Attiyah wins 11th stage, heat halts bikes

Peugeot Sport director Bruno Famin said: “The results have surpassed our expectations because we came here just to show the performance of the auto”. Hirvonen trails third-place driver Giniel de Villers by 4m 26s but will need a major issue to befall his rival on the short final stage.

Mini driver Al-Attiyah, the defending champion, took a five-minute bite out of the French Team Peugeot Total driver’s lead with victory in the trek from La Rioja to San Juan.

Carlos Sainz, who led cars after the ninth stage, had mechanical problems and saw his push for the title come to an end.

Toby Price ” I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what to think… I would’ve never imagined this two years ago.

It cost him 38 minutes and three placings overall, but he did his job in helping Price finish second on the stage and preserve his 37-minute lead overall going into the final stage.

“Crossing the finish line was a release after the extremely stressful last three days”, Peterhansel said.

The Finn clocked 5hr 34min 17sec, to finish nine seconds ahead of Al-Attiyah with South Africa s Leeroy Poulter third at 45sec for Toyota. The Portuguese rider’s Dakar Rally is officially over for 2016.

Points leader Stephane Peterhansel chose to focus on on finishing the race as he still holds a 40-minutes lead over Al-Attiyah who is second in the standings.

Today is the final day of the Dakar Rally 2016 where competitors will drive and ride from Villa Carlos Paz to Rosario over a distance of 180 km. Eduard Nikolaev took the stage win in the truck category.

France s Antoine Meo had been sitting third before the longest stage of the endurance race but dropped to sixth overall after losing half an hour during a fall.

During a post-race interview from the official Dakar Rally website, Peterhansel was asked how he felt about evening out his trophy room in terms of Dakar wins between his motorcycle and auto careers.