The handbrake lever (1) of a motor vehicle includes a stop (14) separated into two parts of which one is the wedge-shape stop itself, which engages between the teeth of the rack (36); the other part is constituted by a connection link pivoted both to the stop and to the brake lever; the stop-link assembly forms a toggle mechanism having a stable stop position slightly beyond the dead point, in which the relative rotation of the stop with respect to the link is impeded by the effect of the force of closure of the brake; the lever can be released by acting on a release push button (12) which by means of a transmission rod turns the link through a small angle with respect to the stop to pass beyond the dead point beyond which the same force of closure of the brake contributes to complete the release of the stop from the teeth of the rack.