French driver Luc Alphand and Spanish rider Marc Coma won their first Dakar Rally on Sunday but both lamented the accidents which killed two young boys and an Australian competitor during the 9,000-km race.

As a tribute to the three victims, organizers decided not to time Sunday's 110-km last stage around Lac Rose, a scenic salt lake set amid beachside sand dunes north east of Dakar.

The rally ended as always with a podium finish and the prize presentations but the event was overshadowed by the deaths of motorcyclist Andy Caldecott, who crashed during the ninth stage on Monday, and the two young African boys who were hit by vehicles on Friday and Saturday.

"It really raises the question of safety," said spectator Hussein Ousman, who has seen the rally arrive in Dakar 20 times. "These deaths are terrible. We cannot have this. Something must be done about it."

Mitsubishi driver Alphand, winner of the 1997 Alpine skiing World Cup, won the cars division with a 17 minutes and 53 second lead overall over Volkswagen driver Giniel De Villiers of South Africa. Last year's winner, Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel, came fourth.

"The rally is hard and unfortunately this year there were some accidents," Alphand said.

Coma dedicated his victory to his fellow KTM rider Caldecott, a four-times winner of the Australia Safari, who was competing in his third Dakar and had won the third stage of this year's race.

"I dedicate this to Andy, who had the bad luck to be involved in an accident and lost his life," Coma said.

The race has now claimed 48 lives, including eight children, 23 competitors and the founder of the rally Thierry Sabine, in its 28-year history.

Chinese driver Xu Lang of the Paladin team finished 19th in the overall standings of the Dakar Rally, followed by teammate Zhou Yong in 43rd place.

Xu's position equaled that of Zhou in last year's race, the best result Chinese drivers have ever achieved in the grueling event.

(Reuters via China Daily and China.org.cn January 16, 2006)