Orlando Terranova secures stage win on sixth stage – Nasser Al-Attiyah’s lead grows – Yazeed Al-Rajhi new second
Nasser Al-Attiyah has finished the first half of the 2022 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia with a big lead. After six stages, the Toyota driver’s cushion is 50 minutes. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota) has overtaken Sebastien Loeb (BRX) and is the new second. On Friday, Orlando Terranova (BRX) secured the stage win.
The sixth stage was again a loop around Riyadh. The cars, side-by-sides and trucks took that route that the motorbikes took yesterday. The rated special was 348 kilometres.
Loeb was second on the start line, while Al-Attiyah had a small advantage in seventh. Early on, Loeb and Henk Lategan (Toyota) at the front of the field were slightly off the correct route. Navigation was difficult.
After 190 kilometres, Loeb had already lost 25 minutes to Al-Attiyah. Starting positions at the back were an advantage. Audi also attacked again. Stephane Peterhansel, however, had a problem and stood for about ten minutes after 30 kilometres.
Carlos Sainz rode an attack again after the damper damage the day before, and Mattias Ekström was also doing well in the third Audi. The first car to finish was Al-Attiyah, but some later starters had a better time.
Comfortable lead for Al-Attiyah
In the end, Loeb’s BRX teammate Terranova took the stage win. The Argentinean was around one minute faster than Ekström. The Top 3 was completed by local hero Al-Rajhi, who thus moved up to second place in the overall standings.
Al-Attiyah lost some time at the end and finished tenth. Loeb was only 20th. In the end, the Frenchman lost a quarter of an hour to his rival. Al-Attiyah’s lead in the overall standings thus grew to 50 minutes.
Jakub Przygonski and Timo Gottschalk finished 15th in the Mini Buggy, with the Polish-German duo ending the first week in fifth place overall. “We are happy that we got through this last stage before the rest day without any major problems,” said Gottschalk.
“Partly we helped to open the route, which ended in a big fight in the dunes. Unfortunately, we had slight engine problems in the second half, but as they say, lack of power is made up for by driving ability – ‘Cuba’ was super today.”
The only rest day of the rally is scheduled for Saturday in Riyadh.
Result of stage 6 (Top 10):
01st Terranova/Oliveras (BRX) – 3:06:45 hours
02nd Ekström/Bergkvist (Audi) +1:06 minutes
03rd Al-Rajhi/Orr (Toyota) +1:49
04 Baragwanath/Cremer (Century) +3:06
05 Roma/Haro Bravo (BRX) +3:34
06. ten Brinke/Delaunay (Toyota) +4:06
07 Variawa/Stassen (Toyota) +4:06
08 Prokop/Chytka (Ford) +5:45
09 Han/Ma (SMG) +5:58
10th Al-Attiyah/Baumel (Toyota) +6:16
Overall classification after 6 of 12 stages (Top 10):
01st Al-Attiyah/Baumel (Toyota) – 20:37:24 hours
02nd Al-Rajhi/Orr (Toyota) +50:19 minutes
03 Loeb/Lurquin (BRX) +50:25
04th Alvarez/Monleon (Toyota) +1:06.58 hours
05 Przygonski/Gottschalk (Mini Buggy) +1:16:25
06 Wasiljew/Uperenko (BMW) +1:22:08
07 Terranova/Oliveras (BRX) +1:24:00
08 Prokop/Chytka (Ford) +1:30:30
09 Halpern/Graue (Mini Buggy) +1:37:25
10th Zala/Fiuza (Mini 4×4) +2:11:17