Nasser Al-Attiyah has succeeded: he is the winner of the 44th edition of the Dakar and he is with full merit, after having dominated the entire race with perfect conduct. At the attack immediately and then, after having immediately created a very large margin against direct rivals, he had to do nothing but manage it until the finish line in Jeddah.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver closes the 2022 Dakar with only 2 stage wins, but with the big booty in his bag, learning from last year’s mistakes. In 2021, in fact, the Qatari had won 7 stages, but finished second behind Stéphane Peterhansel.
Today, however, “Mister Dakar” finished second in the 12th stage, the last of this edition of the Dakar which brought the caravan from Bisha to Jeddah in just 164 timed kilometers, while with a very quiet ninth place Al-Attiyah won the fourth Dakar of his career. The stage success went to another official Toyota Hilux, that of the promising Henk Lategan, who started in an excellent position so as to suggest that the stage had ended up in the hands of Peterhansel, only to mock everyone. Including us.
Nasser, we recall, won in 2011 with Volkswagen, in 2015 with MINI, in 2019 with Toyota and now here is the fourth absolute triumph in the Auto class, again with Toyota, always at the wheel of an official Hilux, which consecrates him as one of the greatest Rally Raid drivers ever (as well as having achieved very important results in the smaller classes of the WRC). Thanks to this success, he reaches Ari Vatanen with 4 overall successes at the most famous rally raid in the world.
A great satisfaction for Toyota too, because it managed to place two cars on the podium thanks to the overall victory of Al-Attiyah and the podium – third – of Yazeed Al-Rajhi, one of the top drivers of the Toyota Overdrive team. However, Sébastien Loeb also deserves great applause, second in this Dakar and never defeated until the last stage.
Today the Frenchman of the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team tried all out, finishing the stage in fourth place, behind Henk Lategan’s Toyota Hilux 4X4, Peterhansel’s Audi RS Q e-tron of just 1’31 “and the Century CR6 of the surprising Brian Baragwanath (Century Racing) Thanks to this result Séb nibbled another 6 minutes in Al-Attiyah: too little to put his rival in crisis.
However, a great race remains, that of the Alsatian. Free from glaring driving and navigation errors. Only small flaws – including avoidable penalties – which however proved decisive for the general classification. Against this Al-Attiyah, in order to aspire to victory, it is necessary to reach perfection. Loeb, however, still achieved the best result of his career at the Dakar and can be satisfied with what has been built with the BRX team and with the renewed Hunter.
Excellent fifth place in the stage for Orlando Terranova, with whom he confirmed an unexpected fourth place in the general classification. For BRX, therefore, another satisfaction and a perfect choice, because the Argentine was signed only a few weeks before the start and he responded with a performance that was all of substance.
Toyota also celebrates the Top 5 in the overall by Giniel De Villiers, author of an excellent second week after the troubles that held him back in the first (he hit 2 motorcyclists in just 24 hours, even if he was cleared by the commissioners in the second). The South African preceded the first driver of the MINI X-Raid team, the Polish Jakub Przygonski, and the French of the STR Racing team, Mathieu Serradori, who redeemed himself in the second week after the first 7 days to say the least subdued.
To save the first Audi Sport expedition we thought the unexpected Mattias Ekstrom, who finished in the Top 10 with great performances in the last days of the race (winning a stage for another). The Swede can be a driver who, if trained, will be able to have his say in the years to come. Carlos Sainz and Stéphane Peterhansel were held back by errors and youth problems of the RS Q e-tron, but with 4 stage wins (2 Sainz, 1 Peterhansel and 1 Ekstrom), the fully electric car proved to be a project born well, perhaps not yet successful in the long term, but with promising potential to say the least.
Light Weight Prototypes: Quintero tweaks the record, but Lopez Contardo is king
For Francisco Lopez Contardo it is time to celebrate. After having led the general classification of the Light Weight Prototypes for a long time, the Chilean driver of the EKS – South Racing team can raise his arms to the sky for having won the class by a large margin over all his rivals.
Lopez Contardo, in today’s stage, limited himself to controlling his teammate, Sebastian Eriksson, the only rival for the final success. The two arrived at the finish line in Jeddah paired to celebrate the sensational double of the EKS-South Racing team, although Lopez Contardo and Eriksson were separated by almost an hour in the general classification.
In the success of Lopez Contardo, however, it is not possible to avoid mentioning the amazing race of Seth Quintero. The Californian of the USA Junior Red Bull Off-Road team was the real ruler of the category, also winning Stage 12 of the Dakar and retouching his absolute record of stage victories in a single Dakar signed yesterday.
With 12 stage successes, Quintero is the all-time record holder, having won 12 out of the 13 disputed (the Prologue held on January 1st is also valid). Seth, however, in the only stage not won was forced to stop due to a failure on his vehicle that forced him to lose a Dakar that seemed to be his from the beginning.
Throughout the race he showed an embarrassing superiority over all the others, including Lopez Contardo, winning 12 stages out of 13 and sending out a signal for the next few years: he will be a rider to keep an eye on not only for the Light. Weight Prototypes, where he proved to be by far the best, but also for teams that might be interested in betting on a promising young player.
Honorable mention to Cristina Gutierrez Herrero, able to finish this edition of the Dakar as an official Red Bull Off-Road driver on the podium. The Spaniard, sailed by Francois Cazalet, failed to win stages, but nevertheless stood out for excellent performances during the two weeks of the race, also relegating the Russian Pavel Lebedev to the foot of the podium.
We must not forget the excellent seventh place of Camelia Liparoti. The Italian of the Yamaha Powered by X-Raid team was the author of a regular race, although not without problems. The Top 10 is still an excellent result for her and for the Italian colors.
Dakar 2022 – Cars – Final classification
Pos. | Pilot / navigator | Car | Time / posting | Penalty |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Al-Attiyah / Baumel | Toyota Hilux 4X4 | 36h49’51 “ | + 5’00 “ |
2 | Loeb / Lurquin | Hunter BRX Prodrive | + 33’19 “ | + 5’00 “ |
3 | Al-Rajhi / Orr | Toyota Hilux 4X4 | + 1h03’43 “ | + 00’35 “ |
4 | Terranova / Oliveras Carreras | Hunter BRX Prodrive | + 1h31’29 “ | + 13’00 “ |
5 | De Villiers / Murphy | Toyota Hilux 4X4 | + 1h44’11 “ | + 5’00 “ |
6 | Przygonski / Gottschalk | MINI JCW 4X4 | + 1h51’57 “ | |
7 | Vasilyev / Uperenko | BMW X5 | + 2h01’49 “ | + 7’00 “ |
8 | Serradori / Minaudier | Century CR6 | + 2h34’19 “ | + 15’00 “ |
9 | Ekstrom / Bargqvist | Audi RS Q e-tron | + 2h39’57 “ | + 17’00 “ |
10 | Halpern / Graue | MINI JCW 4X4 | + 2h41’00 “ | + 6’00 “ |
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