The 2001 Dakar Rally, also known as the 2001 Paris–Dakar Rally, was the 23rd running of the Dakar Rally event. The format was revised to reduce the amount of airborne assistance to competitors in favour of assistance vehicles. The 2001 rally was long and began in Paris, France, on New Year's Day, passing through Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali before finishing at Dakar in Senegal. This was the last Paris-Dakar Rally that commenced and finished in the same locations as the original race. Jean-Louis Schlesser won the penultimate stage of the rally to take the lead but was penalised one hour for unsportsmanlike conduct. The rally was won by German Jutta Kleinschmidt, who became the first woman to win the event. The motorcycle class of the rally was won by Italian Fabrizio Meoni, with Karel Loprais winning the truck class.
On stage 19, teammates Schlesser and Servia started the stage earlier than scheduled, which meant that race leader Masuoka was left behind the trail of the two buggies. As Masuoka drove off track to overtake Servia, the car was damaged. Masuoka's co-driver, Pascal Maimon, walked to the track to try to stop Servia to complain, Servia braked and nearly ran over him. Schlesser and Servia were given a 60-minute penalty, which gave Kleinschmidt and Masuoka a comfortable lead for the final mini stage.
Stages
- Stage cancelled for bikes only due to a sanctioning fee dispute between the race organisers and the Spanish Motorcycle Federation. - Jean-Louis Schlesser set the fastest time for the stage, but was penalised 1 hour and 6 minutes for starting the stage early, along with teammate Jose Maria Servia. Motorcycles principal entry KTM 1 Richard Sainct 3 Fabrizio Meoni
5 Giovanni Sala
7 Kari Tiainen
8 Jordi Arcarons
9 Alfie Cox
10 Jean Brucy
12 Carlo de Gavardo
20 Isidre Esteve Pujol
BMW
2 Nani Roma
4 Jimmy Lewis
6 John Deacon
21 Andrea Mayer
Honda
14 Johnny Campbell
19 Paulo Manuel Marques
Cars principal entry
Mitsubishi
201 Jean Pierre Fontenay
203 Kenjiro Shinozuka
205 Jutta Kleinschmidt
207 Miguel Prieto
208 Carlos Souza
Schelesser-Renault
200 Jean Louis Schlesser
202 Jose Maria Servia
211 Luc Alphand
Nissan
204 Thierry Delavergne
209 Gregoire de Mevius
210 Manuel Plaza Perez
Ford
206 Philippe Wambergue
Mercedes
213 Pierre Lartigue
Trucks principal entry
Kamaz
424 Vladimir Chagin
426 Firdaus Kabirov
428 Rafael Tibau
Tatra
425 Karel Loprais
427 Andre de Azevedo
Hino
400 Yoshimasa Sugawara
403 Gilbert Versino
Stage Results
Motorcycles
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