Despite its name, the Dakar Rally is not necessarily held in or near the Senegalese capital – it has a different venue every year and has not always even taken place on the continent of Africa.
This year's was thrashed out across the desert in the south of Perú, finishing yesterday (Thursday) after kicking off on Sunday, January 6 from Lima.
Laia, 32 (pictured), dubbed 'Queen of the Desert', came ninth overall in 2015 – her best result yet – and this year's 11th place gives her an eighth trophy as winning female.
She is also the first motorcyclist – male or female - to finish the race nine times on the trot, without dropping out.
The Team Soficat Xerox rider says she is 'very happy' with her result, which she was 'not expecting', especially after suffering a series of energy-sapping illnesses – Q-fever, neuropathy and mononucleosis, the latter a type of auto-immune condition.
“I've gone through a lot to get here. If I'd been told a month ago I'd make it to number 11, I wouldn't have believed it,” says Laia, who is now back in full health.
Fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz – whose son, also called Carlos, has taken compatriot Fernando Alonso's place with Formula 1 team McLaren for 2019 – won the final stage of the Dakar on four wheels, evincing a string of delighted whoops, cheers and noisy public tributes from his son.
Carlos Sainz Senior (second picture) is a retired Formula 1 racing driver, and he and his son have always been very close, partly due to their shared passion.
“He could have retired from last year's [Dakar Rally]; he could have retired up to three times in this year's, but he decided to carry on – and, to cap it all, he goes and wins the last stage,” Carlos Sainz Junior the sole Spaniard left in Formula 1 in 2019, said in a congratulatory tweet to his dad.
