Dakar, Stage 6: Terranova wakes up, Loeb still drops time

The bodies and mechanics are starting to tire on this Dakar 2022. Subjected to a severe test from the Prologue contested almost a week earlier, the Auto competitors had to tackle a 348 km loop around Riyadh, the same special as Danilo Petrucci had won the day before.

Avant de savourer une journée de repos dans la capitale saoudienne, le duel à distance entre Nasser Al-Attiyah et Mathieu Baumel (Toyota) and Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin (BRX) experienced a new adventure in favor of the first cities.

Just because the winter cold has set in doesn't mean you have to stop maintaining your garden. This elementary lesson for any owner of land, the Alsatian applied in the heart of the Saudi desert.

The nine-time world rally champion (WRC), went around in circles between km 80 and 120, then again between km 157 and 190. The leader of the Prodrive team was then dangerously flirting with being a full hour behind Nasser Al-Attiyah-Mathieu Baumel.

However, the leaders of rally-raid, in the lead at km 220, went slightly astray in the final portion of dunes. Result, the Qatari and his French navigator only increased their lead by a quarter of an hour. Something to still see coming in the general thanks to a margin of 50'25".

The stage victory is therefore won by a second knife. Without offense to Orlando Terranova and Daniel Oliveras (BRX), their first week was so far discreet. But the Argentinian, transferred from X-Raid during 2021, took advantage of his advantageous starting position (18th) to damn the pawn to Al-Attiyah-Baumel. The boiling South American signs his seventh scratch time on a Dakar, the first in Saudi Arabia.

Winners of their first stage on Thursday, Henk Lategan-Brett Cummings (Toyota) suffered the burden of opening the track and didn't even make the top 10.

As for the Audi RS Q e-tron hybrids, two of them were non-existent due to new reliability concerns on the 4×4 of Carlos Sainz-Lucas Cruz. The Spaniards, stopped at km 55, once again took advantage of the generosity of Stéphane Peterhansel-Édouard Boulanger, who played the role of express repairman. The men in black will prefer to be satisfied with the very convincing second place signed by Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist.

Ranking of the special:

General classification :