Dakar 2022: It's advantage Nasser Al Attiyah as starting pistol cracks for second week

Bengaluru, January 10: As the 2022 FIA Dakar Rally put the rest day behind it and re-entered the desert, it is advantage Nasser Al Attiyah, who holds a comfortable lead over Sebastien Loeb after the completion of Stage 7.

The first thing to greet the convoy was a chain of sand dunes measuring 100kms, and that was just a quarter of the 400kms timed special stage.

Nobody was in a bigger rush to reach the Al Dawadimi bivouac than Loeb as the Frenchman took his second stage win of the rally to climb to second overall in the general classification.

Dakar 2022: Loeb wins stage 7, Al Attiyah still in cruise mode Dakar 2022: Loeb wins stage 7, Al Attiyah still in cruise mode

Monday's (January10) Stage 8 brings with it a timed special stage of 394kms and over half of that distance will be raced over sand dunes.

There is plenty of scope for leaderboards across all categories to be shaken up on the race route between Al Dawadimi and Wadi Ad-Dawasir.

The 2022 FIA Dakar Rally will conclude in Jeddah on Friday (January 14).

Loeb wins Stage 7

Victory in Stage 7 of Dakar 2022 for Loeb in his BRX Hunter was his 16th stage win at the Dakar. "Only half of the rally is done so we'll keeping pushing. I'll keep doing my best on each stage and we'll see what this gets us," said Loeb.

The nine-time World Rally Championship winner seems set on doing all he can to make life as uncomfortable as possible for race leader Al Attiyah in the second week of the Dakar.

Cool customer

However, the ace Qatari is a cool customer even under the glare of the desert sun. The Toyota Hilux T1+ driver still leads Loeb by 45min despite conceding over five minutes in Stage 7.

"I'm not following any strategy. If we're in a position to win a special, we won't let it slip away, but our priority is to give it our all day after day and hope that it will pay off at the end of the Dakar," Al Attiyah, the three-time Dakar winner said.

Different story

Week two of the Dakar started much better for Audi Sport compared to first week. Back then all three of their Audi RS Q e-trons were well off the pace on Stage 1. Stage 7 was a different story with Spain's rally legend Carlos Sainz setting the day's third fastest time and France's 14-time winner and defending champion Stephane Peterhansel just one place further back.

The third Audi driver -- Sweden's Mattias Ekstrom also came home in the Top 10 on the stage, finishing eighth.

Tightening up

In bikes category, the second week of Dakar 2022 was over before it had begun for Australia's GasGas Factory rider Daniel Sanders. Last year's best placed rookie was third overall at the Rest Day, but he did not make it to the start line of Stage 7. Sanders crashed during the liaison route to the special stage and fractured his left elbow and wrist, bringing his Dakar to a premature end. Sanders's GasGas team-mate -- England's Sam Sunderland -- was also out of luck on Stage 7. The 2017 Dakar winner lost his overall lead on the stage and now lies fourth overall.

Things are tightening up in the truck race with Russia's three leading Team Kamaz Master drivers all bunching up at the top the rankings. Stage winner Anton Shibalov is still third overall, but closer to the lead than he was on the rest day. Second place on the stage keeps Eduard Nikolaev in second overall, now just five minutes behind race leader and team-mate Dmitry Sotnikov.

(With Red Bull Media inputs)