Dakar Rally: Coma, Al-Attiyah, Sonik, Mardeev victorious; Santosh 36th

The 2015 Dakar Rally came to a premature end as the 393 km stage was stopped after the second checkpoint due to heavy rain. Marc Coma, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Rafal Sonik and Airat Mardeev were crowned the winners in the bike, car, quadricycle and truck categories, respectively.

As far as India is concerned, however, the biggest winner was Bangalore's C S Santosh who achieved up what many thought was an impossible when he first started working towards it after winning the 2012 Raid de Himalaya.

The 31-year-old finished the 9,000 km long motorsport crucible in 36th overall that went through Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, taking the 156 finishers across four categories (431 competitors started the rally raid) on a circular route through some of the harshest terrain in the world.

Given how hurried Santosh's preparations were for the Dakar Rally and how great the hurdles - not least the Rs. 77 lakh he required to pay for the use of a factory KTM 450 Rally Replica - his finish can and should be seen as a catalyst for other off-road motorcycle racers follow in his footsteps.

With KTM already in India and TVS supposedly benefiting on the technical front due to its sponsorship of Sherco motorcycles at the Dakar Rally, perhaps Santosh's creditable performance could hurry the introduction of the off-road motorcycles at the 450 cc level.

And if the rumours of Mahindra evaluating a foray of its own to the Dakar Rally have any substance to it, maybe they will be convinced by the attention Santosh's effort garnered in the media. And this despite the fact that Indian broadcasters - for reasons best known to them - no longer airing the daily highlights from the event.

BIKES: DAKAR RALLY CROWN NUMBER FIVE FOR COMA

Until things started to go pear-shaped for Honda's Joan Barreda-Bort, it sure didn't look like Marc Coma would match his former rival Cyril Despres - who now competes in the car category with Peugeot - in the total Dakar wins count. But through chance, circumstance and flat out riding, Coma came out on top in the overall standings to take his fifth crown.

Honda's Paulo Goncalves and KTM's Toby Price rounded out the top three while Spain's Laia Sanz Pla-Giribert created history by becoming the first female rider to be finish the Dakar in the top ten.

OVERALL BIKE RANKING (AFTER STAGE 13/13)

1) Marc Coma (KTM)
2) Paulo Goncalves (Honda)
3) Toby Price (KTM)
4) Pablo Quintanilla (KTM)
5) Stephan Svitko (KTM)
6) Ruben Faria (KTM)
7) David Casteu (KTM)
8) Ivan Jakes (KTM)
9) Laia Sanz Pla-Giribert (Honda)
10) Olivier Pain (Yamaha)

CARS: DAKAR RALLY WIN NUMBER TWO FOR AL-ATTIYAH

It certainly wasn't an easy path for Nasser Al-Attiyah en route to his second win at the Dakar. After winning the event with the all-conquering Volkswagen factory team's Touareg, the Qatari tried his luck with a Hummer and then a modified Baja 1000 buggy. Both forays resulted in DNFs until last year's Dakar when he finished third overall in a All4 Racing Mini.

Al-Attiyah went two spots better to take a dominant this year in a Mini, followed to the finish by Toyota's Giniel de Villiers and Poland's Krzystof Holowczyc, also behind the wheel of a Mini.

The much publicized return of Peugeot to the event they used to dominate when it ran from Europe to Africa didn't produce the results they hoped for when they put together a formidable driver line-up of Carlos Sainz, Stephane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres.

Former Dakar winner Sainz didn't finish and Peterhansel and Despres could only manage 11th and 34th.

OVERALL CAR RANKING (AFTER STAGE 13/13)

1) Nasser Al-Attiyah (Mini)
2) Giniel de Villiers (Toyota)
3) Krzystof Holowczyc (Mini)
4) Erik Van Loon (Mini)
5) Vladimir Vasilyev (Mini)
6) Christian Lavielle (Toyota)
7) Bernhard Ten Brinke (Toyota)
8) Carlos Sousa (Mitsubishi)
9) Aidyn Rakhimbayev (Mini)
10) Ronan Chabot (SMG)

QUADS: SONIK IS TRULY SUPER

Rafal Sonik of Poland took his first Dakar Rally win over Jeremias Gonzalez Feiroli as Yamaha locked out the top two spots on the podium ahead of Walter Nosiglia's Honda.

OVERALL QUAD RANKING (AFTER STAGE 13/13)

1) Rafal Sonik (Yamaha)
2) Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli (Yamaha)
3) Walter Nosiglia (Honda)
4) Nelson Augusto Sanabria Galeano (Yamaha)
5) Christophe DeClerck (Yamaha)
6) Daniel Domaszewski (Honda)
7) Sebastian Palma (Can-Am)
8) Santiago Hansen (Honda)
9) Willem Saaijman (Yamaha)
10) Andre Suguita (Can-Am)

TRUCKS: MARDEEV LEADS KAMAZ PODIUM LOCK-OUT

Airat Mardeev, Eduard Nikolaev and Andrey Karginov maintained the lockout of the top three spots on the podium from yesterday after the final stage was shortened due to poor weather. The Russian trio maintained Kamaz's dominance over the event.

The Russian Truck manufacturer had previously won the Dakar Rally a record 12 times.

OVERALL TRUCK RANKING (AFTER STAGE 13/13)

1) Aryat Mardev (Kamaz)
2) Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz)
3) Andrey Karginov (Kamaz)
4) Ales Loprais (Man)
5) Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz)
6) Hans Stacey (Iveco)
7) Martin Kolomy (Tatra)
8) Marcel Van Vliet (Man)
9) Aleksandr Vasilevsky (MAZ)
10) Gerard de Rooy (Iveco)