Leb begins to accept Al Attiyah’s victory in the Dakar Rally

In the 375-kilometer race from Dowashir to Bissa, Dakar rally legend Stefan Petrancell joined the winners again this year and accompanied his third electric Audi RS Q e-tron 2 minutes before Carlos Sainth.

Sebastian Leb wrote the 5th year with 4:25 minutes behind his compatriot Audi, while Nasser Al Attiyah followed with the 7th performance of the day with 5:50 minutes.

The latter also received a 5-minute penalty on Monday for an irregularity with his seat belts, but again the driver lead from Qatar with the factory Toyota Hilux T1 + remained at 32:40 minutes for over half an hour.

Leb, who sees his hopes for a victory in the Dakar at the 9th World Rally Championship in Palmare this year, said: “We can’t try harder than we’re trying now. We give the maximum on all specials, but the difference is huge. That’s how things are ”.

For his part, Al Attiyah is keeping a cautious pace so as not to risk a time-consuming problem – it only appears to be able to rob him of his fourth win. “I said I didn’t want to risk or push too much just to get a good rhythm and let myself lose two or three minutes. We didn’t have any problems today, tomorrow we’ll have a good starting position and I’m very satisfied. Last year we won seven special stages, but finished second. We won two this year, but we’re in the lead. It is a great feeling.”, he said.

With the third electric Audi, Matthias Ekström was only 11th after yesterday’s victory, but made it into the top ten and, after the problems of Saint and Petrancell, is the driver with the highest position in the entire group of the German group for the first few days. The Spaniard is in 15th place with little hope of making it into the top ten.

The scene on motorcycles is anti-diametrical. Yamaha’s Adrien van Beveren returned to the top of the overall standings in the third year of the day, behind KTM’s fastest Toby Price today.

It was important for Van Beveren to see his main opponents lose valuable ground to the defeat. KTM’s Sam Sunderland was only 7 years old and lost 8 minutes to the French, Honda’s Pablo Quintanilla at 13 was just over 4 minutes old, while KTM’s Matthias Walkner was only 26 years old and lost 12 and a half minutes to Van Beveren.

After the end of the special stage, Honda Quintanilla and Joan Barreda Bort were penalized with 2 and 4 minutes respectively for exceeding the speed limit on the one-way route. For Barreda Bort it was a blow that left him in 5th place, almost 11 minutes behind the top.

Van Beveren made two special stages and a little more than 500 racing kilometers from the finish, almost 6 minutes ahead of Sunderland and Quintania and 8:24 minutes on Walkner. It will be an exciting fight for the thread, with five drivers from four different factories.

What is certain, however, is that last year’s winner Kevin Benavides (then with Honda) will not defend his crown, as he left today because of mechanical problems with his KTM. The Argentine had managed to move up to fifth place and reached the top in 10 minutes.

With the Greek colors, Vangelis Bersis and Fotis Koutsompos entered the 10th special stage after they had won five more places in the previous one and had risen to 53rd in the general Classic category. For very short advances, their penalties were minimal and they proceeded with small and barely noticeable mechanical problems.

DAKAR RALLYE 2022 – ED10

CARS

1. Al Atiya (Toyota) 33:13:37

2. Leb (BRX) +32:40

3. Al Razi (Toyota) +55: 48

4. Teranova (BRX) +1: 29:18

5. Przigonski (Mini) +1: 45: 42

MOTORCYCLES

1. Van Beveren (Yamaha) 33:27:06

2. Sunderland (GasGas) 05:59

3. Quintania (Honda) + 06:15

4. Walkner (KTM) +08: 24

5. Barge Bort (Honda) +10: 47