Mário Patrão competed in the Dakar 2024 as part of the Veteran Trophy and was clearly the strongest: he led from the beginning and won 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.
Other than that, Patrão was the winner on all the other days, and ended up securing the Veteran Trophy with a 5h58m43s margin over Pabiska. McBride was third, followed by Zhang Min (Zero Mileage Rally Team/KTM). Bartolomiej Tabin (Orion Moto Racing Group/Husqvarna) closed the top five: although he is a rookie in the Dakar, he is included in the Veterans category due to his experience in motorcycling, which is not an isolated case.
Final top ten of the Veteran Trophy:
