2022/01/carlos-sainz-takes-the-stage-and-al-attiyah-caresses-the-dakar/” title=”Carlos Sainz takes the stage and Al-Attiyah caresses the Dakar”>Nasser Al-Attiyah came, saw and conquered in Saudi Arabia. The 51-year-old Qatari turned the prologue to his will and immediately won the first stage on Sunday. He would never relinquish that leadership position in his Toyota.
Rally icon Sebastien Loeb has long been the “closest” attacker to Al-Attiyah, but was never able to pose a real threat. The Frenchman had to do without four-wheel drive in the 3rd stage and thus already faced a 37-minute deficit. Two stage wins couldn’t help him anymore. Yazeed Al-Rajhi finishes third.
Al-Attiyah was able to quickly take his 4th overall victory. In 2011, he won the Dakar for the first time with a Volkswagen. In 2015 (Mini) and 2019 (Toyota) he repeated that trick. With 4 final victories he equals the legendary Ari Vatanen.
Only Stéphane Peterhansel was more successful with 8 overall victories in the cars and 6 overall victories in the motorcycles. But the Frenchman was not involved in 2022: he crashed into a rock at the start of the Dakar and lost hours. He did win the final stage, good for his 50th in total in the cars.
Briton Sam Sunderland won the Dakar for the motorcycles for the second time in his career. With one stage win and three second places, Sunderland was the most consistent rider. He took advantage of a bad day from Adrien Van Beveren, nota bene his brother-in-law, on Thursday.
Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda) fought until the very last gasp, won the final stage, but fell 3’27” short in the final score. Matthias Walkner of the official KTM team finished third.
It is a first for his team GasGas, which asked Sunderland at the eleventh hour if he wanted to ride the Dakar. After Honda broke KTM’s hegemony after 18 years in 2021, KTM’s shadow team won the Dakar again.
Three of the four Belgian motards who started the race made it to the finish. Among them are two debutants. Jerome Martiny (Husqvarna) was 30th in his first Dakar, Mathieu Liebaert 57th. For Mikael Despontin (KTM) it was his second Dakar, finishing 51st.
Walter Roelants (Husqvarna) is the only Belgian motorcyclist who does not make it to the finish. Roelants had a serious fall on Wednesday 5 January, breaking a vertebrae in the back and a neck.
