It is still dark when the highway that crosses Riyahd begins to give way to long expanses of desert, more and more sunny. The large buildings disappear behind the mirror, while the SUV that accompanies us continues along the central lane. Silence, dictated by the tiredness of just 2 hours of sleep, but above all by the sound of those who pass us on our left. First Loeb’s Hunter T1, then a Toyota Hilux. You can distinguish them from the sound, the first is more full-bodied, the second more ringing, albeit at a minimum. A few minutes and we are also overtaken by the Audi RS Q e-tron.
You perceive it immediately, beyond its size and its silhouette. The hiss is impressive, worthy of a vehicle that always remains in the shot when it comes to traction. A good hour, and we approach the right back of a huge dusty expanse with the sun that has now peeped out. You pass through a gate, indeed ramshackle, and between a mixture of mud and sand, the Ingolstad electric buggy stops.
The door opens, and Carlos Sainz gets out with Lucas Cruz. Four words – especially with Spanish colleagues – before starting that lay ceremonial necessary before departure.
“Too bad for that road book of the second stage. But we are fast ”. The RS Q e-tron is as impressive in its proportions as it is tapered in its cockpit where the two monitors with navigation indications are easily noticed inside. In short, the roadbook is telematic. Nothing better considering the difficulties that, since its presentation, ASO had predicted: this Dakar 2022 focuses strongly on orientation.
# 200 Team Audi Sport Audi: Stéphane Peterhansel, Edouard Boulanger
Photo by: Flavio Atzori
The environment is spartan, rough, almost pioneering. Each protagonist, each car, independently finds an open space, with a handful of fans around it in a reverential way. It does not matter whether it is two guys who, bent with keys and tools, are looking for a makeshift repair, or a Stephane Peterhansel who, a few meters from De Villiers and his Hilux, simply breathes the air of home.
Difficult to explain, but skinnily easy to perceive. On the other hand, Thierry Sabine used to say: “The Dakar cannot be told in words, you need to live it to understand it”.
There is a fundamental contradiction that fascinates: the wildest desert race in the world, testing ground for what Ingolstadt defines as “the most complex vehicle ever created”. As with Pikes Peak, there is a pioneering atmosphere worthy of an Asimov book. Yet, the sanctity of such a race, immersed in a desolate world that, on closer inspection, starts just 500 meters as the crow flies (if not less) than the highway leading to Riyahd.
The silence is broken by the starting of the TFSI turbo petrol engine. It keeps the revolutions high, constant, probably around 6,000 rpm: it is necessary to regenerate as much as possible the battery used – obviously – in the transfer, before taking off, using the electric drive.
# 200 Team Audi Sport Audi: Stéphane Peterhansel, Edouard Boulanger
Photo by: Flavio Atzori
It is 7.30 local time, and from the starting point, they start to leave 3 minutes away, and then disappear on the right, along the desert. We get on board, take the highway again and then head along the desert through a link road. The appointment is with a checkpoint. You need to venture into the desert for a good half hour. Beaten road for those who can best perceive lines and reference points, a little less for those who are not accustomed to a landscape so vast as to be stunning.
Checkpoint is defined by our tent, by our camp: a bunch of cars, various journalists, and camels. Every now and then a few desert caravan trucks pass by, capable of pulling even houses (and that’s not a way of saying), which gives a good idea of the stunning vastness of such an environment.
And right above a compact dune of sand and rock, you realize that your smartphone – a fundamental link with your reality – has no field either for data traffic or GSM. Devastating: no information, no live timing or a few tweets to understand how the race is progressing.
“The Dakar teaches you patience” says a colleague who has followed several of Dakar, when it was still reaching the shores of the Pink Lake. Here, it is in that moment that you perceive the greatness of such a test, of a rally raid like this: running, non-stop, navigating on sight. And there is no technology that takes, we rely on the roadbook, instinct, talent. Here is the umpteenth contradiction for this challenge in the desert.
# 200 Team Audi Sport Audi: Stéphane Peterhansel, Edouard Boulanger
Photo by: Flavio Atzori
Loeb’s Prodrive passes by, with Nasser and his Hilux glued. Cars go by, and you look at your watch. You count the minutes to understand and intuit that – yes – something must have happened to the Audi RS Q e-tron. Yeah but what? Navigation error? Withdraw? It will be discovered after Carlos Sainz had a problem with his shock. And that Peterhansel stopped to take down his “bumper” to mount it on the unit of the Matador.
The clock goes by, with an hour and three minutes late at the checkpoint, and probably the fight for the final victory has definitely vanished, after the problem of the first real stage. From the parts of Ingolstadt probably bitter is chewed, and it could not be otherwise given that this vehicle has proven to be competitive and reliable in its key elements: electric motors and battery up to now have performed very well, as has the electronic management – a real element of development. essential for such a car, since it must be able to manage three different MGU units and a TFSI engine, as Julius Seebach pointed out more than once at the bivouac.
“The important thing, in these cases, is to have demonstrated the spirit of cohesion and cooperation, which is fundamental in such competitions”. Claim victory in the longest stage to date, and keep pointing out that this is a three-year project.
True, as is true the copious investment by the Four Rings that has brought that environment and that organization closer to the 24 Hours of Le Mans rather than to a Rally Raid, and which at the moment is not leading to a final victory. . It is one of the rules of the race conceived by Sabine that can be summed up simply with a clear assumption for those who run: “Once upon a time it was said, c’est l’Afrique, c’est la Dakar”.
Darkness falls over the bivouac, as does the cold, so much so that a bonfire is lit near the container that houses the “canteen”. Around KTM it’s a big party for Danilo Petrucci. But this, like many others, is a different story that this race is capable of telling. Starting with the next stage.
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