Dakar, Stage 7: Loeb attacks but Al-Attiyah stays calm

Unlike other mechanical disciplines where secrecy is gold, rally-raid does not pretend. Sebastian Loeb (BRX) had warned the French press, including AUTOhebdo, during the rest day in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). The second week of the Dakar 2022 would force him to “continue attacking”. “There is no plan. We can no longer afford to say to ourselves “hey, I’m going to purposely not win this stage so as not to have to open the track tomorrow”.

As a result, the Alsatian associated with his Belgian navigator Fabien Lurquin worked hard between Riyadh and Al Dawadimi this Sunday January 9. The BRX Hunter T1+ built by the English from Prodrive played through an indigestible portion of 100 km of dunes followed by a labyrinth of tracks.

Put in the spotlight because of two navigation errors during the previous stage, the leading crew of Bahrain Raid Xtreme raised the bar in a very good way. In the top 3 at each crossing point, the 4×4 with the number 211 took the lead at km 220 and never left it.

Loeb-Lurquin moved to second place overall and thus regained 5'26'' on the rivals for the final victory, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel (Toyota). The leaders of the Dakar 2022 since the first day have limited the damage and maintain a lead of 44'59".

In the match at the start of the stage, Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz (Audi) fell back at the end of the effort. More serious in terms of the general classification, Giniel de Villiers-Dennis Murphy (Toyota) were forced to stop at km 198. The South Africans, including the five-hour penalty was erased by the commissioners, benefited from the assistance of their compatriots and teammates Henk Lategan-Brett Cummings (Toyota). The winner of the 2009 edition, who came within a minute of Loeb-Lurquin the day before, lost an hour!

In Light Prototypes (T3), Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz (Overdrive) bagged a seventh scratch time! However, the young American driver (19 years old) no longer plays any role in the general classification following a broken differential housing. The category is led by Chaleco Lopez-Juan Pablo Latrach (Can-Am), while rookie Sebastian Eriksson (Can-Am) lost almost an hour there due to mechanical problems.

Stage classification:

General classification :