We arrive at the penultimate stage of the Dakar 2022, a ring around the Bisha bivouac. 155 km of transfer and 346 km of special, with sand (42%), dunes (27%) and clay (31%). A stage that, with its difficult finish, has all the potential for overturn the result. After yesterday’s stage, Adrien Van Beveren is back in command of the overall standings, with Sunderland, Quintanilla, Walkner and Barreda behind him, enclosed in just over 10 “. Toby Price, yesterday’s winner, is the first rider to start the eleventh special. Three minutes later the Australian will start Luciano Benavides, Kevin’s brother, who came out of yesterday’s stage due to a mechanical problem on his KTM and returned to the race today using the “wild card” granted this year by the organizers to those who stop for mechanical problems or for a crash (obviously it is “off the charts).
After 127 km of the race Sunderland has the best time, 8 ” ahead of Kevin Benavides ‘, 1’15’ ‘ahead of Matthias Walkner’, 2’09 ” ahead of Joaquim Rodrigues and 2’48 ” ahead of Pablo Quintanilla. Joan Barreda is in 15th position, 9’01 ” from the leader, while Adrien Van Beveren is in 29th place, 15’38 ” from the Englishman. In the virtual general classification, Sunderland returns to command and precedes Quintanilla by 2’04 ” and Walkner by 3’40 ”.
Sam Sunderland still has the best time after 214km. Matthias Walkner is in 4th place, 4’44 ” behind the stage leader and Quintanilla is in 7th place, 7’17 ” behind the Englishman. Joan Barreda dropped to 15th place, 19’19 ” behind Sunderland and Adrien Van Beveren is in 17th position, 18’41 ” behind his British rival. In the virtual general classification, Sunderland is still leading the Dakar, ahead of Walkner and Quintanilla.
As expected, difficult navigation today in the second part of the special: Toby Price, Luciano Benavides, Joan Barreda and Adrien Van Beveren, who started the stage this morning in that order, are all out of the top 20 after 257km. Van Beveren is 19’24 ” behind the best time. “Bang Bang” Barreda is down by 19’52 ”. Price, the first to start, is more than 25 ‘behind the current stage leader.
Kevin Benavides finished with the best time on the finish line of the special: 3h30’56 “. The KTM driver, who returned to the race with the “wild card”, after 346 km of timed testing, anticipates Sam Sunderland by only 4 “, thus blowing him the victory right at the end. Third place for Rodrigues, at + 2’26 “. Adrien Van Beveren closes in 12th place, 21’33 ” behind the winner, Joan Barreda in 16th place, 25’10 ” behind. Toby Price, who opened this morning, completed the stage in 18th place, 30’47 ” behind the Argentine.
With today’s second place, and many big names struggling with navigation, Sam Sunderland brings his GASGAS back to the top of the overall standings. When there is only one stage left at the end of the Dakar 2022, the English driver has an advantage of 6’52 ”over Quintanilla and 7’15 over Walkner. Van Beveren is in 4th position, at 15’30 ” from Sam Sunderland, Barreda is in 5th place, at 27’54 ”. A GASGAS, a Honda and a KTM are therefore enclosed in just over 7 ‘. The Dakar 2022 will therefore be decided in the last stage of tomorrow, which will be decisive!
On the following pages you will find how the Italian drivers did in the race, the complete rankings of the Dakar 2022, some info on the next stages and how to follow the race on TV.
.
