1981 Paris–Dakar Rally
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Host country	France  Algeria  Mali  Upper Volta  Ivory Coast  Senegal

1981 Dakar Rally also known as the 1981 Paris–Dakar Rally was the 3rd running of the Dakar Rally event. The car class was won by René Metge and Bernard Giroux. The motorcycle class was won by Hubert Auriol.^[1]

Year	1st		2nd		3rd
	Driver	Car	Driver	Car	Driver	Car
1981	René Metge	Range Rover V8	Hervé Cotel	Buggy Cotel	Jean-Claude Briavoine	Lada Niva

Stage	Date	From	To	Total (km)
1	1 January	Paris	Olivet	approx 120
2	2 January	Olivet	Sète	approx 625
	3 January	Transportation to Africa
3	4 January	Algiers	Moudjbara	300
4	5 January	Moudjbara	Bordj Omar Driss	949
5	6 January	Bordj Omar Driss	Tit	605
6	7 January	Tit	Timeaouine	540
7	8 January	Timeaouine	Gao	740
	9 January	Rest day in Gao
8	10 January	Gao	Tombouctou	412
9	11 January	Tombouctou	Niono	570
10	12 January	Niono	Bobo-Dioulasso	1080
11	13 January	Bobo-Dioulasso	Bouna	828
12	14 January	Bouna	Korhogo	326
13	15 January	Korhogo	Kolokani	310
	16 January	Rest day in Kolokani
14	17 January	Kolokani	Nioro du Sahel	297
15	18 January	Nioro du Sahel	Bakel	325
16	19 January	Bakel	Louga	143
17	20 January	Louga	Dakar	96