The Dakar 2019 has been an incredibly successful race for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, Toby Price, Matthias Walkner and Sam Sunderland occupy the podium positions with Price securing KTM their 18th consecutive victory at the iconic event. In what has been a superb display of riding, determination and bravery, Price has overcome all the odds to take a well-deserved win.

Breaking his wrist just weeks before the event put doubts on whether the 2016 Dakar winner would even complete the rally. Showing immense resolve, Toby took each stage as it came, riding consistently, and at the end of the 10-day event his perseverance paid off.

There’s been a lot of chaos over the last few days. My plan from the beginning of this race was to just focus on my performance and try to be as smooth and consistent as possible. I’m happy to see my strategy is paying off. This 5th place in the overall is simply amazing.

Remaining calm and focused, Andrew Short has climbed up to an impressive 5th place in the Dakar’s overall standings finishing the 2019 Dakar Rally raid behind winner Toby Price, runner up Matthias Walkner, Sam Sunderland and team-mate Pablo Quintanilla.

Day nine of the 2019 Dakar took place in the area around Pisco, once again with a motocross-style mass start with riders setting off in waves of ten. 90% of the route was off-piste with half the special in the dunes and the second half of the 313-kilometre stage battled out over harder terrain. Monster Energy Honda Team’s top rider proved to be Nacho Cornejo. The Chilean got off to a swift, yet cautious start, but was able to push hard in the dunes, producing a performance that ranked among the best times of the day. Nacho’s sixth place on the stage meant the rider moves up to sixth overall.

Kevin Benavides came out guns blazing and opened the track for much of the special. A hard-to-locate waypoint caused the first wave of riders to reach the leading group and narrow the times down even further. Benavides eventually posted twelfth, 4’14” behind the stage winner.

Enjoying a good feeling aboard his Yamaha, Xavier de Soultrait was able to control his pace on Wednesday. Posting the 10th fastest time for the day, he moved up to fifth in the provisional overall standings. Less than eight minutes behind the rider in fourth, Xavier will do his best to move up higher in the overall during Thursday's final stage.

Adrien Van Beveren started the day determined to battle for the stage victory.

With just one more day to go as the 41st edition of the Dakar Rally comes to a close, Hero MotoSports Team Rally is poised well to post their third Dakar finish in a commendable position. Both Oriol Mena and Joaquim Rodrigues kept their nerves today and kept focus on finishing the penultimate stage of the Dakar 2019 without any incidents. Mena was in top form today as well, defending his position successfully to finish the stage 9 on 11th position.

Today’s solid finish takes him a notch above to 9th position in the overall rankings with only one more stage to go. Joaquim Rodrigues, fighting off a severe back pain from yesterday and despite a crash today, kept pushing himself in another dusty and fast stage to finish the stage 9 in the 19th position. With one more day to go, JRod is placed at 17th position in the overall rankings.

American Ricky Brabec arrives at the rest day of the Dakar in Arequipa, as race leader. Today the Monster Energy Honda Team rider handled the stage with intelligence after having taken command at the top of the general rankings yesterday. The second half of the 2-day marathon stage featured a mass start, motocross style line up in rows of 10 racers. Each wave, or row, of racers left the start in 5 minute gaps. The top 10 racers from yesterday started the race, including overall leader Ricky Brabec and the top seeds from KTM Toby Price, Sam Sunderland and Matthias Walkner.

In the second row at 8:05 Rockstar Husqvarna Factory teammates Pablo Quintanilla along with American rookie Skyler Howes had an advantage by following the tracks of the first wave, allowing these 3 to ignore navigation and use their natural speed to jump into the time adjusted lead by WP1.Ricky Brabec holds the first position of the rally, with 16:51’34 and Kevin Benavides is nine minutes behind in the sixth place.

The Dakar Rally will take place in only one country for the first time in its history next season, with Peru the sole host nation for the 2019 event. The route for the 41st edition of the South American event was revealed by rally organizer ASO on Friday, following the news that Chile had dropped out of a potential return at the last minute.

It comprises 10 stages and a rest day, all within Peru, starting and ending in the capital city Lima. It will begin on January 6 and finish on January 17. ASO had initially hoped for a route starting in Chile and ending in Ecuador, but was unable to reach an agreement with either country to join Peru.