Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel sealed his third Dakar Rally triumph following Sunday's 15th and final stage in the Senegalese capital.
With the overall victory all but confirmed after Saturday's final major stage, the Mitsubishi driver cruised home in 51st place in Sunday's 16-kilometre special stage to take the title by seven minutes 23 seconds from compatriot and team-mate Luc Alphand.
The win makes it a hat-trick of successes for Peterhansel following previous triumphs in 2004 and 2005.
And he admitted afterwards: 'It wasn't the easiest of all my victories. Sometimes I won with more than 30 minutes' lead, this time it was a very close call until the end.
'At first we got roughed-up by Volkswagen. We had to keep our heads clear and the race was won by the book eventually.
'Then there was the struggle with Luc, which was tricky because it remained a close call until the end. Actually it was pretty stressful.'
Overall, Jean-Louis Schlesser made it a clean sweep for the French, claiming a distant third place more than one-and-a-half hours behind Peterhansel.
Volkswagen's Giniel de Villiers took the honours for the stage, the South African racing home in a time of seven minutes 42 seconds.
Team-mate Carlos Sainz narrowly failed to make it four successive stage wins after finishing second, two seconds behind de Villiers, while American Robby Gordon took third for Hummer.
In the bikes, Latvian Janis Vinters won the day with a time of eight minutes 42 seconds, seven seconds ahead of Norwegian Pal Anders Ullevalseter, with Portugal's Helder Rodrigues third.
But overall it was KTM's Cyril Depres who secured his second Dakar Rally win, 34 minutes and 19 seconds ahead of fellow Frenchman David Casteu, with Chris Blais of the US third.
Depres was able to amble home in 56th place for the stage in the knowledge that victory was assured following long-time leader Marc Coma's crash on stage 13.
He said: 'I had hoped for so long that this last day would have such a great flavour. I might have been the only one to believe in it after the trouble I had had in the beginning of the rally and this is probably what I am most proud of.
'If I had a book to write everything that happened during the rally, I think I could write 100 pages or more. I had misfortunes, I had luck too - it was a crazy Dakar.'
In the trucks category MAN's Hans Stacey finished with a massive lead of three hours 10 minutes 52 seconds over his nearest rivals, Russia's Ilgizar Mardeev and Czech driver Ales Loprais.
It was the Dutchman's first title though he finished eighth for the stage, more than a minute behind winner Arjan Brouwer who recorded a time of nine minutes and 39 seconds in his GINAF.
Leading final positions from stage 15 (Dakar-Dakar 16km):
Cars: 1 Giniel De Villiers (Rsa) Volkswagen 07mins:42secs, 2 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Volkswagen 07:44, 3 Robby Gordon (USA) Hummer 08:08, 4 Carlos Sousa (Por) Volkswagen 08:24, 5 Jean-Louis Schlesser (Fra) Schlesser 08:25, 6 Freddy Loix (Bel) Buggy 08:35, 7 Jutta Kleinschmidt (Ger) BMW 08:44, 8 Michael Petersen (USA) Buggy 08:49, 9 Miguel Barbosa (Por) Proto 08:51, 10 Nani Roma (Spa) Mitsubishi 08:59, 11 Philippe Gache (Fra) Buggy 09:04, 12 Klever Kolberg (Bra) Mitsubishi 09:06, 13 Bernard Errandonea (FRA) Buggy 09:09, 14 Andris Dambis (Let) OSC 09:09, 15 Paulo Nobre (Bre) BMW 09:10
Bikes: 1 Janis Vinters (Lat) KTM 08mins:42secs, 2 Anders Ullevalseter (Nor) KTM 08:49, 3 Helder Rodrigues (Por) Yamaha 09:07, 4 Jean De Azevedo (Bre) KTM 09:10, 5 Eric Croquelois (Fra) Yamaha 09:12, 6 David Casteu (Fra) KTM 09:14, 7 Thierry Bethys (Fra) Honda 09:27, 8 Johan Willemsen (Hol) Yamaha 09:31, 9 Paulo Goncalves (Por) Honda 09:34, 10 Kemal Merkit (Tur) KTM 09:36, 11 Frederic Lepan (Fra) KTM 09:37, 12 Bram Van Dorp (Hol) KTM 09:38, 13 Jozef Augustyns (Bel) KTM 09:38, 14 Jaroslav Katrinak (Slq) KTM 09:40, 15 Pedro Bianchi Prata (Por) Yamaha 09:42
Overall Standings after stage 15:
Cars: 1 Stephane Peterhansel (Fra) Mitsubishi 45hours:53mins:37secs, 2 Luc Alphand (Fra) Mitsubishi 46:01:03, 3 Jean-Louis Schlesser (Fra) Schlesser 47:27:34, 4 Mark Miller (USA) Volkswagen 48:03:53, 5 Hiroshi Masuoka (Jap) Mitsubishi 48:38:08, 6 Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah (Qat) BMW 49:25:36, 7 Carlos Sousa (Por) Volkswagen 51:04:31, 8 Robby Gordon (USA) Hummer 52:57:44, 9 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Volkswagen 53:19:22, 10 Stephane Henrard (Bel) Volkswagen 54:22:06, 11 Giniel De Villiers (Rsa) Volkswagen 54:38:11, 12 Bernard Errandonea (Fra) Buggy 55:16:03, 13 Nani Roma (Spa) Mitsubishi 55:30:06, 14 Sergey Shmakov (Rus) Buggy 56:04:15, 15 Jutta Kleinschmidt (Ger) BMW 56:22:22
Bikes: 1 Cyril Despres (Fra) KTM 51hours:36mins:53secs, 2 David Casteu (Fra) KTM 52:11:12, 3 Chris Blais (USA) KTM 52:28:59, 4 Pal Anders Ullevalseter (Nor) KTM 53:14:50, 5 Helder Rodrigues (Por) Yamaha 54:07:34, 6 Janis Vinters (Lat) KTM 54:21:14, 7 Michel Marchini (Fra) Yamaha 54:37:20, 8 Thierry Bethys (Fra) Honda 55:03:26, 9 Jaroslav Katrinak (Slq) KTM 55:17:03, 10 Jacek Czachor (Pol) KTM 56:00:57, 11 Henk Knuiman (Hol) Honda 56:14:32 , 12 Fabien Planet (Fra) KTM 56:51:11, 13 Miran Stanovnik (Slo) KTM 58:11:41, 14 Einars Vinters (Lat) KTM 58:44:46, 15 Martin Macek (CZE) Yamaha 59:16:38
end 211605 JAN 07
