Tumultuous celebration at the end of the Dakar: Volkswagen has won the race for the third time in a row. Nasser Al-Attiyah and Timo Gottschalk will be joined on the final podium in Buenos Aires by Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz and Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz. The Volkswagen Race Touareg 3 has achieved a hat-trick in this desert race in Argentina and Chile in front of millions of enthusiastic spectators. As a result, Volkswagen is the only manufacturer to have won this race with diesel technology and remains unbeaten in South America thanks to TDI power. To complete the triumph, the three cars will have to pass the champion’s ramp this Sunday at noon in Buenos Aires.

Three Dakar winners on the podium

With Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah and Germany’s Timo Gottschalk, a third Volkswagen pair wins the Dakar in the 33rd edition of the event. Thanks to the superior and highly durable high-tech manufactured in Wolfsburg, the three victorious pairs of the last three years have occupied all three steps of the podium – a sign of the great potential of the team that has dominated the Dakar 2011 from the start. Volkswagen has claimed 12 of the 13 possible stage wins and Carlos Sainz achieved a milestone with his victory in the stage that finished in Buenos Aires, as with 24 stage wins, he surpasses Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel by one. There has always been a Volkswagen leading the race from the start in its tough stages. The challenges faced have been: winding dirt sections, deep, soft desert sand in the Atacama Desert, demanding navigation through labyrinthine areas formed by canyons and dry riverbeds, as well as spectacular river crossings. Miller and Pitchford rounded off the Volkswagen team’s solid performance in sixth place. The four Race Touareg 3 starters finished the raid in leading positions and continue the success story of enviable reliability: Volkswagen has not dropped out of a raid in the last four years.

The three pillars of a historic victory

Reliable technology, perfect teamwork and great partners; Volkswagen once again sets the standard with its winning formula. The TDI technology that represents efficiency and reliability in millions of Volkswagen road cars, revolutionized the world of raids. Thanks to the powerful and compact design, it is also a pioneer of the Dakar. The four 310 hp Race Touareg 3s covered the 9,600 km distance with clockwork precision and in the process were always perfectly prepared for the next day by a close-knit team tactically prepared by Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen. In addition to the race support team, the employees in Wolkfsburg and Hanover have carried out the indispensable preparations for the Dakar triumph. The technological base, unbeaten since the end of 2008, has been converted by Sainz into seven stage victories, Al-Attiyah into four and De Villiers into one.

The hat-trick: the new Race Touareg triumphs at its premiere

The third-generation Race Touareg equipped with a 2.5-liter TDI engine and all-wheel drive has completed its Dakar debut successfully from the start. The twin-turbo in-line 5-cylinder engines ensure compact dimensions and reduced weight compared to its closest rivals, which has been demonstrated for the third time in a row through World Rally Championship-like sections and dune crossings. The Race Touareg 3’s TDI engine is one of the most powerful and, at the same time, most efficient diesel engines in motor racing. In the extremely hot stages where the temperature hovered around 60 degrees Celsius, the new cooling concept has given the Wolfsburg prototypes a great result. Thanks to the improved airflow and the optimized radiator, the Race Touareg 3 has overcome the heat of the Chilean Atacama Desert and the extreme conditions and large dunes of the Sierras Pampeanas surrounding Fiambalá in Argentina. Reliability combined with speed has meant that Volkswagen has demonstrated its technical capability in the 2011 Dakar on all types of terrain.

The triplet: multiple winners from Wolfsburg

Double in 2008 and hat-tricks in 2010 and 2011. Volkswagen continues its winning streak on the Dakar. The Wolfsburg-based brand has set the pace since the race left Africa for South America. In January 2009, Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz claimed the brand’s first Dakar win since the first prototype was built in 2004, followed by teammates Miller/Pitchford. It was the brand’s second triumph in the toughest event in the world of motorsport since Kottulinsky and Löffelmann won with a car derived from the series-produced Iltis in 1980. In 2010 came the first hat-trick with Sainz and Cruz taking the win ahead of Al-Attiyah/Gottschalk and Miller/Pitchford in the tightest Dakar in history in terms of the final standings. Number three was Al-Attiyah and Gottschalk’s revenge. Nasser Al-Attiyah became the first Arab to win the Dakar. The Qatari won in his sixth participation – second with Volkswagen – and his co-driver Timo Gottshalk is only the fourth co-driver after Löffelmann, Schulz and Von Zitzewitz to bring victory to Germany – a first for an engineer specializing in automotive technology based in Rheinsberg, Brandenburg.

Kris Nissen (Volkswagen Motorsport Director)

“Volkswagen’s third successive Dakar victory is a historic result achieved thanks to perfect teamwork, great driving and navigational skills and, more specifically, superior technology. I am incredibly proud of the entire team, both the employees who made this victory possible and the crew who put in a superhuman effort in the race. It was certainly the toughest Dakar we have ever taken part in and probably the best organized, so I have to congratulate the organization; A.S.O. I think we have proved that the Race Touareg 3 is currently the most reliable and best raid car. This is the result of years of work. I congratulate Nasser Al-Attiyah and Timo Gottschalk who have done a great job and obviously the rest of the Volkswagen team members who have made this hat-trick possible”.

302- Nasser Al-Attiyah (Q), 2nd stage/1st overall

“My first Dakar win. I am absolutely delighted to be the first Arab to win the toughest desert event in the world. It is very difficult to express in words what I feel. I have achieved my ultimate goal thanks to the best car in the world and the best team in this speciality. I am delighted for the whole team that has worked all day long to achieve this victory. In Timo Gottschalk I have an exceptional co-driver who has played an immense role in this victory. Today we are going to celebrate as if tomorrow would not exist”.

302- Timo Gottschalk (A), co-pilot

“I still can’t believe we won this Dakar. In the last few days we had a comfortable lead and things were looking up for us. However, no one was thinking about victory because anything can happen in this race until you have crossed the finish line. I am proud and happy for the win. It was the hardest Dakar I’ve ever ridden and we spent two weeks at the limit physically. The organizers have kept their promise to make it the toughest Dakar in history and to have won it is an incredibly good feeling.

308 – Giniel de Villiers (SA), 4th stage/2nd overall

“The Dakar is an extremely tough race where anything can happen. At the beginning we tried to ride carefully and tactically because you can only achieve a good result if you make it to the finish. This approach gave us second place and I am absolutely delighted with it. A podium in the Dakar is always something special; something you can be personally proud of. The team can be proud to have taken the first three places.

308 – Dirk von Zitzewitz (SA), co-driver

“It was an incredibly demanding Dakar because the days were very long. In the morning you had to get up very early and arrive at the bivouac at night. There were a lot of changes in the road book that gave us co-drivers a lot of night work. The stages were also very demanding from a physical point of view. In the Atacama Desert, the navigation could have been a bit more complicated, as was the case in Argentina and corresponds to a Dakar. My best moment was the victory in Fiambala, which was possible thanks to perfect navigation. It was a positive Dakar for me, especially because second place was a good reward.

300- Carlos Sainz (E), 1st stage/3rd overall

“I am more than satisfied with the 2011 Dakar. I think my co-driver Lucas Cruz and I did a good job and we were fighting for the final win for a long time. Unfortunately, two bad days and some mistakes left us with no chance of victory, but this is the Dakar; you always have to be on your toes. I am delighted with the whole Volkswagen team who deserve this hat-trick because they have contributed to it. Everyone has worked hard for this”.

300- Lucas Cruz (E), co-driver

“This was by far the most demanding Dakar I have ever ridden. There were many compromising situations for navigation that had to be solved with caution. There were many dune areas with soft sand that meant a lot of effort for the rider. More significant were the stages similar to those of the World Rally Championship, with jumps and high temperatures. The race was very varied and the Race Touareg 3 is perfect for these conditions. From a sporting point of view, we were beaten for the first time since Carlos and I competed together, but I think we did a good job and that luck deserted us on occasion.”

304 – Mark Miller (USA), 5th stage/6th overall

“This Dakar has been a beautiful race with interesting stages that demanded a lot from man and machine. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time already in the second stage and we were out of the fight for the final victory. So our role was to help our teammates, a job we were happy to do. When you work a whole year as a team for the victory, it is obvious that you help the others to achieve their goals. We did this with energy and vigor in the eleventh stage to help Carlos Sainz to achieve the podium.

304 – Ralph Pitchford (SA), co-driver

“On this year’s Dakar there were tough stages that took place in fascinating landscapes. Mark and I had some outstanding stages that we really enjoyed. Unfortunately, we lost our chance for the final victory early in the race. However, I’m happy for the whole team that has achieved the hat-trick. I think it’s a just reward. Now, after the last stage and having overcome all the stress, we will celebrate in style. It has been fantastic to work with this team. We’ve all earned the relaxation and fun that comes with it.

Fact of the day

During this 33rd edition of the desert marathon, the total distance of the marks made by Dakar winner Timo Gottshalk in his road book was 120 meters. To better mark the different directions at race pace, the German uses five different markers. Classification after the 13th stage Córdoba – Buenos Aires; 181/826Km Special/Total
Pos. / Team / Vehicle / 13th Stage / Cumulative time 1 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk (Q/D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 3 1h 16m 46s (2) 45h 16m 16s
2 Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 3 1h 18m 06s (4) + 49m 41s
3 Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (E/E) Volkswagen Race Touareg 3 1h 16m 08s (1) + 1h 20m 38s
4 Stéphane Peterhansel/Jean-P. Cottret (F/F) BMW X3 CC 1h 19m 05s (6) + 1h 43m 48s 5 Krzysztof Holowczyc/Jean-Marc Fortin (PL/B) BMW X3 CC 1h 17m 33s (3) + 4h 11m 21s 6 Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA) Volkswagen Race Touareg 3 1h 18m 10s (5) + 4h 54m 42s 7 Ricardo Leal dos Santos/Paulo Fiuza (P/P) BMW X3 CC 1h 27m 16s (11) + 6h 50m 07s 8 Christian Lavieille/Jean-Michel Polato (F/F) Nissan Proto 1h 25m 07s (10) + 7h 57m 18s 9 Guilherme Spinelli/Youssef Haddad (BR/BR) Mitsubishi Racing Lancer 1h 20m 06s (7) + 8h 23m 37s 10 Matthias Kahle/Thomas Schünemann (D/D) Buggy SMG 1h 28m 02s (12) + 15h 11m 56s