‘El Matador’ and navigator Lucas Cruz were the overwhelming favourites after they took an 86-minute lead into the 12th and final stage, a short and relatively straightforward loop around Yanbu.

Sebastien Loeb, who had been Sainz’s nearest rival until he broke a suspension arm on the penultimate stage, won the final special of Dakar 2024 in his Prodrive Hunter.

However, it was not enough for the Frenchman to recover second in the general classification, which remained with Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux pilot Guillaume De Mevius.

Loeb trailed Mattias Ekstrom, one of Sainz’s team-mates, by just two seconds at the first waypoint and set the pace thereafter.

However, De Mevius was the next-quickest on the day at 5:09s off the pace, barely more than half the 9:56s buffer which he enjoyed in the battle for second overall at the start of the finale stage.

Vaidotas Zala (X-Raid Arijus) rounded out the top three for the special at just 12 seconds slower again.

As for Sainz, he was only 17th-quickest through the last 175 competitive kilometres but ceded just 10:50s relative to Loeb and hence his official margin of victory in the rally as a whole is 1:20:25s.

Guerlain Chicherit, in another Overdrive Hilux, could not pull off a hat-trick of stage wins to close out Dakar 2024 but fourth in the special matched his finish in the general classification.

Ekstrom dropped to 12th-fastest by the end of the special although was presumably deliberately driving in proximity to Sainz in case of any mishaps, given his hopes of an overall podium were already dashed.

It was another rotten day, though, for another multi-time Dakar champ in an Audi RS Q e-tron, with Stephane Peterhansel striking engine problems.

Monsieur Dakar is yet to reach the stage finish while Ekstrom is 45th in the general classification.

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General classification: Cars Top 10