Dakar Rally 2022: Loeb tops Stage 2 as Al Attiyah maintains overall lead
With a commanding performance on day two, Sebastien Loeb won his first Dakar Rally stage win since 2019.
Dakar
Latest Dakar news, results, reports and gossip to keep you informed on what’s happening in the World Rally Raid Championship.
Al Attiyah maintains lead after winning Stage 1, bad day for Audi
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
Stephane Peterhansel’s hopes of Dakar win dealt a big blow after crash
Following serious damage to his Audi on Sunday’s opening stage, reigning Dakar Rally champion Stephane Peterhansel has effectively gone out of contention for victory in 2022. Peterhansel had been running an excellent second in his electric Audi RS Q e-tron, barely six seconds behind overall leader Nasser Al-Attiyah of Toyota, after finishing 14th in Saturday’s Prologue. However, after hitting “something” in a patch of camel grass 153 kilometers into the stage at Ha’il, the Frenchman destroyed the rear axle of his Audi RS Q e-tron. Both Peterhansel and his co-driver, Edouard Boulanger, were unharmed in the incident, although they were detained for 6h20m while waiting for help. To make room for the technicians of their assistance vehicle, they first disassembled the entire left rear axle. The Frenchmen continued their journey through the stage after the truck arrived and replaced the broken pieces. However, after losing another half-hour on an unexplained issue 40 kilometers later, they decided to abandon the stage at the neutralisation point at 207 kilometers and return to the bivouac by road, avoiding the dangers of driving at night, arriving at 20:15 local time. These setbacks have practically killed Peterhansel’s ambitions of winning the Dakar for a record-tying 15th time in 2022, but he is set to return to the race on Monday to continue developing Audi’s sophisticated electric competitor. After three seasons with X-raid Mini, the 56-year-old is leading Audi’s comeback to cross-country rallying this year, with former teammate Carlos Sainz Sr and two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom rounding out the three-car lineup.
Rebellion president Pesci to drive Dumas’ car after his caught fire
After his own car caught fire during shakedown on Wednesday, Rebellion President Alexandre Pesci will compete in the 2022 Dakar Rally aboard his teammate Romain Dumas’ DXX prototype. Pesci was scheduled to compete in his third consecutive Dakar with Rebellion, a former LMP1 race winner, as part of a two-car lineup for the Saudi Arabian event. His chances of improving on a 43rd place finish were shattered, however, when his #251 DXX entry was engulfed in flames during the 10.7km shakedown near Jeddah, the rally-opening raid’s stage. Dumas, the winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours, has now donated his #215 buggy to Pesci in order for the Rebellion team owner to be present on the starting grid for the 44th Dakar on Saturday. Stephan Khuni, his normal navigator, will accompany him on the two-week journey. Despite the fact that Pesci will now pilot Rebellion’s sole remaining DXX buggy, Dumas will be able to compete in Dakar thanks to a last-minute deal to race the Toyota Hilux with which Nasser Al-Attiyah won the Hail Rally in Saudi Arabia earlier this month on his way to the FIA Cross-Country Rallies World Cup. “Unfortunately, after the problem we had with the car, the #251, I decided to give him my car because Alexandre did not finish last year,” said Dumas. “So for him it was very important to race again and try to see the [finish] line. At the end of the day Rebellion, this is the brand [I race for], so I said, ‘okay, I give you my car’. “I decided not to drive. Thursday morning I had breakfast with Nasser Al-Attiyah, he told me I have a car I bought a car for my museum.” “We found out this car was an 11-hour drive from here [in Doha], so during the day we sent somebody there to bring the car overnight. The car came this morning. “What Nasser did is unbelievable and also his team. “We are trying to prepare the car as much as possible, put some sticker on it, adjust my driving position. For sure I never drove the car. “Now the Toyota team is here to help us a little bit because we don’t know nothing about the car. So we will try not to take time too much of them but we have to get some advice.” Rebellion isn’t sure what caused the fire that destroyed Pesci’s initial car, but it believes a shock created an oil leak near the engine, which ignited due to extreme heat. Despite the fact that the automatic extinguisher system was triggered, the fire was uncontrollable, and it engulfed the entire vehicle.
Al Attiyah and Sanders top 2022 Dakar Rally Prologue – Results
Nasser Al-Attiyah of Toyota won Saturday’s Prologue for the 2022 Dakar Rally in the cars category, while GasGas rider Daniel Sanders set the pace in the bikes class in only his second outing. Al-Attiyah completed the 19km Prologue segment between Jeddah and Ha’il in 10m56s, kicking off his campaign to win the Dakar for a fourth time on terrain identical to that which the participants will face in the first week of the rally-raid. Three-time Dakar champion Carlos Sainz finished second, just 12 seconds behind the Qatari driver, in a promising start for Audi’s electric RS Q e-tron competitor. While Sainz was able to demonstrate the new Audi’s raw speed on the first day of the rally, his colleagues fared less well, with 14-time winner Stephane Peterhansel finishing 14th and Mattias Ekstrom finishing 15th. Century Racing’s Brian Baragwanath finished third, ahead of Toyota’s Henk Lategan and WRC icon Sebastien Loeb. Following his separation with long-time navigator Daniel Elena, new co-driver Fabian Lurquin set a time of 11m33s in the heavily-revised Bahrain Raid Xtreme BRX Hunter T1+ developed by Prodrive. Yazeed Al-Rajhi, a local driver, finished sixth in an Overdrive Toyota, almost two seconds ahead of 2014 winner Nani Roma’s second BRX vehicle. Giniel de Villiers, a factory Toyota driver who was on the verge of missing the rally due to a positive COVID-19 test earlier in the year, came in ninth, ahead of Jakub Przygonski and his Orlen-sponsored Mini buggy. With a time of 11m57s, Orlando Terranova ensured that all three Prodrive cars finished in the top ten.The X-raid Mini squad did not have a single finisher inside the top 15, with Yasir Seaidan finishing 17th. Both of its previous star drivers had left for Audi. Laia Sanz, an ex-KTM rider who inked a deal with X-raid to drive a Mini All4 Racing, was tentatively rated 43rd in her debut Dakar appearance in the vehicles category. The top 10 finishers will get to choose their starting position for the 334km special stage on Sunday after the 595km liaison to Ha’il, with Al-Attiyah having the last say on his starting place. In the motorcycles category, last year’s top rookie Sanders led new Honda recruit Pablo Quintanilla for the KTM-owned GasGas label. Sanders officially finished the Prologue in 55m30s, nearly a minute ahead of his nearest challenger Quintanilla, with the finishing times multiplied by a factor of five to avoid dangerous strategies. Ross Branch placed Yamaha third at the end of stage 1A, five seconds ahead of the top KTM of reigning champion Kevin Benavides, a year after the Japanese manufacturer’s catastrophic 2021 campaign. Benavides was fourth, ahead his teammate Matthias Walkner and Adrien van Beveren’s second Yamaha. On the second GasGas, 2017 winner Sam Sunderland finished seventh, 15 seconds behind KTM’s star rider Toby Price, who is returning to the Dakar after missing last year’s event due to a fractured collarbone. Honda’s Joan Barreda and Yamaha’s Andrew Short finished ninth and tenth, just ahead of leading Hero rider Joaquim Rodrigues and 2020 Dakar winner Ricky Brabec (Honda). Former MotoGP rider Danilo Petrucci, making his Dakar debut in the colors of Tech 3 KTM, finished the day 23rd fastest with a timing of 1hr03m00s, little over eight minutes behind leader Sanders. The top 15 riders from the Prologue will convene at 19:00 local time in Hai’il to determine their starting positions for the first full stage. The winner will have the last say in which place he will begin. DAKAR Rally Prologue Cars classification – Top 10 Pos. #. Name Marque Time Gap Penalty 1 201 AL-ATTIYAH NASSERBAUMEL MATTHIEU TOYOTA 00:10:56 00:00:00 2 202 SAINZ CARLOSCRUZ LUCAS AUDI 00:11:08 +00:00:12 00:00:00 3 230 BARAGWANATH BRIANCREMER LEONARD CENTURY 00:11:32 +00:00:36 00:00:00 4 225 LATEGAN HENKCUMMINGS BRETT TOYOTA 00:11:32 +00:00:36 00:00:00 5 211 LOEB SEBASTIENLURQUIN FABIAN PRODRIVE 00:11:33 +00:00:37 00:00:00 6 205 AL RAJHI YAZEEDORR MICHAEL TOYOTA 00:11:43 +00:00:47 00:00:00 7 204 ROMA NANIHARO BRAVO ALEX PRODRIVE 00:11:45 +00:00:49 00:00:00 8 207 DE VILLIERS GINIELMURPHY DENNIS TOYOTA 00:11:46 +00:00:50 00:00:00 9 203 PRZYGONSKI JAKUBGOTTSCHALK TIMO MINI 00:11:57 +00:01:01 00:00:00 10 221 TERRANOVA ORLANDOOLIVERAS CARRERAS DANIEL PRODRIVE 00:12:02 +00:01:06 00:00:00 DAKAR Rally Prologue Bikes classification – top 10 Pos. #. Name Bike Time Gap Penalty 1 4 SANDERS DANIEL GASGAS 00:55:30 00:00:00 2 7 QUINTANILLA PABLO HONDA 00:56:30 +00:01:00 00:00:00 3 16 BRANCH ROSS YAMAHA 00:57:25 +00:01:55 00:00:00 4 1 BENAVIDES KEVIN KTM 00:57:30 +00:02:00 00:00:00 5 52 WALKNER MATTHIAS KTM 00:58:05 +00:02:35 00:00:00 6 42 VAN BEVEREN ADRIEN YAMAHA 00:58:10 +00:02:40 00:00:00 7 3 SUNDERLAND SAM GASGAS 00:58:25 +00:02:55 00:00:00 8 18 PRICE TOBY KTM 00:58:25 +00:02:55 00:00:00 9 88 BARREDA BORT JOAN HONDA 00:58:30 +00:03:00 00:00:00 10 29 SHORT ANDREW YAMAHA 00:58:30 +00:03:00 00:00:00