Russia's triumphant Team Kamaz expects to win the Dakar Rally again next year, adding to seven winning titles from the legendary off-road race, one of the team's drivers said on Monday.

Last year the crew of Firdaus Kabirov, the two-time Dakar Champion, finished first, with the crew of five-time Dakar Champion Vladimir Chagin finishing second, just 3 minutes and 39 seconds behind Kabirov.

"Our goal is to win, and that is why we are going to participate in this rally," Kabirov told a RIA Novosti news conference.

The champion said that the race, which begins on January 1 in Argentina and will last until January 17, will be interesting as the route is complicated.

"We will have to fight not only with our competitors but with the track as well. It was the right thing for the organizers to deepen the route in the Atacama Desert [Chile]," Kabirov said.

Last year marked the first time that the world famous rally, founded in 1979, has taken place outside Africa, in South America, due to safety reasons.

MOSCOW, December 28 (RIA Novosti)