Qatari driver Nasser al-Attiyah won the Dakar Rally for a fourth time after the gruelling two-week trek through the Saudi Arabian desert came to a climax on Friday.

The 51-year-old - champion in 2011, 2015, 2019 - took the overall honours ahead of France’s nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb.

Al-Attiyah – bronze medalist in skeet shooting at the 2012 London Olympics – led the race from start to finish.

Earlier on Friday British motorbike rider Sam Sunderland had claimed his second Dakar Rally crown.

The KTM rider and 2017 winner, when he was the first British champion in either car or bike category, finished ahead of Chile’s Pablo Quintanilla and Austrian Matthias Walkner to take the chequered flag in Jeddah.

Dubai-based Sunderland, 32, dominated the first week but he duelled for the overall lead over the final days and surrendered it several times before finally coming out on top.

Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

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