Ignacio Casale maintained control of the Quad class of the Dakar Rally right from start until the finish, with the Chilean securing the overall victory on Saturday with his fifth stage victory in Argentina.
The Yamaha rider won the opening three stages in Peru, and only once in the twelve stages did he finish outside the top three, ultimately finishing one hour, thirty-eight minutes and fifty-two seconds ahead of Argentine rider Nicolas Cavigliasso.
The victory is Casale’s second overall triumph in the Dakar Rally after previous winning the rally back in 2014, and the thirty-year-old admits it feels crazy to be again etching his name into the history books, becoming only the third Quad bike rider to win multiple Dakar’s after Marcos and Alejandro Patronelli.
“The race was very tough,” said Casale on RedBull.com. “You had to ride intelligently. It all went ok for me because I was very well prepared. It’s a wonderful emotion, because it is the result of so much work and so many sacrifices. I’ve never had to stop battling, battling, battling.
“Winning the Dakar is very demanding, especially four years after the first: there have been accidents and mechanical problems, but we’ve made it. It’s totally crazy.”
