Dakar Rally over, here’s the verdict: Al-Attiyah wins for fourth time, history with buggies, Quinn Waters satisfied with man

The first non-Kamaz truck was Iveco Van Janus Van Kasteren, Marcel Snijders and Darek Rodewald (Iveco). Martin van den Brink, Bernard der Childern and Belgium’s Peter Willemsen (Iveco) finished sixth.

Then anyway. On the last day of Dakar, the dominance of KAMAZ was somewhat broken. Sotnikov still won the stage, but Masek (Iveko) was stranded in second place with a time of 32 seconds off a stage victory. It’s the first time in this Dakar that a brand other than KAMAZ has held second place at some point. Moreover, the third place also went to another brand. Ignacio Casal (Tatra) finished third in the final stage on Friday.

In the final ranking, the dominance of the Russian brand is greater than ever. The lead and the twelve subsequent stages were won by Kamaz, who won the Dakar Truck Race for the sixth time in a row and for the nineteenth time in all.

Martin van den Brink, Bernhard der Childern and Peter Willemsen finished sixth. That makes Willemsen, who started the Dakar again for the first time since 2019, the best Belgian. Pascal de Bar, Stefan Slotges and Jan van der Vayet (Renault) took 14th place. Without this fourth stage collapse, there might have been more for the trio.

Dave Bergmans, Tom Goins, and Sam Copeman (Iveco) were there again this year like chickens to help the official Toyotas, cars and buggies at Overdrive Racing. Berghmans & Company finished 28th.

Dave Engels also played a role in the 44th Dakar Service alongside Johannes Schutanos and Philip Rettig (Man). The trio was working as a fast assist truck on the Southern Circuit. Engels & Company finished 41st.

Didier Monceau, Emmanuel Egermont and Eduard Fribonte (MAN) finished 48th. Igor Bowens, Ulrich Boerbaum and Wade Sendele (Iveco) had to retire just before rest day when the wheel of their truck snapped and Boorboom sustained a hand injury while repairing the damage.

Al-Attiyah wins fourth in Dakar in cars

Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) won the Dakar Grand Prix for the fourth time in his career. The Qataris dominated the race from start to finish in cars. Along the way, he won three stages. Sebastien Loeb and his Belgian co-driver Fabien Lorquin (BRX) finished second with a time of 27:46. Yazid Al-Rajhi (Toyota Hilux Overdrive) came in third place. Stefan Peterhansel (Audi) won the final stage on Friday in cars, second in Dakar and 50th place in cars. This equals Ari Vatanen’s record.

Nasser al-Attiyah came and saw and conquered. Toyota, which, like Prodrive and Audi, started with new cars, wins the hardest rally in the world for the second time in its existence. The first time was in 2019. Just like then, Belgian Overdrive Racing now has a big share of the victory. Al-Attiyah is his fourth overall win in Dakar.

In 2011, he won the Dakar for the first time, driving a Volkswagen. Al-Attiyah finished by 49:41 over Giniel De Villiers (Volkswagen). In 2015 he beat the same De Villiers, but then behind the wheel of MINI. In 2019, he made Toyota and Fortin dance debut for the first time with his third overall win. Then Attiyah was preceded by Roma (Mini). 2022 was perhaps the easiest victory for the Qatari. After the introduction he also won the first stage. Later in the first week, he will win the third stage. From then on, Attia can begin to take hold. During the second week, he never interfered in the battle to win the stage.

The Toyota was powerful, the Pro-drive and Audi were not strong enough and very fragile. Loeb and Lorkin had to dispense with all-wheel drive almost the entire time during Stage Three. At the end of the ride, they encountered a gap of over 37 minutes and the race was already over. Loeb and Lurquin won two stages with BRX, Terranova gave his team a one stage win. In this respect, it is the better Dakar for Prodrive compared to 2021. Audi has won five stages but their hybrid still has some teething problems, especially in the suspension area.

Stéphane Peterhansel faced a tough Dakar. After hitting a rock early in the rally, his race ended. After that he put himself in the service of Carlos Sainz. During the second week, Peterhansel appeared and won a stage. The Frenchman closes the Dakar beautifully by winning the last stage in the cars. With his 50th auto win, he equals the record for Finn Ari Vatanen. Previously, Peterhansel also won 33 stages in motos, bringing his total wins to 83.

Quintero ends Dakar Rally with 12 stage victories

Seth Quintero (OT3) wrote part of the history of motorsport during the 44th Dakar. The American won the lead and the eleventh stage, setting his own record for the number of victories in a single Dakar. On Thursday, he had already broken the 28-year-old record set by Pierre Lartigue. He won ten stages in 1994. The overall victory in SSV prototypes goes to Francisco López Contardo.

Greater than KAMAZ’s dominance of trucks, yet the California man never won the Dakar. During the second stage of the Dakar, Quintero had problems with the difference and lost all chances for the overall victory. Guillaume de Mphius then won this second stage, with OT3 as well. The buggy is made from Quintero and De Mévius in Belgium and built in Huy by Overdrive Racing, Team Jean-Marc Fortin. Quintero sets a record that will be hard to beat by winning 12 stages in Dakar.

The overall win in the T3 prototype goes to Francisco Lopez Contardo (Can Am). At the end of the second stage, he took charge from Quintero and kept it until Jeddah. The Chilean was very consistent but did not win a single stage in the Dakar. After his wins in 2019 and 2021, this is his third overall victory at the Dakar in a prototype SSV. In the final standings, Lopez Contardo is ahead of his teammate Sebastian Eriksson (Can-Am). Spain’s Cristina Gutierrez-Herrero (OT3) finished third.

In the SSV standard T4 class, Friday’s stage win went to Rokas Baciuska (Can-Am). The overall win in that class goes to Austin Jones who finished third on Friday and was 4:18 faster than Gerard Farris Gill (Can-Am). The Spaniard took the lead on Thursday, but had to give it back to Jones, who thus became the overall winner in the T4 class.

Sunderland wins second Dakar in MotoGP

Britain’s Sam Sunderland (GasGas) won the Dakar MotoGP for the second time in his career. With one stage win and three second places, Sunderland has been the most consistent rider. Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda) fought to the last moments, winning the final stage, but was short 3:27 in the final score. Matthias Walkner of the Official KTM Team finished third. After 2017, this is Sunderland’s second overall victory in the Dakar.

After a very exciting race with many plot twists, 32-year-old Sam Sunderland won his second Dakar MotoGP after 2017. After the second stage, the Briton took the lead and held the lead until stage six before having to give up the lead for a moment. For Adrian van Beveren (Yamaha). After Sunderland won the eighth stage, he regained the lead but lost it again to Walkner and Van Beveren. When the latter lost more than 21 minutes on Thursday, Sunderland took charge again.

It’s a first for his GasGas team, who asked Sunderland at the eleventh hour if he wanted to ride the Dakar. After Honda broke KTM’s dominance after 18 years in 2021, KTM’s shadow team won the Dakar once again. Pablo Quintanilla is second for Honda. With Walkner there is also an official KTM rider on the podium. Austrian ranks third. The unfortunate Van Beveren, who let the overall victory slip through his fingers on Thursday, finished fourth.

Three of the four Belgians who started, were allowed to cross the final podium later in the day. Among them are two beginners. Jerome Martini (Husqvarna) finished 35th on Friday. In his first Dakar, he finished 30th with a time of 59s down from 29th. For Mikael Despontin (KTM) this was his second Dakar. In 2013 he ranked 41. This year he is 51. Matthew Lippert (KTM) finishes his first Dakar in 57th place.

Walter Roelants (Husqvarna) is the only Belgian motorcyclist who has not reached the finish line. Roelants suffered a serious fall on Wednesday, January 5th, breaking vertebrae in his back and neck. He was returned to Belgium on Sunday. A week after his fall, he underwent a successful surgery last Wednesday by Dr. Ton Claes. In a few days “De Wakke” will be allowed to leave the hospital.

Waters looks back at the Dakar Classic with satisfaction

Queen Waters and Pascal Ferrin (Toyota) have reached the end of the Dakar Classic. The duo finished 12th overall and 4th in their category. Their fellow team members Tom De Leeuw, Cedric Ferrin and Björn Borgelmann (Mercedes) finished eighth overall and won the Dakar Classic in Trucks.

No, he won’t do that again. But look, ten years later Quinn Waters did it anyway and signed up for the Dakar Classic with his good friend Pascal Ferrin. On Friday afternoon, Quinn Waters and Pascal Ferrin reached the finish line in Jeddah. “We’re 12th overall and we’re very satisfied with that,” Waters says. We started this adventure without any expectations. We didn’t know exactly what the regular match was about. We will know in two weeks. The end result is much better than we could have dreamed of. Twelfth overall, fourth in our class and our teammates win the Dakar Classic in Trucks. Performance A very good team.”

For two weeks, Waters enjoyed the desert and beautiful scenery. Dakar Classic is a young competition. This was only the second edition. “There are still many points the organization could improve on. The first is that it is better to divide it between very old vehicles, which can easily handle the kind of tracks we are on now, and create another category for more powerful cars like ours. Because if we are honest, the The Dakar wasn’t heavy enough,” says Quinn Waters. “And dunes should be included in the course anyway. The only dunes we crossed were now on our way to the next test, and that’s as a link.”

After two weeks of sleeping in the desert, Waters and his colleagues will soon have a real bed in a hotel room. “I’m glad I was able to start the year this way. The final conclusion of this Dakar is that we are completely satisfied but not completely satisfied. If we are going back next year we will have to register in the faster category, which makes driving more difficult. So we have to have equipment on the The board on which we can calculate the regularity up to the second, so that we can also strive for a place higher in the ranking. Perhaps even the podium.”

French mechanic dies in accident

The 44th Dakar race claimed the life of a French mechanic on the final day of competition in Saudi Arabia on Friday. During the contact phase of the twelfth stage, he got into a traffic accident with a local car with his auxiliary car.

Victim Quentin Lavalle was the lead mechanic on the 205 Turbo 16, a competitor in the Dakar Classic class. He was behind the wheel when the accident occurred on Friday. Belgian passenger Maxime Frere was injured but conscious and taken to hospital in Jeddah.