Dakar Rally: Al Atiya comfortably remains first, fourfold battle on motorcycles

When the three Toyota Hilux T1 + from Gazoo Racing dominated the 287 km long Wadi al-Dawasir Special, Ziniel de Viger was only 9 seconds faster than Hank Lategan, while Nasser Al Attiya was a minute behind.

Sebastian Leb achieved his fifth year and lost 1:07 to Al Attiyah – but there is only one problem that can withhold his fourth victory in Qatar in the world’s most important rally raid race, as his lead is still 39:05 minutes over the French , and there are only three days of racing left to the finish.

Audis Matthias Ekström and Stefan Petrancel could have won today if they hadn’t paved the way, as the Swede was fifth and the French eighth, 2:07 and 3:45 minutes behind De Viger. After the multiple problems of the drivers of the electric Audi RS Q e-tron in the past few days, the Extreme is the only one with hopes of a place in the top ten – he is 10 minutes away from the French Mathieu Serrandori from SRT Racing (century).

De Viger meanwhile climbed to 5th place overall, 9 minutes behind BRX-Prodrives 4th Orlando Teranova. Recall that the 5-hour sentence imposed on the South African for hauling a fallen motorcycle (as the driver managed to escape) was overturned after an appeal by Toyota.

On the other hand, the battle for victory on motorcycles is shocking and multifaceted. Four drivers with four different drivers are separated from each other by a total of only 4:41 minutes. Matthias Walkner from KTM took over today after GasGas’s Sam Sunderland’s problems, which were particularly difficult to pave the way.

Since the Briton was only 13 years old, the Austrian Walkner won 6 minutes in the fight between them, gaining a lead of 2:12 minutes over Sunderland, 3:56 minutes over Adrien van Beveren of Yamaha and 4:41 minutes over Pablo Quintanilla of Honda. Kevin Benavides (KTM) and Joan Barreda Bort (Honda), who follow after 10:22 and 10:57 minutes respectively, also give rise to hopes.

In today’s special stage, Jose Ignacio Cornejo dominated the Honda CRF450 rally, winning 1:26 over Benavides and 1:47 ahead of his Honda colleague Ricky Brabek. But the American, who was the first man to win the KTM in 15 years, is out of action because he is 10th and 36 minutes away from Walkner.

The Greeks from Dakar, Vangelis Bersis and Fotis Koutsoumpos, entered today’s special stage after making a big jump to 58th place in the general Classic category the day before. After leaving the mechanical problems of Friday behind and changing some mechanical parts of the Mitsubishi Pajero on Saturday, they put a lot of pressure on and despite the small problems, they gained almost 25 places in the ranking.

DAKAR RALLYE 2022 – ED9

CARS

1. Al Atiya (Toyota) 30:10:04

2. Leb (BRX) +39: 05

3. Al Razi (Toyota) +58: 44

4. Teranova (BPX) +1: 36:09

5. De Viger (Toyota) +1: 45:01

MOTORCYCLES

1. Walkner (KTM) 30:14:03

2. Sunderland (GasGas) 02:12

3. Van Beveren (Yamaha) +03: 56

4. Quintania (Honda) + 04:41

5. K. Benavides (Honda) +10: 22