Here are three views of US driver Robby Gordon's kidney-pulsing crash into the back of a sand dune in the desert between Nazca and Arequipa on Day 4 of Dakar 2013.
This year's Dakar rally started in Lima, Peru on January 5 and finishes in Santiago, Chile on January 19 after covering about 8 500km.
Frenchman Thierry Sabine got the idea for the event in 1977 after he got lost in the Libyan desert on his motorbike and barely made it out alive. However, he came away from his adventure charged with excitement and decided more people needed to experience the beauty of the desert and take up the challenge of trying to cross it.
The first event was held in 1978, when 182 vehicles lined up for the inaugural 10 000km race from Paris to Dakar.
Sabine was killed during the 1986 race, when he was involved in a helicopter crash along with four others. His ashes were scattered in the desert and his father Gilbert took over the running of that race.
In 1992, the event was renamed Paris-Le Cap for one race and the route was changed to cross the entire length of Africa – a distance of 12 427km – and finish in Cape Town.
The 2008 race was cancelled after terrorist attacks in Mauritania and direct threats against the rally. The 2009 event was the first in South America and in that race South Africa Giniel de Villiers emerged triumphant in the car category.
This year's is the 35th edition of the world's most challenging motor rally.
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