Absent however would be the Frenchman's long-time rival Marc Coma, who was forced to withdraw from the event due to a shoulder injury sustained whilst participating in Rally Morocco.

Polish duo Łukasz Łaskawiec and Rafał Sonik, also riding for Yamaha, would also be expected to be in contention having both finished in the top three in previous years, with Dakar rookie Sebastian Husseini leading Honda's challenge for honours in the category.

Ten-time Dakar winner Stéphane Peterhansel would return to defend his 2012 crown at the wheel of a Monster Energy-sponsored Mini All4 machine prepared by X-Raid.

The German team would also enter similar machines for former motorcycle category winner Nani Roma, Leonid Novitskiy and Krzysztof Hołowczyc with Orlando Terranova driving an X-Raid prepared BMW X3.

Two former winners in the shape of Carlos Sainz (2010) and Nasser Al-Attiyah (2011) would drive a pair of Damen Jefferies-built buggies in an all-new team backed by Red Bull and the Qatari government.

Kamaz's trio of Red Bull sponsored trucks would be piloted by an all-Russian line-up of Eduard Nikolaev, Ayrat Mardeev and Andrey Karginov.

Tatra's challenge would be headed by Czech driver Aleš Loprais, nephew of six-time champion Karel, while Dutchman Marcel van Vliet would lead the attack of German manufacturer MAN.

[8] Despres was set to re-take the lead of the standings after winning the stage but dropped to second behind teammate Ruben Faria after taking a 15-minute penalty for an engine change.

[9] The Chilean would have to be content with third, nearly 19 minutes behind Despres despite taking the fastest time on the final stage, with Ivan Jakeš and Joan Pedrero completing an all-KTM top five.

Olivier Pain recovered to sixth position after his earlier troubles, whilst Barreda could do no better than 17th after losing considerable time with fuel pump issues on the fifth stage.

[10] This gave Patronelli a lead of almost an hour and 20 minutes over Ignacio Casale, also aboard a Yamaha, who closed the gap slightly with a win on the sixth stage.

[19] Defending champion Gérard de Rooy took control of the event initially with victories in the first three stages for Iveco, building a seven-minute cushion over Tatra's Aleš Loprais.

Behind the all-Kamaz podium, de Rooy recovered to fourth position overall after winning the eleventh stage, 41 minutes behind Nikolaev, with Kolomy fifth and Loprais in sixth after his earlier troubles.

It was reported that, on the evening of 9 January, two people died as a result of a collision between a taxi and the support vehicle for the 'Race2Recovery' team, which is made up of ex-military servicemen from the UK.

[23] On 11 January, a competitor in the motorcycle category, Frenchman Thomas Bourgin, was killed in a road accident with a Chilean police car whilst travelling to the start of the day's stage.