It’s official. Brabec has won it. He’s done it twice now. He’s the Dakar 2024 Champion. After a grueling 12 stages, Ricky Brabec has secured yet another championship since his overall win in 2020.
He commanded a comfortable lead getting into the last stage. His consistency served him well throughout the Rally. Starting from stage six, he found himself at the top of the leaderboards, even though he hadn't won a stage at that point. Following that, it was consistent performance after performance as Brabec pulled away from the rest of the competition.
The Monster Energy Honda Team, with Brabec, was able to lock down the lead position. Going into the final round, only a mere finish was needed to get the top spot. Hats off to Honda as well for securing two podium spots. The Hero Motosports Team found itself between two reds when the dust settled.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1st | (USA) RICKY BRABEC | MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM | 51 hours 30 minutes 8 seconds |
| 2nd | (BWA) ROSS BRANCH | HERO MOTOSPORTS TEAM RALLY | 51 hours 41 minutes 1 second |
| 3rd | (FRA) ADRIEN VAN BEVEREN | MONSTER ENERGY HONDA TEAM | 51 hours 42 minutes 33 seconds |
Brabec secured first place, and Ross Branch put up a valiant fight against and managed a second-place finish. Adrien Van Beveren had about a minute and a half between Branch, only tailing Branch by about a minute and a half. If you look at the splits, Brabec pretty much had this in the bag, with about 11 minutes (10 minutes and 53 seconds) separating him from Branch.
During the first few rounds of the rally, Branch put out win after win with the overall lead going to him by the start of stage six. Even if Branch claimed headlines at the start of the Rally, he was still able to produce a great result amid competition heating up towards the latter part of the rally. Branch stated after the final stage: "The challenge is to better myself and come back stronger next year."
This also marks the second time that Brabec has won the Dakar Rally. His first overall win came in 2020 and four years later, he gets to celebrate once again.
“It’s a nice way to start the year with a victory. It wasn’t easy. The course was really tough. The competition was tough. Ross and my own team kept me on my toes, but not just me, I think we were keeping everyone on each other’s toes. It was definitely a fight to the end for everyone. I’m really happy we’re all here and all safe and we can go home. Overall, it was a good rally. This time was a little bit different. I feel like this one was more earned. This time was a lot tougher. In 2020, we had a big gap from the get-go. Here, I think me and Ross spent three days with a couple of seconds difference. It was a tight race for all of us. I think between first and third there are eleven minutes or something, whatever Adrien got, but it’s been a tight race and ten minutes is not a big gap here on the rally. It’s been tight. I had two good days, two opportunities to make a good push, but also stage 11 was a scare factor for me because I knew Ross was starting behind me, 18 minutes behind, and if he caught me it would be over. Stage 11 was hard for me, but I stayed focused, got to the finishing line and didn’t lose too much time, so I’m really happy with this and I’m really happy for the team. I’m happy for all of us, we did an excellent job all of the two weeks. I think number 9 will be my lucky number from now on.”
