Santiago, Jan 20 (IANS/RIA Novosti): Top Kamaz driver Eduard Nikolayev has won the 2013 Dakar Rally in the truck category while his two team mates, Airat Mardeyev and Andrei Karginov, took the second and third places, respectively.
The 34th annual event kicked off Jan 5 in Peru's capital Lima and ended Saturday in the Chilean capital here.
It consisted of 14 gruelling stages, spanning over 8,500 km of desert and mountainous tracks in the Latin American countries of Peru, Argentina and Chile.
Nikolayev won the title for the first time in his career, while the Kamaz-Masters truck team became the winner of the event for the 11th time in a spectacular comeback from a poor showing last year.
"For me, it's a dream come true, a dream which began five years ago when I got into a racing Kamaz for the first time as a mere mechanic," Nikolayev said after the announcement of the results Saturday.
"It's simply incredible! I'm on cloud nine," the Russian driver said.
The awards ceremony will take place outside La Moneda Presidential Palace here Sunday.