Dakar: Nasser al-Attiyah wins fourth Dakar Rally title

Qatari driver Nasser al-Attiyah has won the grueling Dakar Rally for a fourth time after the race through the Saudi Arabian desert came to a climax on Friday.

The 51-year-old – champion in 2011, 2015 and 2019 – took the overall honors ahead of France’s nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb.

Al-Attiyah led the race from start to finish. He won only two of the 12 stages, both in the first week, but showed remarkable consistency throughout the rally.

British motorbike rider Sam Sunderland had claimed his second Dakar Rally crown.

🏆 @AlAttiyahN and @matthieubaumel won #Dakar2022! 👏 pic.twitter.com/VsCBoULgrH

— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 14, 2022

Henk Lategan grabbed his second stage win today to finish the rally in style. The South African denied Stéphane Peterhansel what would have been his second success in the Audi RS Q e-tron. The Frenchman ended up 49 seconds back. Another South African, Brian Baragwanath, took the bottom step of the podium at less than two minutes back.

Sébastien Loeb and his co-driver, Fabian Lurquin, fought until the bitter end, but their gain of 5′33″ in today’s special was nowhere near enough to catch up with Nasser Al-Attiyah/Matthieu Baumel who stroked it to a 19th place finish in the final stage to make sure he did not break down and lose.

Loeb will be standing on the second step of the podium of the 44th Dakar, a few inches higher than another Toyota driver, Yazeed Al-Rajhi. It is the first Dakar podium spot for the Saudi, who made his debut in 2015.

Truck: Sotnikov retains the title

Dmitry Sotnikov is also home and dry. The Russian wrapped up the special with more than a minute and a half to spare over his compatriot and teammate Eduard Nikolaev. Sotnikov has won the Dakar outright for the second time! The current leader of the T5 World Rally-Raid Championship, Martin Macík, was second on the day —the best performance by a non-Kamaz driver this year.

Quad: Moreno claims maiden win

Alexandre Giroud’s overall triumph has eclipsed the stage winner a bit. Rookie Francisco Moreno opened his account in the Dakar and completed his first participation in the runner-up’s spot, 2 h 20 behind Giroud. Not bad at all!

Alexandre Giroud just needed to make sure to finish the race to claim his first title. Following his debut in 2017, the rider from the Isère department had come close to the podium with fourth place in 2019, but he had never actually stood on it. That is now a thing of the past, and he will be standing on the top step to boot! He is the first French winner of this category, coming 25 years after his father, Daniel, became the first quad rider to finish the Dakar.

Final Stage 12 Top-15 Cars

Final Standings Top-15 Cars