Timo Gottschalk

[1] Gottschalk made his debut in the Dakar Rally as navigator to compatriot Dieter Depping in the truck category in 2007, the pair finishing 26th.

The following year's event was cancelled, but Depping and Gottschalk managed to finish a creditable third place overall in the car category of the replacement 2008 Central Europe Rally, driving a factory Volkswagen Touareg.

Depping and Gottschalk continued with the factory Volkswagen team for the Dakar Rally's inaugural visit to South America in 2009 finished sixth overall, albeit almost nine hours down on their victorious teammates Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz.

Problems for Sainz and Cruz in the eleventh stage handed Gottschalk and Al-Attiyah a lead of over 50 minutes that they would maintain until the end of the rally.

[5] He later revealed that the event, his 17th attempt at the Dakar, had been his toughest challenge yet, with consistency from him and Al-Rajhi having been the deciding factor in their victory.