1991: 1st overall in the Dakar Rally (motorbikes) 1992: 1st overall in the Paris-Le Cap (motorbikes) 1993: 1st overall in the Dakar Rally (motorbikes)1995: 1st overall in the Dakar Rally (motorbikes)1996: 1st overall in the UAE Desert Challenge (motorbikes)1997: 1st overall, Dakar Rally (motorbikes); 4th overall, UAE Desert Challenge (motorbikes)1998: 1st overall in the Dakar Rally (motorbikes); 1st overall in the 24hours of Chamonix 1999: 7th overall in the Dakar Rally in a Nissan2000: 2nd overall in the Dakar Rally in a Mega2001: 1st T1 overall in the Dakar Rally in a Nissan 2002: 1st overall in the Rally of Tunisia; 1st overall 1st overall, UAE Desert Challenge in a Mitsubishi Pajero* Evolution2003: 3rd overall, Dakar Rally; 2nd overall, Baja Italy; 1st overall, UAE Desert Challenge, all in a Mitsubishi Pajero* Evolution2004: 1st overall, Dakar Rally; 1st overall, Rally of Tunisia; 1st overall Rally of Morocco; 8th overall, UAE Desert Challenge, all in a Mitsubishi Pajero* Evolution2005: 1st overall in the Dakar Rally 2nd overall in the Patagonia-Atacama Rally 1st overall in the UAE Desert Challenge2006: 4th overall in the Dakar Rally 1st overall in the Rally of Tunisia Stéphane Peterhansel was born in France in August 1965 and now lives at Montana in Switzerland with his girlfriend – rally driver and former Dakar motorcycle rider Andrea Mayer. Over the course of the last 16 years he has become the most successful individual in the history of the grueling Dakar Rally, amassing eight outright victories and a win in the car T1 category. He made his debut in a motorcycle event in 1980 and took the first of his six Dakar wins on a Yamaha motorcycle in 1991. He repeated the feat in 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1998, before making the switch to competing on four-wheels. After several forays into ice racing, he made his Dakar debut in a car in 1999 and finished seventh overall. The following season he finished as runner-up in Mega Special with a Mitsubishi engine and won the T1 category outright in 2001. Peterhansel finished first overall in the 2002 Rally of Tunisia and went on to give the Mitsubishi Pajero* Evolution a winning debut in the 2002 UAE Desert Challenge. He repeated the feat in 2003, but eventually finished third in the Dakar after losing a potential victory on the penultimate stage in Egypt. 2004 was his most successful season to date in a car. Stéphane won the Dakar Rally for the first time to follow Hubert Auriol into the history books as only the second driver ever to win the race on two and four wheels. He also finished first in the Tunisia and Morocco rallies and added to his growing list of achievements by winning the Dakar Rally for a second successive occasion with Mitsubishi in January 2005. Stéphane finished second overall in the 2005 Patagonia-Atacama Rally at the wheel of an MPR10 version of the Pajero* Evolution, but suffered cruel luck in both the Morocco and Baja Spain rallies, while well-placed for victory. He then crushed the opposition in the 2005 UAE Desert Challenge, winning the event for the third time in four years, and went on to finish fourth overall in the 2006 Dakar Rally after leading for several days. He then clinched Mitsubishi’s eighth victory in the Rally of Tunisia in April 2006 and was leading the Rally of Morocco in June before the team was withdrawn from the event.
