Audi takes next stage win with Carlos Sainz – Nasser Al-Attiyah defends a lead over Loeb on penultimate day and faces overall victory
Nasser Al-Attiyah is on the verge of overall victory in the 2022 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. After the eleventh and penultimate stage, the Toyota driver has a lead of around half an hour over Sebastien Loeb (BRX). Carlos Sainz took his second stage win this year on Thursday. It was the fourth stage win for the new Audi with hybrid drive.
The penultimate day was a loop around the town of Bischa. The rated special was 346 kilometres. It was called the “royal stage” by many, as there was only sand and countless dunes of every kind. Navigation skills were also put to the test.
After his stage victory yesterday, Stephane Peterhansel opened the route with his Audi. Similar to the motorbikes, it turned out that navigation was tricky. In the first 126 kilometres, he lost more than six minutes to team-mate Sainz.
There were difficulties for one Toyota. Henk Lategan was at kilometre 80 with a technical problem. The South African spent around an hour there in the desert to repair the damage.
Sebastien Loeb takes too little time off Nasser Al-Attiyah
The focus was on the long-distance duel for the win. Loeb drove full attack, Al-Attiyah tried to get through without any problems and manage his lead. After 126 kilometres, he had lost around one and a half minutes to Loeb.
This trend continued. Sainz led the virtual intermediate classification. Loeb came closer and closer to the Spaniard and increased the lead over Al-Attiyah to around two minutes. But that was too little to put Al-Attiyah under real pressure.
Until kilometre 257, Loeb could “only” make up three minutes on Al-Attiyah. After 303 kilometres it was four minutes. Finally, Sainz secured his second stage win this year. Loeb finished second, two minutes behind. But the result changed.
Sebastien Loeb also receives five penalty minutes
Loeb was given five minutes for speeding in a neutralised zone. As a result, he dropped behind Al-Attiyah to eighth place in the day’s results. As a result, Al-Attiyah has an advantage of 33:19 minutes over Loeb before the final stage.
“It was a very good stage. We did what we could,” said Loeb. “I am happy, our rhythm is very good. The car is strong and good. We always navigated well. On one day we lost a lot of time because of the differential damage. It is what it is. “
“It was a difficult stage,” finds Al-Attiyah. “Tomorrow is a short day. We have to continue with this pace to win. We are leading from the start. It’s not easy to control the Dakar, but we have a lot of experience. You don’t have to win every day.”
For Audi, the good second week continued. Sainz was able to enjoy the 41st stage win of his career. Mattias Ekström finished third behind Lucio Alvarez (Toyota) and Peterhansel sixth. In the overall standings, Ekström is the best Audi driver in ninth place.
“It was a very difficult stage, I am very happy,” said Sainz. “There was everything: camel grass, dunes, more dunes and difficult navigation, riverbeds and stones. It was a complete stage that was very difficult to open. “
Co-driver Timo Gottschalk loses a position
It was exciting in the chasing field. Jakub Przygonski and Timo Gottschalk (Mini Buggy) lost 17 minutes today and finished outside the top 10, dropping the Polish-German duo to sixth overall behind Giniel de Villiers (Toyota).
“We wanted to attack again, but two punctures quite early in the stage prevented that,” Gottschalk sighed. “They also cost us a lot of time because there were still problems during the changeover. Afterwards we drove a bit more calmly to get to the finish at all. “
“We knew anyway that it would be difficult to hold Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy in the works Toyota by ourselves. We’re now a few minutes ahead in the fight for sixth place – we want to bring that to the finish tomorrow.”
Tomorrow, the twelfth and final stage covers 680 kilometres from Bisha to Jeddah. The final special covers 164 kilometres. If Al-Attiyah brings his lead to the finish, it would be his fourth overall victory in the automobile class.
Result of the 11th stage (Top 10):
01st Sainz/Cruz (Audi) – 3:29:32 hours
02nd Alvarez/Monleon (Toyota) +3:10
03rd Ekström/Bergkvist (Audi) +3:53
04 Roma/Haro Bravo (BRX) +4:10
05. de Villiers/Murphy (Toyota) +5:11
06 Peterhansel/Boulanger (Audi) +5:54
07 Al-Attiyah/Baumel (Toyota) +6:42
08 Loeb/Lurquin (BRX) +7:21 minutes
09 Terranova/Oliveras (BRX) +7:53
10th Serradori/Minaudier (Century) +10:38
Overall classification after 11 of 12 stages (Top 10):
01st Al-Attiyah/Baumel (Toyota) – 36:49:51 hours
02 Loeb/Lurquin (BRX) +33:19 minutes
03rd Al-Rajhi/Orr (Toyota) +1:03:43 hours
04 Terranova/Oliveras (BRX) +1:31:29 hours
05. de Villiers/Murphy (Toyota) +1:44:11
06th Przygonski/Gottschalk (Mini Buggy) +1:51:57
07 Wasiljew/Uperenko (BMW) +1:59:49
08 Serradori/Minaudier (Century) +2:34:19
09 Ekström/Bergkvist (Audi) +2:39:57
10th Halpern/Graue (Mini Buggy) +2:40:00
