Historical: Argentine Kevin Benavides won the Dakar Rally in the motorcycle category

In the general classification, Benavides conquered the test with 4 minutes and 56 seconds of difference over Brabec, who finished second, and with 15 minutes and 57 seconds over the British Sam Sunderland, from the KTM team.

The 32-year-old Argentine and Latin American enduro champion made his debut in the Dakar Rally in 2016 and has already marked the territory by obtaining fourth place in the general table. In 2018 it was ranked second and this year, in his fifth participation, he won the title.

The motorcycle category came to the last day with great expectations, since on Thursday, after the end of the 11th stage, the top three (Benavides, Sunderland and Brabec) were separated by less than ten minutes apart.

That day, Sunderland had taken advantage of the problems of the Honda riders to win the penultimate stage and close the gap. However, the final day was fatal for Sunderland and he finished in 12th place. In this way, the consecration went to Benavides, who today finished second, 2 minutes and 17 seconds behind Brabec, 4 minutes and 13 seconds before the Austrian Matthias Walkner (KTM), which arrived in third place.

In this way, the Honda rider became the first Argentine to win the Dakar Rally in one of the two main categories. Until now the only ones who had achieved a similar feat had been the Patronelli brothers, Alejandro in 2011 and 2012 and Marcos in 2010, 2013 and 2016), but in quadricycles.

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