Sam Sunderland has taken his first victory in the Dakar, the Englishman has finished in the podium accompanied with Walkner and Gerard Farres. The fastest in the last stage were Van Beveren and Farres.
A final day of 2017 Dakar edition went from Rio Cuarto to Buenos Aires where the riders today started in reverse order. But there was missing Iván Cervantes, Juan Esteban Sarmiento, Boris Garafulic Roberto Recalde and Sheikh Al-Qassimi who abandoned yesterday.
With the first and second position already decided, the fight today was for the the last step of the podium between Van Beveren (Yamaha) and Farres. Van Beveren yesterday lost a precious time after receive a one-minute-penalty for speeding in the link. This meant that Farrés started 48 seconds ahead today.
But at the end, this intense fighting for third has made both the fastest of the day, reaching the same time and sharing the stage win so Farres complete the podium of the Dakar.
And in sixth place today, Sam Sunderland gets his first Dakar ahead of Matthias Walkner. The Red Bull KTM Factory team has revalidated the victory after the triumph of Toby Price last year, who had to retire in this edition.
Disappointing fifth and sixth place overall for the Monster Energy Team Honda of Joan Barreda and Paulo Goncalves, who finished at 43 and 52 minutes behind Sunderland, respectively. If they had not been penalized for an hour due to illegal refueling, the Japanese brand would, probably, have won the rally.