MOSCOW, January 20 (RIA Novosti) - Top Kamaz driver Eduard Nikolayev has won the 2013 Dakar Rally in the truck category while his two teammates, Airat Mardeyev and Andrei Karginov, took the second and third place, respectively.

The 34th annual event kicked off on January 5 in the Peruvian capital, Lima, and ended on Saturday in the Chilean capital, Santiago.

It consisted of 14 grueling stages, spanning over 8,500 kilometers of desert and mountainous tracks in the Latin American countries of Peru, Argentina and Chile.

Nikolayev won the title for the first time in his career, while the Kamaz-Masters truck team became the winner of the event for the 11th time in a spectacular comeback from a poor showing last year.

“For me, it's a dream come true, a dream which began five years ago when I got into a racing Kamaz for the first time as a mere mechanic,” Nikolayev said after the announcement of the results on Saturday.

“It's simply incredible! I'm on cloud nine,” the Russian driver said.

The awards ceremony will take place outside La Moneda Presidential Palace in Santiago on Sunday.