The 12th stage of Dakar 2022 saw Pablo Quintanilla & Henk Lategan claim victory. Sam Sunderland claimed the overall 2022 Dakar win in the bikes category and Nasser Al-Attiyah finished 1st in the cars section.
Bikes
Riders today blasted across the sands of Saudi Arabia covering a short 163-kilometre special stage between Bisha and the city of Jeddah. Honda’s Pablo Quintanilla blitzed the stage in 1 hour and 40 minutes to take the win. The Chilean rider finished the stage 18 seconds ahead of Australia’s Toby Price and 29 seconds ahead of fellow countryman Jose Cornejo Florimo.
The fastest out of the five riders on bikes with the name of an Indian marque painted on their fuel tanks was TVS Sherco’s Lorenzo Santolino who finished the stage in 9th, 2 places ahead of his teammate Rui Goncalves.
Hero’s Joaquim Rodrigues was the next across the line in 16th while Indian TVS Sherco rider Harith Noah finished the stage in 23rd place. South African Aaron Mare was the last of the five across the line finishing the stage in 28th place, 13 minutes and 34 seconds behind Quintanilla’s Honda.
Quintanilla’s berserker across the sands to Jeddah today wasn’t enough for the Chilean to win the title. Quintanilla fell an agonising 3 minutes and 27 seconds behind Britain’s Sam Sunderland who claimed the second Dakar win of his career. Sunderland had previously won the 2017 edition of the Dakar and led this year’s rally for most of the two weeks in Saudi.
Claiming the final podium spot was Austrian rider Matthias Walkner. The KTM rider finished the 2022 edition of the Dakar Rally 6 minutes and 47 seconds behind Sunderland’s GasGas rally bike.
Spain’s Lorenzo Santolino was the highest-ranked rider astride an Indian bike in this year’s Dakar. The TVS Sherco rider finished this year’s Dakar in 11th overall, finishing the rally 58 minutes and 26 seconds behind Sunderland.
Joaquim Rodrigues who gave Hero its first-ever win at the Dakar this year finished the 2022 edition of the rally in 14th overall. Rodrigues fellow Hero rider, South African Aaron Mare finished Dakar 2022 in 16th overall, 2 places behind his teammate.
Portugal’s Rui Goncalves was the next of the TVS Sherco riders to be classified. Goncalves finished the 2022 Dakar rally in 24th overall despite being penalised 30 minutes. The last and final rider of the five was India’s, Harith Noah. Noah showed immense courage during this year’s rally and if not for an issue with his bike on the 10th stage which didn’t allow him to start would have finished a whole lot higher than his final classification of 110th overall.
Cars
The final stage of Dakar 2022 saw South Africa’s Henk Lategan claim a second stage win at this year’s rally. Lategan finished the 164-kilometre stage in 1 hour, 35 minutes and 19 seconds. Lategan finished the stage 49 seconds ahead of the Audi of Stephane Peterhansel. Claiming the final spot on the podium was another South African, Brian Baragwanath.
Today’s stage saw Nasser Al-Attiyah win the Dakar rally for the 4th time in his career. The Qatari finished the stage in 19th but he still finished the rally 27 minutes and 46 seconds ahead of France’s Sebastian Loeb. Claiming the final podium spot was Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi, who finished as the best of the privateers in this year’s Dakar.
Thoughts On Dakar 2022: Stage 12
Today’s stage of the Dakar Rally saw the participants blast across the sands to the finish line in Jeddah. Despite giving it his all, Honda’s Pablo Quintanilla was unable to stop England’s Sam Sunderland from claiming his 2nd Dakar crown.
In the car’s category, the result had been known for a few days now. With his unassailable lead, Toyota’s Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah cruised across the final stage in 19th overall to claim his 4th Dakar win by 27 minutes and 46 seconds. This is Al-Attiyah’s first win at the Dakar since the rally switched to Saudi Arabia. All three of his previous wins (2011, 15 and 19) had come during the South American era of the rally.