South African Henk Lategan, in the car category, and the Italian Danilo Petrucci, in the motorcycle category, won their first stage on a Dakar by winning Thursday in Riyadh at the end of a day marked by several racing events.
In this 5th stage of the 2022 edition where the cars did not benefit from the tracks of motorcycles for the first time in the rally, the first in the general classification, the Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah (Toyota), and his co-driver Matthieu Baumel, who took the lead, limited the damage by finishing 8th, 4 min 53 sec behind the winner of the day, their South African teammates, Lategan and Brett Cummings.
“This was not the case with Nasser, but I was a little stressed to have to open this stage. We are brought up by Seb (Loeb, Editor’s note) but it is quite logical. In the end a good operation, no mistakes, I’m very happy with my day“, Baumel analyzed.
In the general classification, the Toyota crew only concedes 2 min 55 sec to runner-up Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive), 2nd on the stage, who is still over half an hour in the general classification.
The third of the stage, the Argentinian Lucio Alvarez (Toyota), still occupies the same position overall at 51 minutes 15 sec.
“We spent 200 kilometers tossing around like that, side by side. Not necessarily the most efficient for navigation, but we had a lot of fun. The objective was to catch him and stick him 3 minutes, that’s what we did“, concluded Sébastien Loeb following 421 km of special.
Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit has been going through ups and downs since the start of the rally-raid. Victim of a strong impact from the fall of a dune on Wednesday, he was on the verge of abandonment when he rejoined the bivouac following the 4th stage.
His mechanics worked all night on his vehicle running on bio-fuel and put down the tools “three minutes before getting in the car“to allow him to continue the adventure.
“Poor people, they worked all night because I drove the car in a mess yesterday. It was not won that we leave. They gave everything, they fought so today I had to ride well and bring the car back to a good position“Mission accomplished for the world champion in extreme skiing who finished in fifth place.
In motorcycles, the Australian Toby Price crossed the line as the winner, but he finally had to give up this 346 km special set around the Saudi capital to the Italian Danilo Petrucci (KTM).
Petrucci, winner of two MotoGP Grands Prix, benefited from a 6-minute penalty imposed on Price for speeding to steal first place from him, and celebrate his first Dakar victory.
But not all the bikers competing might reach the finish line, stopped during the stage by the organizers.
“As all the air resources are fully mobilized, we cannot ensure the continuity of the stage and guarantee the safety of the competitors.“, they explained.
This measure also concerned the Dakar Classic category stage, bringing together cars dating from the 1980s and 1990s.
In the general classification, the Briton Sam Sunderland (KTM), 13th on the stage, remains in the lead ahead of the Austrian Matthias Walkner (KTM), 2nd at 2 min 29 sec, and the French Adrien Van Beveren, 3rd at 5 min 59 dry.
