Nasser Al-Attiyah of Toyota strolled to victory on the first stage of the 2022 Dakar Rally, while Audi’s electric RS Q e-tron competitor had a dreadful day.
Al-Attiyah was under heavy pressure from the three Audis during the first half of the 333km special near Ha’il, Saudi Arabia, with the German marque’s lead runner Stephane Peterhansel only six seconds behind him after the first 120km.
However, en route to the following waypoint, Audi’s issues began to unravel, with 14-time Dakar winner Peterhansel becoming the first to drop out after sustaining serious damage to his RS Q e-tron in a crash.
The Frenchman had been waiting for help vehicles to arrive to repair the damage for more than four hours, with the back axle fractured and the left-rear suspension badly damaged.
However, Audi’s problems did not end there, as Carlos Sainz Sr soon lost more than two hours searching for a difficult checkpoint near the finish of the stage, after falling six minutes behind the leaders due to unrelated issues earlier in the day.
With Mattias Ekstrom in the third Audi slipping behind as the stage drew to a close, Al-Attiyah was able to expand his lead in the leading Toyota, finally winning by a respectable margin of 12m44s.
Due to Audi’s problems, rally great Sebastien Loeb jumped to second place overall, spearheading the charge for the Prodrive-run Bahrain Raid Xtreme team.
In the later half of the stage, Loeb and Al-Attiyah were the only two frontrunners to cross the correct checkpoint on the first attempt. This allowed the duo to establish a significant lead after the first stage, with Benzina Ford’s Martin Prokop finishing over 10 minutes behind them.
Lucio Alvarez (Overdrive Toyota), Vladimir Vasilyev (VRT BMW), and Sebastian Halpern (X-raid Mini) finished fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively, while Giniel de Villiers (Toyota Factory Racing) finished seventh.
The top ten was completed by Jakub Przygonski (Orlen Mini), Saudi driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Overdrive Toyota), and five-time bikes champion Cyril Despres (GPX Peugeot).
Nani Roma (Prodrive), the 2014 event winner, was classified 23rd after losing a significant amount of time due to navigational troubles of his own, three places ahead of Ekstrom’s best Audi.
Sainz is currently ranked 32nd overall, having finished the stage 2h07m behind winner Al-Attiyah. After a puncture at the 142km mark, Toyota driver Henk Lategan had yet to complete the stage at the time of writing.
Dakar Rally 2022 Stage 1 results:
| Pos | # | Driver/co-driver | Team | Time | Gap |
| 1 | 201 | N. AL-ATTIYAH (QAT)M. BAUMEL (AND) | TOYOTA GAZOO RACING | 03:30:53 | |
| 2 | 211 | S. LOEB (FRA)F. LURQUIN (BEL) | BAHRAIN RAID XTREME | 03:43:37 | 00:12:44 |
| 3 | 209 | M. PROKOP (CZE)V. CHYTKA (CZE) | BENZINA ORLEN TEAM | 03:53:32 | 00:22:39 |
| 4 | 222 | L. ALVAREZ (ARG)A. MONLEON (ESP) | OVERDRIVE TOYOTA | 03:58:35 | 00:27:42 |
| 5 | 208 | V. VASILYEV (RAF)O. UPERENKO (LVA) | VRT TEAM | 03:59:51 | 00:28:58 |
| 6 | 223 | S. HALPERN (ARG)B. GRAUE (ARG) | X-RAID MINI JCW TEAM | 04:00:30 | 00:29:37 |
| 7 | 207 | G. DE VILLIERS (ZAF)D. MURPHY (ZAF) | TOYOTA GAZOO RACING | 04:04:26 | 00:33:33 |
| 8 | 203 | J. PRZYGONSKI (POL)T. GOTTSCHALK (DEU) | ORLEN TEAM | 04:12:44 | 00:41:51 |
| 9 | 205 | Y. AL RAJHI (SAU)M. ORR (GBR) | OVERDRIVE TOYOTA | 04:14:33 | 00:43:40 |
| 10 | 221 | O. TERRANOVA (ARG)D. OLIVERAS CARRERAS (ESP) | BAHRAIN RAID XTREME | 04:20:20 | 00:49:27 |
| 11 | 218 | Y. SEAIDAN (SAU)A. KUZMICH (RAF) | X-RAID MINI JCW TEAM | 04:22:26 | 00:51:33 |
| 12 | 204 | N. ROMA (ESP)A. HARO BRAVO (ESP) | BAHRAIN RAID XTREME | 04:49:27 | 01:18:34 |
