Majestic Casale takes the crown in Dakar Rally

Ignacio Casale takes the acclaim of the fans in Valparaíso
Thousands of people packed the streets of Valparaíso
The riders got a great reception
The quads were a bit hit with the public
Belgian lorry driver Tom Colsoul gets directions from the police

Amid euphoric scenes, Ignacio Casale has become the first Chilean to win the world-famous Dakar Rally.

Valparaíso – The 26-year-old triumphed in the quads category to write himself into the history books and give Chile success on home soil.

With thousands of ecstatic fans cheering him on, Casale could enjoy soaking up his success as he rounded the packed street of Valparaíso before finishing up in Plaza Sotomayor.

There, Casale received the trophy, the congratulations of President Sebastián Piñera and a ticker-tape reception.

After two weeks of intense competition in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, it was no surprise that Casale was overwhelmed by his hero´s reception.

He said: “I am very excited and can´t really take in what I have done yet. I´ve fulfilled my dreams and my name´s in the history books.

“I wanted to win after coming second last year and I prepared for a whole year for this.

“The last 20 to 30 kilometres were amazing – the crowds, people cheering me on, the banners. It´s a flood of emotions.”

Casale rubber-stamped his victory by winning the last stage from La Serena to Valparaíso. It was his sixth stage win out of 13 in total.

His finishing time for the rally was 68 hours, 28 minutes and four seconds. That gave him an advantage of one hour and 26 minutes over his closest rival, the Pole Rafal Sonik.

Chile´s Victor Gallegos also turned in a strong performance in the quads, finishing fifth.

In motorbikes, Spain´s Marc Coma took the title for the fourth time. The KTM rider finished almost two hours ahead of compatriot Jordi Viladoms. Chile´s highest finisher was Daniel Gouët, who came eighth.

In the closely-fought autos, it was another Spaniard, Nani Roma, who took the honours in his Mini. He overturned a 26-second deficit to overcome team-mate Stéphane Peterhansel by five minutes and 38 seconds, a very small margin after almost 51 hours of competition.

In lorries, Russia´s Andrey Karginov (Kamaz) triumphed with a three-minute lead over Holland´s Gerard de Rooy (Iveco).

The curtain has now been brought down on the Dakar 2014, which has been widely labelled the toughest of the six that have taken place in South America.

This was backed up by the statistics, as this year had the highest percentage of abandonments, 52.6 per cent. Of the 431 drivers that started, only 204 reached the finish in Valparaíso.