2003 Dakar Rally also known as the 2003 Paris-Dakar Rally was the 25th running of the Dakar Rally

Dakar Rally

The Dakar Rally is an annual rally raid type of off-road automobile race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation...

 event. The rally began on 1 January 2003 at Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

 in France and finished at Sharm el-Sheikh

Sharm el-Sheikh

Sharm el-Sheikh is a city situated on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, in South Sinai Governorate, Egypt, on the coastal strip along the Red Sea. Its population is approximately 35,000...

 in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 on 19 January, with the course crossing North Africa. Kenjiro Shinozuka

Kenjiro Shinozuka

is a Japanese rally driver. Since his debut in 1967, his greatest successes have been as a works driver for Mitsubishi Motors. Behind the wheel of a Galant VR-4 he won the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in 1988 and scored consecutive victories in the Rallye Côte d'Ivoire Bandama in 1991 and 1992,...

, who won the event in 1997, suffered serious injury in an accident between Ghat and Sabha in Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

. Former world rally champion and four times winner of the Dakar Rally, Ari Vatanen

Ari Vatanen

Ari Pieti Uolevi Vatanen is a Finnish rally driver turned politician and Member of the European Parliament 1999–2009. Vatanen won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally four times....

, returned to take part in the rally, and won the ninth, thirteen and fifteen stages French co-driver, Bruno Cauvy died in an accident on the tenth stage when his car went out of control and overturned in sand dunes. Stephane Peterhansel

Stéphane Peterhansel

Stéphane Peterhansel is a rally racing driver from France. He won the Paris Dakar Rally riding Yamaha motorcycles in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, and 1998 and then again driving Mitsubishi Pajero SUVs in 2004, 2005 and 2007, making him one of the most successful drivers in the history of that race...

 took an early lead in the rally, but was forced out in the penultimate stage by mechanical problems. The rally was won for the second time in succession by Japanese driver, Hiroshi Masuoka

Hiroshi Masuoka

Hiroshi Masuoka is a Japanese rally driver. His most notable achievement was his back-to-back successes in the Dakar Rally in 2002 and 2003, only the fourth driver in the event's history to win in consecutive years. He was also victorious in the 2003 Baja Italy and the 2004 UAE Desert Challenge...

. The motorcycle category was won for the third time by Richard Sainct

Richard Sainct

Richard Sainct was a French Rally Raid Motorcycle Rider, best known for his three victories on the Paris-Dakar rally in 1999, 2000 and 2003....

.