Argentinian rider Kevin Benavides, aboard his Red Bull KTM motorcycle, was crowned Saudi Arabia’s Dakar Rally champion for the second time on Sunday, after winning round 14. and the last stage of 417 kilometers (136 special) between Al-Hofuf and Dammam.
the salteno he came back from a 12-second deficit on the final day on his team mate, the Australian Toby Price, who he beat by 43′ in the general standings.
Benavides, 34, finished the competition with a cumulative time of 44 hours, 27 minutes and 20 seconds having covered more than 8,000 kilometers in the Arabian Desert since the engines were fired up on 31 December.
The podium of the 45th edition of the most extreme rally in the world was completed by Price with a gap of +00:43 and by the American Skyler Howes (Husqvarna Factory Racing) at 05:04.
Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna Factory Racing), younger brother of Kevin, equaled his best ever performance with a sixth place, just like in 2020, ahead of Chilean Pablo Quintanilla and Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren, both on Monster Energy Honda.
Franco Caimi (Hero Motorsport) from Mendoza closed the top 10 of the general classification and his brother Stefano (Bas World KTM), a rookie in the rally, managed to achieve the goal of completing the race in 25th position. take a step.
Kevin Benavides, the only South American rider in history to win the Dakar on two wheels, repeated the crowning achieved in 2021 with the Japanese brand Honda.
Source: Clarin
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