Dakar 2022: Peterhansel leads Audi 1-2 on stage 10, Loeb takes the fight close to Al Attiyah

Bengaluru, January 12: France's defending champion Stephane Peterhansel led an Audi 1-2 in Stage 10 of Dakar 2022 in Saudi Arabia as Sebastien Loeb reduced the gap further with race leader Nasser Al Attiyah.

In the tricky Stage 10 on Wednesday (January 12), Peterhansel, the 14-time champion across all classes, also known as Monsieur Dakar, finished 2min, 6sec ahead of Audi team-mate and Spanish rally legend Carlos Sainz.

Bahrain Raid Xtreme (BRX) Team driver Orlando Terranova finished third to prevent an Audi cleansweep of the 374kms of timed racing covered between Wadi Ad Dawasir and Bisha as the Dakar moves towads its business end.

With two stages to go, Qatari ace Al Attiyah, who could manage only a seventh-place finish in Stage 10, saw his overall lead over Frenchman Loeb trimmed to 32min, 40sec.

Dakar 2022: With so many twists on Stage 9, everything is still up for the grabs

The World Rally Championship (WRC) legend, who drived under the Team BRX banner, finished fifth in the stage, but most importantly 1min, 35sec ahead of three-time Dakar Rally champion Al Attiyah.

Al Attiyah's lead over Loeb and his compatriot co-driver Fabian Lurquin, behind the wheels of a Prodrive Hunter, was reduced further as a result of a 5min penalty the Toyota Hilux 1+ driver had incurred for a seat belt infringement that was recorded in Stage 8 on Monday (January 10), which was not acted upon, until the following day.

Local hero Yazeed Al Rajhi of Toyota Overdrive Racing sits some way behind the leading duo in a distant third.

Dakar 2022: De Villiers wins Stage 9; Al Attiyah in control

While it will require a major drama on one of the two remaining stages to block a fourth Dakar win for Al Attiyah, Loeb will take the fight to the end.

"It was a good day out there," the nine-time WRC champion said.

"The first part of the stage was really fast and then the second part was much more interesting with tracks and real driving so I could make quite a difference at the end of the stage.

"Tomorrow is the last big chance to take time but as I've been saying from the beginning, we will see where we are on Friday in Jeddah. We cannot try more than what we are doing now as we are pushing to the maximum on all the sections."

The 2022 FIA Dakar Rally, which started on the New Year's day with the prologue has reached an exciting phase and will finish in the Red City of Jeddah on January 14 (Friday). Game on!