2011 Dakar Rally Photo Gallery

Brazil´s Ze Helio will be riding in place of David Fretigne for team BMW Motorrad by Speedbrain.

Pedro Prata Bianchi's BMW in the prepping stages for the 33rd running of Dakar.

KTM machines lined up and ready for battle in South America.

Frans Verhoeven has much experience racing the Dakar Rally, and last year he was the winner of Stage 11.

Rodolfo Bollero of Argentine on Yamaha

2011 Dakar Rally

Spain's Marc Coma of KTM

France's Cyril Despres of KTM

2011 Dakar Rally

Frans Verhoeven

Frans Verhoeven has been an important figure in helping BMW be competitive for the 2011 Dakar Rally.

2011 Dakar Rally

Eric Palante (#122) and Christophe Geoffroy (#141) of Honda

2011 Dakar Rally

Pedro Prata Bianchi

2011 Dakar Rally

Ruben Faria of Portugal was overcome on Day 2 by Coma and is now more than six minutes adrift of Despres.

Juan Pedrero Garcia - Stage 1

Marc Coma - Stage 1

Ruben Faria - Stage 1

Marc Coma moved up to second in the overall rankings after finishing just 1’49 behind Despres on Day 2.

KTM's Cyril Despres led the second day of competition in the Dakar Rally from start to finish ahead of rival Marc Coma.

Cyril Despres - Stage 1

2011 Dakar Pre-race action

Teams were lined up and ready to launch the 33rd edition of the Dakar Rally in South America.

BMW Motorrad by Speedbrain machine in the preparation stages for the start of the 2011 Dakar Rally.

Quinn Cody of USA

Annie Seel, aka Desert Princess, is participating in her fifth Dakar Rally and is part of an elite group of female riders competing this year.

Anders Ullevalseter of Team Scandinavia

Marc Coma gets a face full of the press at the start of the 2011 Dakar Rally.

Cyril Despres making his way to the starting line in Buenos Aires.

Brazil's Ze Helio

Quinn Cody launching things off in South America...

Hugo Sanchez (#125) and Lucas Moreno Gustavo

Cyril Despres at the start of the 2011 Dakar competition

Marc Coma took advantage of Cyril Despres' electronic issues in Stage 3 and won his first special of the 2011 Dakar Rally.

Despite his loss to Coma on Day 3, Despres still maintains the advantage in the overall rally by just 14 seconds.

Ruben Faria of Portugal took fifth during Stage 3 after being more than five minutes adrift of Coma. He is currently third in the overall standings.

David Casteu - Stage 4

Quinn Cody - Stage 4

Marek Dabrowski - Stage 4

Marc Coma - Stage 4

Cyril Despres - Stage 4

Paulo Goncalves - Stage 4

Jonah Street - Stage 7

Quinn Cody - Stage 4

Frans Verhoeven - Stage 4

Jonah Street - Stage 4

Paulo Goncalves - Stage 4

Jonah Street - Stage 4

Pal Anders Ullevalseter - Stage 4

Juan Pedrero - Stage 5

Marc Coma - Stage 5

Cyril Despres - Stage 5

Ruben Faria - Stage 6

Francisco Lopez - Stage 6

Marc Coma still leads the 2011 Dakar Rally by nearly nine minutes as competitors head into a rest day.

KTM's Cyril Despres outpaced his rival, Marc Coma during the sixth stage and took third.

Following a timing mistake Ruben Faria of Portugal was relegated to third on Day 6, giving the official win to Helder Rodrigues.

Stefan Svitko - Stage 6

Francisco Lopez (#3) remains more than 18 minutes behind Spaniard Marc Coma in the overall standings after finishing 03:45 ahead of him in Stage 7.

KTM's Marc Coma still leads the overall rally with an advantage of 07:24 over Cyril Despres.

Cyril Despres was overtaken by Francisco Lopez at the 136 km mark during Stage 7 and finished 02:21 behind the Chilean rider.

Portugal's Ruben Faria landed fifth in the order and remains fifth overall after the seventh stage.

Francisco Lopez - Stage 7

Cyril Despres trails his rival, Marc Coma, by 08:48 as competitors rest before heading into the final half of the rally.

Aprilia's Alain Duclos from France

KTM's Marc Coma leads the 2011 Dakar Rally heading into Rest Day.

Competitors had the opportunity to relax and repair their bikes while resting at the Bivouac.

Cyril Despres' KTM machine - Rest Day

Chilean rider Felipe Prohens of Honda

Italy's Ivan Boano of Beta

American Jonah Street came into the Rest Day trailing leader Marc Coma by more than 50 minutes.

Luis Belaustegui - Rest Day

Spaniard Manuel Pellicer of Yamaha

Portugal's Paulo Goncalves of team BMW

American Quinn Cody of team Honda - Rest Day

Quinn Cody is 12th in the overall rankings while coming into the Bivouac to rest and trails leader Marc Coma by more than 57 minutes.

Team RawHyde shadows Dakar racers on a daily basis and puts fans on the same roads used by competitors.

Jonah Street's bike disassembled and being fixed during Rest Day on Day 8.

Francisco Lopez - Stage 8

Francisco Lopez - Stage 9

Marc Coma - Stage 9

Cyril Despres - Stage 9

Ruben Faria - Stage 9

Cyril Despres dropped a lot of time during Stage 10 which could spell disaster for his Dakar hopes.

Marc Coma won Stage 10 by minimizing mistakes. The rest of the field seemed to struggle with navigating back into Argentina.

Stage 10 was a solid day for Ruben Faria who finished on the podium in third.

Cyril Despres clawed back a couple minutes in Stage 11.

Marc Coma still enjoys a comfortable margin after finishing second in Stage 11.

Now that he's learning how to read the road book and ride quickly at the same time, Quinn Cody is making up ground on the overall leaders. He finished sixth in Stage 11.

Marc Coma - Stage 12

Cyril Despres - Stage 12

Ruben Faria - Stage 12

Helder Rodrigues - Stage 12

Francisco Lopez (left) receives support from Etienne Lavigne following the final stage of the 2011 Dakar Rally.

Frans Verhoeven - Stage 13

Dutchman Frans Verhoeven won the final stage of the 2011 Dakar Rally as Marc Coma took the overall win.

Americans Quinn Cody (left) and Jonah Street - Dakar 2011

Quinn Cody - Stage 13

Quinn Cody finished the overall Dakar Rally in ninth and nearly five hours adrift of Marc Coma.

Quinn Cody - Dakar finish

Spaniard Marc Coma - Dakar finish

The final Dakar ceremonies took place in Buenos Aires after the 13th stage of the competition came to a close.

Top-three 2011 Dakar finishers (from left to right): Helder Rodrigues, Marc Coma and Cyril Despres.

(l to r): Helder Rodrigues, Marc Coma and Cyril Despres take their spots on the podium in the 2011 Dakar Rally.

KTM's Cyril Despres - Stage 13

Cyril Despres - Dakar finish

Riders coming to the finish line of the 2011 Dakar Rally in Buenos Aires.

Francisco Lopez - Stage 13

Yamaha's Jonah Street - Stage 13

Francisco Lopez's bike couldn't make it through the final day of competition and he ended up having to be towed.

KTM's Ruben Faria - Stage 13

American Jonah Street - Stage 13

Jonah Street - Dakar finish

Jonah Street placed 12th overall in the rally after finishing the final stage in 13th.

2011 Dakar Rally Photo Gallery

Check out all the latest photos from the 2011 Dakar Rally and check out all the latest Dakar Rally Racing News in Motorcycle USA's Dakar Rally Page.