The eighth stage of the Dakar 2022, the one that brought the caravan from Al Dawadimi to Wadi Ad Dawasir, will go down in history as the first in which two electrically powered cars – also from the same manufacturer and the same team: Audi Sport – are managed to catch an amazing double.
Mattias Ekstrom and Stéphane Peterhansel finished the test respectively in first and second position at the wheel of their respective Audi RS Q e-tron, thus giving the Ingolstadt manufacturer the first 1-2 of its new full-electric adventure in the most famous rally raid at the world.
The two reached the finish line separated by just 49 seconds, but the Swede got the better of it, who thus took the first stage success of his career in the Auto section at the Dakar. Having been in a favorable position in qualifying (eighth), Ekstrom was perfect, always remaining in the wake of Sébastien Loeb, leader for most of the stage, before launching the decisive attack in the last WayPoints.
The same tactic was used by “Mister Dakar”, Stéphane Peterhansel, who, however, saw the first stage win with Audi fade right on the wire. For Audi and for the RS Q e-tron, the second stage victory after the one obtained by Carlos Sainz in the first week arrived, confirming once again the goodness of the project in terms of performance. Audi will have to work on reliability in view of next season, but the road taken seems to be correct.
To consecrate the Audi monopoly in this stage was thought by Carlos Sainz, who came close to third place, stopping in fifth but just a few seconds from the podium and from the fourth position obtained by a good Henk Lategan. The Spaniard, in the second part of the test, had managed to overtake Loeb, but then could not resist the return of the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team from Alsace and had to settle for fourth position.
We now come to the fight for the top of the general car classification of this 44th edition of the Dakar. Sébastien Loeb, we saw him yesterday, broke the delay and is attacking. Today he took home a good third place, recovering another 7 minutes flat against race leader Nasser Al-Attiyah.
Loeb, however, has something to regret: he was in the lead for most of the stage and could have brought home the success after the two already won in recent days. Above all, however, he could have gnawed more minutes at Al-Attiyah, if he had managed to maintain the same pace shown in the first part, even in the second. The Frenchman, who will race in the Monte-Carlo Rallye from 20 to 23 January at the wheel of a Ford Puma Rally1 of the M-Sport Ford team, also lost precious minutes due to a puncture at the start of the stage.
Now there are 37’58 “between Al-Attiyah and Loeb. The margin in favor of the Toyta Gaoo Racing driver is still very important, so Loeb will have to make sure to keep attacking, but hoping for a bad day for his rival.
Good performance by Yazeed Al-Rajhi, who could do nothing to try to counter Loeb and try to recover the second position in the general classification, but he managed to make third place much firmer from the attacks of Lucio Alvarez. The driver of the Overdrive Toyota team, teammate of the Saudi Arabian, went through a very complex day, losing over three hours in the first section of the stage (rta the start and the first Way Point).
Very bad also Nani Roma, stopped at kilometer 43 due to yet another mechanical problem that slowed him down in this edition of the Dakar. The Bahrain Raid Xtreme driver has been out of the race for several days now, but he also has little chance of showing off for the stage victory, considering all the difficulties he has had in recent days.
Another good stage for Orlando Terranova, driver of the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, who seems more and more at ease behind the wheel of the Hunter built by Prodrive and continues to climb the general classification test after test. The same goes for the Polish MINI X-Raid, Jakub Przygonski, now fourth overall just ahead of the Argentinian of the BRX team.
Light Weight Prototypes: Quintero roller coaster
Seth Quintero continues in his march towards the record of stage victories in the Dakar by seizing the eighth success in this 44th edition, in another show of strength that is nothing short of amazing.
The Junior Red Bull Off-Road driver beat the first of his rivals, rookie Sebastian Eriksson of the EKS South Racing team, by 11 minutes, and also another rookie, the Russian Pavel Lebedev (MSK Rally Team).
Francisco Lopez Contardo, leader of the general classification, continues to manage his huge advantage over the first of his rivals. We are talking about Eriksson, his teammate, who is an hour behind.
Black day for Cristina Gutierrez Herrero. The Spaniard, Quintero’s teammate, lost over 2 hours in practice to fix a mechanical failure on her vehicle.
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