227 km of special stage that was the distance between Marc Coma and his second Dakar victory. The Spaniard did not flinch on the fast and technical trails between Cordoba and Buenos Aires. Three years after his first triumph in Senegal, on the other side of the ocean, the Catalan became the first Dakar winner in Latin America. Starting right after his main contender Cyril Despres, just like two days ago, the KTM Repsol rider took it easy on his bike and mainly on his tyres before crossing the finish line with a discrete smile on his face. His contender in the general standings, the title-holder kept on gaining back the time lost on Coma - more than 30' - in the first 3 stages of the raid, that will have proved to be decisive for the final victory and raced ahead gaining back 2'25" on the leader in this last stage. But the stage victory was actually fought between two riders on the hunt for the fifth place in the general standings: Helder Rodrigues and Pal Anders Ullevalseter only 44" apart in the standings before the start of the stage. The first one reached CP1(km 88) with a tiny but precious 3" lead. The lead of the Portuguese rider kept on increasing on the Norwegian who rear tyre was increasingly damaged. Two years after his victory in Nema in Mauritania, Rodrigues wins his third special stage in a Dakar and finishes 2'07" ahead of Ullevalseter and 2'41" ahead of Despres. As to the final standings, Marc Coma wins the bike race with a comfortable 1h25' lead. David Frétigné, on his small 450cc Yamaha, finishes the rally with a wonderful third place at 1h37 of the winner.