TOYOTA WINS DAKAR 2022!
Al-Attiyah/Baumel finish Dakar 2022
Nasser/Mathieu extend their world dominance
Giniel/Dennis fastest of the TGR crews on Stage 11
Strong result for Shameer/Danie
In the last stage of the 2022 DAKAR Rally saw TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel maintain their lead at the head of the field, when they went 7th-fastest on Stage 11, just 6min 42sec behind the stage winners. At the same time, their nearest competitors were handed a 5min penalty for speeding in a controlled zone, which helped to increase the GR DKR Hilux T1+ crew’s lead to 33min 19sec in the overall standings.
Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings started Stage 11 three cars ahead of Nasser and Mathieu, but pulled over shortly after the start to let the leaders pass. This would allow Henk and Brett to assist the leading car, should anything happen during the next to last 346km stage which started and finished near the bivouac at Bisha.
This gave Nasser and Mathieu some peace of mind, as they picked their way through a tough stage, with many tricky dunes to navigate. Unfortunately for Henk and Brett, the plan came to nothing when they first suffered a puncture, dropping them down in the ranks, before breaking a lower control arm during a dune crossing. The latter problem cost them nearly 2hr on the stage, and left them well behind Nasser and Mathieu at the end. The pair battled on despite their setbacks, and brought the car home safely. They remain out of contention in the overall standings, after losing significant time early in the race. Stage 11 brought another good result for Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy, who found themselves outside the Top 5 after ten stages. They pushed hard through the tricky stage, posting the 5th-fastest time on the day, only 5min 11sec behind the stage winners. This moved them up into 5th place in the overall standings, 12min 42sec behind the crew in 4th place.
Shameer Variawa and Danie Stassen completed the penultimate stage of Dakar 2022 14min 6sec behind the stage winners. This was good enough for 23rd on the day, and saw the South Africans in 14th place in the overall standings, 3hr 51min 36sec behind the lead. The pair have steadily improved their stage performances, after a hesitant start to the rally, as well as a run of bad luck early one.
All four TOYOTA GAZOO Racing cars remained in the rally after 11 stages. Nasser and Mathieu took an early lead after winning both the prologue and the opening stage of the race, and managed to maintain their lead throughout the event. Giniel and Dennis started strong, but lost time due to a broken oil pipe mid-race. They’ve clawed their way back into the Top 5, with just one stage to go.
The final stage of Dakar 2022 was completed for the TOYOTA WIN, between the cities of Bisha and Jeddah. At only 165km in length, this was the shortest stage of the event. There was a long liaison of 230km before the stage, with another liaison of 286km after, taking the crews to the finish podium in Jeddah. The 12th and final stage was the total competitive mileage of the rally to 4,261km, with the overall total, including liaisons, coming to 8,119km.
Glyn Hall, Team Principal: “If someone had offered me the chance to lead the Dakar by more than 30min, with just the final stage to go two weeks ago, I would have grabbed it with both hands. So, I’m ecstatic to be in this position today, thanks to a controlled drive by Nasser and Mathieu. I must commend Henk and Brett on their amazing team spirit today, waiting for Nasser after starting ahead of them, and I’m sorry that they had such a tough day. At the same time, I’m glad that Giniel and Dennis managed to move into the Top 5, and I’m continually impressed by the steady drive that Shameer and Danie have put in, during the second week of Dakar 2022.”
Nasser Al-Attiyah: “It was a difficult stage today, but we’re happy with the result. We lost only a few minutes to Sebastien Loeb, and we are in a good position. Tomorrow is a short stage(stage 12), and we’ll just continue at this same pace as it is very important to us to win this race. We weren’t worried at all starting today’s stage, as I respect my team, and we have a very good car each day. Our Toyota has been working well. Now, we’re just looking forward to the finish line in Jeddah.”
Giniel de Villiers: “A very tough stage today, with many dunes, probably the toughest yet. There were also some very soft, small dunes in the middle, which made things very difficult. But overall we had a nice run, despite struggling with dust because of our road position. But 5th in the stage isn’t bad, and we made up one spot to 5th overall, which is great. I’m a bit disappointed that we’re not on the podium, but this is the best we could do after the time we lost. The most important thing is that Nasser is leading, which is fantastic for the team.”
Henk Lategan: “It was a tough day for us. Not great, I’m very disappointed. We started this morning 4th on the road, but stopped just after the start to wait for Nasser, in order to follow him through the stage. We struggled to navigate in his dust and lost some time there. Then, we reached some big dunes, and in one crossing we broke the lower control arm on our car. In the process, the brake line to that wheel was also broken, and we had to make a plan with both. We carry a spare control arm, but it isn’t quite as strong as the original part, so we had to nurse the car through the remainder of the stage.”
Shameer Variawa: “Eleven stages done, but today was probably the hardest for us. I think about half of it consisted of dunes, and it was really tough. But I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s final stage. Even so, at 165km anything can happen, and we need to keep our wits about us. Dakar is never finished until it is finished, so let’s wait until the end.”
Sam Sunderland of Gas Gas takes the bikes category of the DAKAR 2022
*EXCLUSIVE! Interview with The KING OF DUNE DAKAR 2022 Gaussin Group's Christophe Gaussin
The Dakar has been a tremendous accelerator. This shows great promise for all of our programs."
Exclusive Reporting by BajaRacingNews.com
STAGE 12
The KING OF DUNE Schedule 2022
STAGE DATE START AND FINISH RACE DISTANCE Total |
Special 1A Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022 Jeddah > Hail 614 km | 19 km
STAGE 1A-1B Sunday, Jan. 2 Hail > Ha’il 514 km | 333 km
STAGE 1B-2 Monday, Jan. 3 Ha’il > Al Artawiyah 568 km | 338 km
STAGE 2-3 Tuesday, Jan. 4 Al Artawiya > Al Qaisumah 555 km | 368 km
STAGE 3-4 Wednesday, Jan. 5 Al Qaysumah > Riyadh 707 km | 465 km
STAGE 4-5 Thursday, Jan. 6 Riyadh > Riyadh 560 km | 346 km
STAGE 5-6 Friday, Jan. 7 Riyadh > Riyadh 618 km | 402 km
STAGE 6 - Saturday, Jan. 8 Riyadh/ REST DAY
STAGE 7 - Sunday, Jan. 9 Riyadh > Al Dawadimi 701 km | 402 km
STAGE 7-8 Monday, Jan. 10 Al Dawadimi > Wadi Ad Dawasir 830 km | 395 km
STAGE 8-9 Tuesday, Jan. 11 Wadi Ad Dawasir > Wadi Ad Dawasir 491 km | 287 km
STAGE 9-10 Wednesday, Jan. 12 Wadi Ad Dawasir > Bisha 759 km | 375 km
STAGE 10-11 Thursday, Jan. 13 Bisha > Bisha 501 km | 346 km
LAST STAGE! 11-12 Friday, January 14 Bisha > Jeddah 680 km | 164 km
Friday, Jan. 14
FINISH PODIUM TBA Jeddah LIVE ONLINE
COMPLETED STAGES VIDEOS
COMPLETED STAGES PICS - MEDIA
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DAKAR 2022 RACE-RALLY NEWS HEADLINES
Boutron Philippe of Sodicars, Paris France
French minister considering cancelling Dakar after car explosion
France's Foreign Minister says the country is considering cancelling the 2022 Dakar Rally following a car explosion in the run-up to this year's event.
Paris, France. January 7, 2022
An assistance car belonging to French team Sodicars Racing, exploded outside the Donatello hotel in Jeddah on December 30, just days before the start of the rally on January 1.
Six passengers were travelling in the car during the explosion and, while five of them were unharmed, driver Philippe Boutron suffered a "very serious leg injury". While the local authorities has since reinforced the security for the rally, the incident continues to worry the entire bivouac and the French authorities.
On Friday, January 7, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian opened up the possibility of cancelling the rally-raid in an interview with BFM TV's morning show. Asked by the presenter if the car explosion in Jeddah was a terrorist attack, the minister replied: "It could be. We made it known very quickly and told the organizers and Saudi officials that we had to be very transparent about what had just happened, because there were hypotheses that it could be a terrorist act.
"There have already been terrorist acts in Saudi Arabia against French interests, it was important to protect our citizens, to warn, to prevent and to ask for the greatest transparency, so the national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office was called in and today we have this situation: there could have been a terrorist attack against the Dakar. "We thought that perhaps it was better to suspend this sporting event, but the organizers thought not, but we have to be very prudent. At the very least, they had to reinforce security, which they have done. The question is still on the table."
The French anti-terrorist prosecutor's office announced on January 4 that it was opening an investigation into the events in Jeddah in the days leading up to the start of the 44th edition of Dakar.
The ASO, the organizer of the Dakar Rally, has also announced that both the Saudi and French authorities are investigating what happened. This follows the organization reinforcing the security of its camps (itinerant and generally outside the cities, except in Riyadh and Jeddah), where around 3,500 people stay every day.
Boutron, who serves as the president of French soccer 'Ligue 2' football club, 'US Orleans', was set to take part in his ninth Dakar Rally, after a best finish of 33rd in 2021.
In the last 48 hours, he woke up from the induced coma he had been placed into after being evacuated to the Percy military hospital in Clamart (France) and is still in hospital to recover from injuries to both legs.
The ASO was previously forced to cancel the 2008 Dakar Rally, due to run from Portugal to Senegal, due to security concerns after four tourists were killed in Mauritania in the days leading up to the event.
-End report
France begins terrorism probe into Saudi Arabia blast ahead of Dakar Rally
Paris, France. January 6, 2022
French prosecutors have opened a terrorism investigation into an explosion in Saudi Arabia that injured a French driver ahead of the Dakar Rally. The blast hit a support vehicle belonging to the French team Sodicars soon after it left its Jeddah hotel for the race route, injuring driver Philippe Boutron, Reuters reported, citing accounts from the team and race organizers. A spokesperson for France's national anti-terror prosecutor's office confirmed to BajaRacingNews.com that they have opened an investigation into an attempted assassination "related to a terrorist enterprise."
The French Ministry for Foreign Affairs said that the car's French driver was "seriously injured," while the five passengers, also French, were "unharmed." Sodicars said that the driver was repatriated Monday to the Percy Military Hospital in Clamart. "He was immediately taken care of by medical teams, and is in the hands of experts, accompanied by his family. His legs were smashed up by the explosion and he was placed in an artificial coma in order to alleviate his suffering," Sodicars said in a statement released Tuesday. Benoit Boutron, sports journalist and son of the wounded driver, told French radio station RMC that his father is out of the coma. "It's quite serious what happened, he's terribly wounded. The info that I can give you is that he's out of the coma, so that's already a first step, and with this type of accident, you've got to take things step by step. "He's indeed seriously wounded in both legs, and we'll know more in ten days or so. There you go, we've got to stay cautious at this point." Meanwhile, the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs issued a statement warning that "the terrorist threat persists in Saudi Arabia. It is advisable to exercise maximum vigilance in daily life, especially when traveling. "An investigation by the Saudi authorities is underway to determine the cause of the explosion. The hypothesis of a criminal act is not ruled out," the ministry said in a statement on January 1.
Baja Racing News has contacted Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Media for comment. "We hope the investigation follows its course, that it progresses well and that they find the people concerned," Marie-France Estenave, Sodicars spokesperson, told Baja Racing News. "What we want is the truth. Why? Is it against the rally? Is it against France? We don't know all that. That's what we are concerned about. "We keep our fingers crossed that the investigation will be done seriously and in depth," she said, adding she hoped the investigation would make clear whether the incident was a terror attack. The Dakar Rally was held in Europe and Africa from 1979 to 2007 but was moved to South America and then the Middle East in 2020 after the 2008 event was canceled following security concerns. There are traditionally five major vehicle categories in the Dakar Rally: cars, motorbikes, trucks, UTVs and quad bikes. "Something wasn't right" Mayeul Barbet, a colleague of Boutron who was in the car at the time of the incident, told French radio station RMC the team left the hotel as normal to prepare the car. "We drove 500 meters and then 'boom' an explosion. There you go, we don't know what's happening, a big explosion." "After the explosion, I was stuck to the roof of the car, so that's not normal ... in a car accident, we're thrown forward, but here I was thrown to the ceiling in fact.
So I knew in my head that something wasn't right," he said. "There was quite a confused atmosphere in the car, with airbags deploying... so we get quickly out of the car. But before we get out, Philippe said something to me, he said, 'Mayeul, you've got to get me out.' So there, I understand that he's wounded." Barbet, who helped Boutron out of the car, said: "I saw that his legs were really hurt, I initially decided to leave him in the car so as not to move him. "We did a first tourniquet, so that he wouldn't bleed a lot, and in fact, the car started to catch on fire. So then we decide to get him out, to put him in safety and take care of him." Barbet said that when the car's passengers got out of the car, they assumed they had been in an accident and looked for another vehicle, but realized "there's nothing around us. We're alone in the middle of this road."
-End report
Nasser Al-Attiyah, pictured above. Manufactured image, for humor, by our DAKAR reporter, HogWild
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
Dakar 2022 rally leader and Red Bull athlete Al-Attiyah fined for breach of rules
Dakar Rally leader Nasser Al-Attiyah has been hit with a €5,000 fine and a suspended disqualification for failing to connect the data logger to his Toyota.
The penalty was announced at 9:15 local time on Tuesday, just before the start of the third stage near Al Qaisumah. According to an official statement by the stewards, the Qatari driver arrived at the bivouac on Monday with FIA's black box - which records all the performance data of each car and is supplied by Magnetti Marelli - disconnected to his Toyota Hilux T1+ car. This is in breach of regulation 13.1.2 of the FIA World Rally Raid Sporting Regulations, which states that this data collection system is mandatory for "all T1 vehicles with a turbo petrol engine (...) and for all T1 vehicles with a turbo diesel engine whose drivers are FIA priority drivers". It was Toyota that alerted the FIA technical delegate after realizing the black box was not connected to the car. The technical delegate passed on the matters to the stewards who, after listening to the team's representative Jean-Marc Fortin (Overdrive), decided to impose a penalty of €5,000 to be paid within 48 hours. In addition, it also decided to impose a suspended disqualification from the 2022 Dakar Rally in the event of a repeat of a similar offence in the next 10 days. In the same statement, Toyota's Fortin explained that it an error on the team's part that led to the fine. "It was a simple mistake by our mechanics," he said. "They just forgot to connect the data logger to the battery. We disconnect the data logger every night from the battery for safety reasons. I will personally check all next days that the data logger is properly connected." The consequence of this oversight is that the instrument did not register any data during the whole of stage 2, so "there is no way to check if the Turbo Boost pressure has exceeded the values defined in the appendix VIII of the 2022 CCR Sporting Regulation." According to the stewards, this type of infringement, even if it was not intentional, implies a disqualification "according to the jurisprudence in the past." However, they consider that "exceptional circumstances exist in the present case, insofar as the Rally Dakar consists of 12 competition days and the infringement was discovered in the second leg and the car was in conformity in the first leg." "A disqualification from the entire competition does hence not seem to be proportional, especially as the competitor has confirmed to rectify the problem promptly so that his car will comply with the regulations for the following 10 competition days," it said. Al-Attiyah holds a nine-minute lead over Bahrain Raid Xtreme's Sebastien Loeb going into Stage 3.
Monday, January 3, 2022
The Car driving over the moto story, we'll get to it...
Baja Racing News
Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
The KING OF DUNE 2022
BajaRacingNews.com Covers The Olympics of Off-Road, Again!
The 2022 Dakar Rally will feature more SAND DUNES as the epic car and moto, rally-raid event, heads back to The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Blacke Media will be presenting a Special Spotlight on The Culture of The Kingdom, starting on 'Rest Day', in Riyadh.
DAKAR OFF-ROAD COLOGNE Presents the rally launch at 2AM on Saturday, January 1, 2022 - LIVE! on BajaRacingNews.com
The Rally will depart from Ha'il in the north on January 2 and finish in the western coastal city of Jeddah on January 14, after a rest day in Riyadh, The Kindom's Capital City. Launched in 1979 between Paris and the Senegalese capital Dakar, the celebrated endurance challenge moved to The Kingdom for the first time in 2020 after a decade in South America.
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's "Vision 2030" to increase its openness, is a winning strategy for 'the sport of off-road world'", said Gary Newsome, from Baja Mexico this week. "The Kingdom is a gracious and sharing host, we welcome the invitation to cover the sports we love, from The Kingdom".
Gary Newsome is the media partner of Blacke Media and Publisher of the Award-Winning Baja Racing News LIVE! online publication.
"I want to believe in their openness", Dakar director David Castera told BajaRacingnews.com. "At least now there are Westerners, tourist visas, there are women who compete in the Dakar, women who drive. "We are maybe at the start of a change. It's a start, it may never be enough. We want things to go faster but there had to be something. "Saudi Arabia has been inspired by its neighbors, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar. They came to the party very late, but are going much faster to have this same development by multiplying international sporting events."
The sport of off-road navigation
Turning to the 2022 rally-raid route, Castera said: "We're going to explore places we haven't completely explored, putting the emphasis on sand and dunes." The 12 stages, heading south-easterly from the start, take in the testing Empty Quarter, the vast Rub' al-Khali desert in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula. "The weeding-out process will come down to the crews' ability to tackle the dunes and off-road navigation," Dakar organisers said. French driver Stephane Peterhansel, a Dakar winner for a 14th time this year, and his rivals will face two days exclusively in the dunes, a potential title decider. "If we go looking for sand, that's good news," said Peterhansel.
The end of the combustion engine era is planned for 2030 for cars
The 44th edition sees a new class joining the collection of cars, bikes, quads, trucks, buggies and SSVs, with the launch of a "T1-E category" reserved for low-carbon emission prototypes.
Another pivot year of transition for the Dakar Rally-Raid
For the fourth straight time, the Dakar Rally will take place in one country only. The 2019 edition in Peru was the first not to leave national borders since the inaugural 1978 race. "In the current situation with the Covid-19 pandemic we are unfortunately still forced to focus on Saudi Arabia," said Castera.
Castera points to Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, in the next years
"It's no big deal because there is everything we need... but I think from next year there will be another country," he added, citing "Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Oman... and why not, one day, all those countries together?" December 31, 2021
Gary Newsome, Publisher
BajaRacingNews.com
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