Thousands of people said farewell to 500 teams that participated in the Dakar Rally at a parade in Buenos Aires streets on Sunday.

Argentine Marcos Patronelli was the most acclaimed by the fans, for finishing second in the quad bike race after five-time champion Josef Machacek of the Czech Republic (Yamaha).

Patronelli won three stages to make it to the podium, which had never been reached by Argentine.

The fans also paid tribute to the performances of the other four Argentines - Ruben Miti, Andres Memi, Andres Junco y Eduardo Alan, all of who are in motorcycles.

The champions of the 30th Rally, besides Machacek, were South African Giniel De Villiers (Volkswagen) on cars, Spaniard Marc Coma (KTM) on motorcycles and the Russian Firdaus Kabirov (Yamaha) on trucks.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2009)