Mário Patrão competed in Dakar 2024 in the Veteran Trophy category and was clearly the strongest, leading from early on and winning with almost six hours of advantage.
The Portuguese rider, on a Honda from Crédito Agrícola / mariopatrao.com, only did not win two stages among the veterans: David McBride (Vendetta Racing UAE/Husqvarna) set the pace in the prologue, and David Pabiska (SP Moto Bohemia/KTM) prevailed in the fourth stage.
Apart from that, Patrão was the winner on all other days and secured the Veteran Trophy with a 5h58m43s margin over Pabiska. McBride finished third, followed by Zhang Min (Zero Mileage Rally Team/KTM). Bartolomiej Tabin (Orion Moto Racing Group/Husqvarna) rounded out the top five, even though he is a rookie in Dakar, he falls under the Veterans category due to his experience in motorcycling, which is not a unique case.
Final top ten of the Veteran Trophy:
