Dakar, Stage 10: Deliverance for Peterhansel, Loeb still nibbling

Time is running out on this Dakar 2022. This Wednesday, January 12, the competitors negotiated the antepenultimate stage between Wadi Ad-Dawasir and Bisha (Saudi Arabia) at high speed, in one of the simplest special stages at the level of the navigation and terrain.

Under these conditions, the differences remain minimal. Nevertheless, Audi recorded its third stage victory in its first participation with the innovative RS Q e-tron hybrids. Long confined to the thankless role of water carrier, Stéphane Peterhansel and Édouard Boulanger finally had the authorization to send the watts of their three electric motors from the Formula E and their TFSI engine DTM.

The French exchanged the controls of the stage with their teammates Carlos Sainz-Lucas Cruz, mais les Espagnols ont baissé la cadence en fin d’effort. Le podium est complété par le Toyota Hilux 4×4 T1+ des jeunes Henk Lategan et Brett Cummings, déjà vainqueurs lors de la première semaine.

The main issue of this return to Jeddah concerns the struggle between the hardline leaders rally-raid, Nasser Al-Attiyah-Mathieu Baumel (Toyota) and Sébastien Loeb-Fabian Lurquin (BRX). Once again, the nine-time world rally champion produced a good effort, but takes only a minute back from his Qatari rival (1'25''). In the general classification, the Toyota representatives have a margin of 32'40'', the day after a five-minute penalty for not wearing a harness and Hans on special.

As for the places of honor, rallymen Martin Prokop-Viktor Chytka (Ford) lost their eighth place due to mechanical problems.

Stage classification:

General classification :