 sec

5 Cyril Depres/Jean Paul Cottret Mini +2 hr 48 min 43 sec