Dakar Day 2: Al-Attiyah wins again
Nasser Al-Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb have finished the timed sector. Barring a major surprise, the Qatari has the stage win in the bag. The Toyota driver has clearly hit the ground running.
It’s been an enjoyable return to the deserts of Saudi Arabia so far for three-time Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT). Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel (FRA) guided their Toyota Hilux T1+ to a stage win on the 334km loop around the Ha’il bivouac. The result follows on from their success in yesterday’s prologue.
“I’m happy with the job that Mathieu and myself did today. I really pushed from beginning to finish. Mathieu’s navigation was great. To finish day one with a good lead is an amazing start, but there’s still so far to go.” – Nasser Al-Attiyah
Sticking close to Al-Attiyah throughout the stage was WRC legend Sébastien Loeb (FRA) in his BRX Prodrive Hunter. Accompanied by co-driver Fabian Lurquin (BEL), Loeb limited his losses to Al-Attiyah on Stage 1 to under 13 minutes.
“It was a long and difficult stage. The navigation was really tricky today. The terrain was rough in places and we had two punctures to deal with. It was a hard stage to get things started.”
Henk Lategan, fourth in the qualifying special, has suffered a puncture and lost one of his rear wheels at km 142. After a DNF last year, the South African driver could be waving goodbye to his prospects of an overall podium spot.
Stéphane Peterhansel was second on the road at km 120, right behind Nasser Al-Attiyah, when he smashed up his rear and was forced to screech to a halt to wait for his support crew at km 153. A major setback for ‘Monsieur Dakar’.
In Bikes, Daniel Sanders dominated stage 1B from A to Z to claim his second career Dakar stage win, also the second in a row, as well as padding his overall lead. The Australian is 2’07’ clear of Pablo Quintanilla and over 8’30’ ahead of Matthias Walkner.
It’s been a full-throttle start to the Dakar for Sanders (AUS) as he set the fastest time for the second day running. The GasGas rider backed up yesterday’s prologue win by leading today’s stage from start to finish. Could last year’s highest placed rookie be chasing an even bigger prize this time around?
“After winning the prologue, I started today in 15th. By the refueling, I was catching guys so I knew I wasn’t going too badly. Then I arrived at a place where a few others had made a mistake. I managed to find the way and hit the next waypoint.” – Daniel Sanders
The organizer of the Dakar Rally has issued a warning statement on the opening day of the marathon following a road car explosion in Jeddah that injured a competitor.
At around 6:30pm local time by an official press release, issued by organizer ASO, which issued a safety alert for the 3,500 or so competitors and support personnel of a possible terrorist attack.
It followed an explosion outside the Hotel Donatello on December 29th, in which five of the six inhabitants of a support vehicle for Team Sodicars.
ASO promised to investigate the incident and to pass on more information when available, saying it was in constant contact with the local authorities to “implement all necessary measures to ensure the full safety of all Dakar 2022 participants and fans”.
A second communication followed on Saturday, explaining that Boutron “suffered serious injuries to his leg and had to undergo surgery”.
“His vehicle was brought to a sudden halt by a sudden explosion, the origin of which is still unknown at this stage,” read the statement. One can only assume such an explosion was terrorist activity in a country known to harbor such criminals. The USA 9/11 terror attacks using commercial passenger jets was done by Saudis.
Stage 1 Top-10 ‘Car’ Results
| Pos | No. | Driver/Navigator | Team | Time | Behind |
| 1 | 201 | N. Al-Attiyah (Qat)/M. Baumel (And) | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 03:30:53 | 0:00:00 |
| 2 | 211 | S. Loeb (Fra)/F. Lurquin (Bel) | Bahrain Raid Xtreme | 03:43:37 | 0:12:44 |
| 3 | 209 | M. Prokop (Cze)/V. Chytka (Cze) | Benzina Orlen Team | 03:53:32 | 0:22:39 |
| 4 | 222 | L. Alvarez (Arg)/A. Monleon (Esp) | Overdrive Toyota | 03:58:35 | 0:27:42 |
| 5 | 208 | V. Vasilyev (Raf)/O. Uperenko (Lva) | Vrt Team | 03:59:51 | 0:28:58 |
| 6 | 223 | S. Halpern (Arg)/B. Graue (Arg) | X-Raid Mini Jcw Team | 04:00:30 | 0:29:37 |
| 7 | 207 | G. De Villiers (Zaf)/D. Murphy (Zaf) | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 04:04:26 | 0:33:33 |
| 8 | 203 | J. Przygonski (Pol)/T. Gottschalk (Deu) | Orlen Team | 04:12:44 | 0:41:51 |
| 9 | 205 | Y. Al Rajhi (Sau)/M. Orr (Gbr) | Overdrive Toyota | 04:14:33 | 0:43:40 |
| 10 | 221 | O. Terranova (Arg)/D. Oliveras Carreras (Esp) | Bahrain Raid Xtreme | 04:20:20 | 0:49:27 |
Top-10 ‘Car’ Standings Overall
| Pos | No. | Driver/Navigator | Team | Time | Behind |
| 1 | 201 | N. Al-Attiyah (Qat)/M. Baumel (And) | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 02:56:35 | 0:00:00 |
| 2 | 211 | S. Loeb (Fra)/F. Lurquin (Bel) | Bahrain Raid Xtreme | 03:09:16 | 0:12:41 |
| 3 | 218 | Y. Seaidan (Sau)/A. Kuzmich (Raf) | X-Raid Mini Jcw Team | 03:12:17 | 0:15:42 |
| 4 | 209 | M. Prokop (Cze)/V. Chytka (Cze) | Benzina Orlen Team | 03:15:21 | 0:18:46 |
| 5 | 222 | L. Alvarez (Arg)/A. Monleon (Esp) | Overdrive Toyota | 03:21:38 | 0:25:03 |
| 6 | 208 | V. Vasilyev (Raf)/O. Uperenko (Lva) | Vrt Team | 03:23:41 | 0:27:06 |
| 7 | 223 | S. Halpern (Arg)/B. Graue (Arg) | X-Raid Mini Jcw Team | 03:23:46 | 0:27:11 |
| 8 | 207 | G. De Villiers (Zaf)/D. Murphy (Zaf) | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 03:27:13 | 0:30:38 |
| 9 | 203 | J. Przygonski (Pol)/T. Gottschalk (Deu) | Orlen Team | 03:36:03 | 0:39:28 |
| 10 | 233 | S. Variawa (Zaf)/D. Stassen (Zaf) | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 03:37:55 | 0:41:20 |
BIKE RACE TOP 5
1. D. SANDERS (AUS) GAS GAS 04:38:40
2. P. QUINTANILLA (CHL) HONDA +03:07
3. M. WALKNER (AUT) KTM +11:06
4. A. VAN BEVEREN (FRA) YAMAHA +12:46
5. M. KLEIN KTM +14:34
TRUCK RACE TOP 5
1. D. SOTNIKOV (RUS) KAMAZ 04:06:22
2. E. NIKOLAEV (RUS) KAMAZ +00:31
3. A. LOPRAIS (CZE) PRAGA +09:58
4. A. SHIBALOV (RUS) KAMAZ +18:56
5. A. KARGINOV (RUS) KAMAZ +19:12
LIGHTWEIGHT PROTOTYPE (T3) TOP 5
1. S. QUINTERO (USA) OT3 04:21:35
2. F. LOPEZ CONTARDO (CHL) CAN-AM +01:58
3. S. ERIKSSON (SWE) CAN-AM +06:52
4. P. LEBEDEV (RUS) CAN-AM +13:41
5. C. GUTIERREZ (ESP) OT3 +29:54