Sébastien Loeb was called to take the initiative to try to at least put pressure on Nasser Al-Attiyah, leader of the general classification of the 44th edition of the Dakar, and so it was. The driver of the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team took the victory in Stage 7, the one that brought the caravan from Riyadh to Al Dawadimi after more than 700 kilometers of testing.
The Alsatian driver commanded the stage almost all the time, taking advantage of the excellent starting position and the characteristics of the Hunter, which, thanks to this success, reaches three victories in this edition of the Dakar (2 successes for Loeb and 1 for Terranova, arrived in the stage before the rest day).
Thanks to this success, Loeb not only returns to second place in the overall standings by overtaking Yazeed Al-Rajhi, but has even managed to narrow his gap from the leader of the overall standings Nasser Al-Attiyah. Now the Qatari of the Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa team leads with a margin of 44 minutes and 59 seconds.
This result does not reopen the fight for success, because Al-Attiyah still has a considerable advantage over his direct rivals and at the end of the race there are 5 stages to go. Maybe too little, but the Toyota driver will have to be very careful, because the Dakar is a race full of pitfalls and Loeb will do everything to try to put pressure on him to the end.
As for the stage, Audi can be happy with the third place obtained by Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz. The Spanish crew fought for most of the stage for victory, but then had to give way to Loeb’s Hunter and Al-Attiyah’s Hilux. Another good news comes from Stéphane Peterhansel, finally in the Top 5 with a good fourth place after several bad luck during the first week of the race.
On the other hand, Yazeed Al-Rajhi loses the second position in the general classification despite having taken a good fifth place in the stage. The Overdrive Toyota Saudi driver lost over 10 minutes to Loeb, which is why he lost second place overall. Excellent performance also by teammates, Bernhard Ten Brinke and Lucio Alvarez, respectively sixth and seventh.
The Argentine of the Overdrive Toyota team gained a position in the general classification by exploiting the mechanical problem that stopped Giniel De Villiers. The South African was forced to stop due to a mechanical failure on his Hilux. The intervention of team mate Henk Lategan was of little use: the South African stopped to lend a hand to his compatriot, but with little luck. De Villiers was able to restart, but slipped from fourth to ninth, now trailing by almost an hour and 50 minutes.
Thus Alvarez moved up to fourth place and Jakub Przygonski was also able to do the same. The first rider of the X-Raid MINI team in the standings is fifth, ahead of an excellent Orlando Terranova (Bahrain Raid Xtreme), now sixth having overtaken Vladimir Vasiliev (in a BMW X5 managed by X-Raid).
Dakar 2022 – Cars – Ranking after Stage 7
Pos. | Pilot / navigator | Car | Time / posting | Penalty |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Al-Attiyah / Baumel | Toyota Hilux 4X4 | 23h52’22 “ | |
2 | Loeb / Lurquin | Hunter BRX Prodrive | + 44’59 “ | |
3 | Al-Rajhi / Orr | Toyota Hilux 4X4 | + 53’31 “ | 00’35 “ |
4 | Alvarez / Monleon | Toyota Hilux 4X4 | + 1h15’09 “ | |
5 | Przygonski / Gottschalk | MINI JCW 4X4 | + 1h30’04 “ | |
6 | Terranova / Oliveras Carreras | Hunter BRX Prodrive | + 1h36’55 “ | + 12’00 “ |
7 | Vasilyev / Uperenko | BMW X5 | + 1h39’47 “ | + 5’00 “ |
8 | Prokop / Chytka | Ford Raptor RS | + 1h44’48 “ | + 7’00 “ |
9 | De Villiers / Murphy | Toyota Hilux 4X4 | + 1h47’14 “ | + 5’00 “ |
10 | Halpern / Graue | MINI JCW 4X4 | + 1h58’24 “ | + 5’00 “ |
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