2018 Dakar: ‘Win 35’ for Michelin on two wheels

The first Dakar win of KTM Factory Team/Michelin’s Matthias Walkner chalked up Michelin’s 35th success since the famous cross-country rally’s creation.

This year’s route from Lima, Peru, to Cordoba, Argentina, totalled some 9,000 kilometres, with more than half that distance against the clock over a punishing cocktail of sand dunes, dusty tracks, rocky trails, mud, altitudes of close to 4,000 metres and one two-day marathon stage. The frequently difficult weather led to the cancellation of two legs.

Despite the challenging conditions, this menu didn’t prevent Austria’s Matthias Walkner from claiming his first Dakar victory at fourth attempt after coming second overall in 2017.

The battle on two wheels proved exceptionally close and, at the mid-rally rest day in La Paz, Bolivia, the top ten was blanketed by just half-an-hour after six stages.

Walkner took command thanks to some on-the-button navigation that saw him complete the Fiambala stage (Leg 10) with a handsome lead over his rivals. “It’s completely crazy,” he said at the finish. “My aim was to finish on the podium. It was very close, but Stage 10 turned out to be decisive. It’s a dream come true and it was an amazing Dakar. The level was very high and there were as many as six of us in contention, but I was the luckiest. Sometimes it takes luck to win, sometimes it doesn’t. This year, it went my way.”

The result prolongs KTM/Michelin’s domination of the event that has lasted since 2001.

The 2017 victor Sam Sunderland (KTM/Michelin) was forced out by a fall on Day 4.

The fastest time on the ultimate stage allowed Argentina’s Kevin Benavides (Monster Energy Honda/Michelin) to clinch second place, while the event’s 2016 winner Toby Price (KTM Factory Team/Michelin) made it an all-Michelin podium.