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The 2010 Dakar Rally was the 31st running of the event. It was held in South America for the second successive time, and ran from 1 to 16 January. The Amaury Sport Organisation and the governments of Argentina and Chile agreed to a return to South America for the event in February 2009.
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Cyril Despres, riding a KTM, won the motorcycle class for the third time, winning two stages en route to victory by over an hour from any of his rivals. Second place went to another KTM rider, as Pål Anders Ullevålseter finished on the Dakar podium for the first time in his career, taking a stage win on the penultimate day. Aprilia rider Francisco López Contardo finished in third position, just under seven minutes behind Ullevålseter, taking three stage victories. Other stage wins were taken by Sherco's David Casteu, Yamaha's David Frétigné, as well as the KTMs of Rubén Faria and defending class winner Marc Coma; Coma won the most stages in the event, taking four wins. The ATV class was held outwith the motorcycle class for the first time, and was dominated by the Yamaha-riding Patronelli brothers Marcos and Alejandro, who finished first and second in class. Juan Manuel González Corominas finished third on another Yamaha, over five hours behind Marcos Patronelli. The Patronellis took six stage wins, with the other eight shared by the Polaris duo of Hubert Deltrieu, and Christophe Declerck (3), as well as the Yamahas of Sebastian Halpern (2), González Corominas and Rafal Sonik.
Volkswagen won their second Dakar in succession in the cars class, with Carlos Sainz following in the footsteps of team-mate Giniel de Villiers, who won the event in 2009. Sainz finished two minutes clear of another Volkswagen, piloted by Nasser Al-Attiyah, with a third Volkswagen of Mark Miller completing the podium, half an hour behind Al-Attiyah. Al-Attiyah and BMW's Stéphane Peterhansel both won four stages during the event, with other stage wins taken by the Volkswagens of Sainz (2) and Miller, as well as BMW pairing Nani Roma and Guerlain Chicherit, and the Hummer of Robby Gordon. Defending class winner Vladimir Chagin dominated the trucks class, winning nine of the fourteen stages en route to a 73-minute victory over Kamaz team-mate Firdaus Kabirov, with GINAF's Marcel van Vliet a further nine and a half hours behind in third.
Entrants
362 Teams competed in the race with 176 motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles, 134 cars, and 52 trucks on the podium across from the Obelisk, on the 9th of July Avenue; one of Buenos Aires' major boulevards.
The route
The race began on New Year's Day in downtown Buenos Aires. The total racing distance was 9,030 kilometres (5,610 mi) for cars and trucks, and 8,937 kilometres (5,553 mi) for bikes and ATVs. Of these distances, 4,810 kilometres (2,990 mi) was timed special stage for cars and trucks, with 93 kilometres (58 mi) less for bikes and ATVs. Of the fourteen stages, seven were in Argentina, and seven in Chile.