Dakar 2022: Nasser Al Attiyah fires the first salvo

Bengaluru, January 3: It has been an enjoyable return to the deserts of Saudi Arabia so far for Qatar's three-time winner Nasser Al Attiyah and his French co-driver Matthieu Baumel as they guided their Toyota Hilux T1+ to stage 1 win on the 334km loop around the Ha'il bivouac of the FIA 2022 Dakar Rally.

It did not take long for the 2022 FIA Dakar Rally to take a serious bite out of its convoy of competitors.

"I'm happy with job that Matthieu and myself did today. I really pushed from beginning to the finish. Matthieu's navigation was great. To finish day one with a good lead is an amazing start, but there's still so far to go," said Al Attiyah.

The result follows on from their success on the openind day's prologue.

Sticking close to Al Attiyah throughout the stage was France's World Rally Championship (WRC) legend Sebastien Loeb in his BRX Prodrive Hunter.

The Czeh Republic's Martin Prokop was third on the very first long stage of the rally there were some serious time losses as the desert dunes showed no mercy.

Monday's (January 3) stage takes the Dakar to Al Qaisumah via 339km of racing against the clock. Among the terrain on the race track will be a chain of sand dunes that will require special attention from all competitors.

Due to flooding at Al Artawiyah's bivouac caused by heavy rain and storms, rally organisers have been forced to move the finish of Stage 2 to the bivouac of Al Qaisumah, which will also host the Marathon Stage bivouac.

Joining Al Attiyah and Daniel Sanders (bike category) in backing up a prologue win with victory on the opening stage is America's Seth Quintero in the T3 category.

The 2022 FIA Dakar Rally will finish in Jeddah on January 14.

Long way to go

The 44th Dakar Rally has started for competitors as they attack 8,375 kms over the next two weeks in Saudi Arabia for one of the biggest prizes in motorsport. A total of 409 cars, bikes, quads and trucks left Jeddah, with over 2,500 people on board.

"To finish day one with a good lead is an amazing start, but there's still so far to go. Sebastien (Loeb) was behind us all the way so it was never easy," added Al Attiyah, the Dakar champion in 2011, 2015 and 2019.

Loeb runs close

Accompanied by his Belgian co-driver Fabian Lurquin, multiple WRC winner Loeb limited his losses to Al Attiyah on Stage 1 to under 13 minutes.

"It was a long and difficult stage. The navigation was really tricky today. The terrain was rough in places and we had two punctures to deal with. It was a hard stage to get things started," said Loeb.

Trouble for Sainz

Even those enjoying a clean opening stage remain vigilant of the dangers ahead. Spain's rally legend Carlos Sainz lost over two hours due to navigational confusion on the stage.

Defending champion and 14-time winner Stephane Peterhansel suffered a big impact on the stage which pulled apart the rear left corner of his Audi RS Q e-tron. The Frenchman endured a long wait in the desert for the assistance truck to arrive and help him get back to the Ha'il bivouac.

Bumpy ride for bikers

Navigation challenges put a bump in the road for many contenders in the bike race, with former winners such as Australia's Toby Price and England's Sam Sunderland joining fresh faces such as France's Camille Chapeliere in running into trouble.

It has been a full throttle start for Australian rider Sanders as he set the fastest time for the second day running. The GasGas rider backed up prologue win by leading Stage 1 from start to finish.