Loeb wins another stage of Dakar Rally 2022
Hi, friends!
Nine time World Rally Champion Seb Loeb is still in the fight for the overall win of Dakar Rally 2022 after he won Sunday's special stage but the lead of Nasser Al-Attiyah is still kinda big - 44m59s.
Why kinda? Because it's nothing on Dakar Rally when any navigational error can cost you that time. Al-Attiyah is very good with the terrain at Saudi Arabia where this rally has been held for the last two editions and I don't see him doing a mistake but in motorsport you are not sure until you pass a finish line.
Loeb was 3rd before Sunday with Yazeed AL Rajhi in front of him when Al Rajhi won the special stage of Friday. Now they changed the positions again. Al Rajhi finished the Sunday's special stage only 5th with 10m03s down on Loeb's time. The overall difference between them is now around nince minutes. I guess that Loeb is in favor because of the confidence of nive WRC titles which give him an authority that Al Rajhi doesn't have. But let's see what this week brings for the guys who are still in the rally.
Carlos Sainz sr finished the day in 3rd position with gap of 7m43s behind stage winner Loeb. With all these top 3 special stage times from Sainz sr, he is still out of top 10 after navigational error from the day one when he and his co-driver lost around 2h looking for the right way on the stage. That's how costly are the mistakes on Dakar.
Stephane Peterhansel of Audi is technically not in the rally after an early retirement but organizers let him to drive the special stages just because of the testing of new electric Audi and carrying the spare parts for the other two crews of the team.
Lucio Alvarez is still the guy to follow on this year's Dakar because he is still 4th overall with gap to the leader Al-Attiyah of 1h15m... He finished the day on 7th place 13m 37s down on the Loeb's time.
Kuba Przygónski is another driver to watch because he is 5th overall in the X-Raid prepared Mini JCW with the gap of 1h30m behind Al-Attiyah.
There is still enough day of competition this week so anything can happen until the end of the rally. Let the best win - as always...
Watch the video coverage of the Sunday's stage on the LINK bellow (21 minutes)
https://www.redbull.com/int-en/episodes/dakar-rally-2022-stage-7
Credit for photos and videos to WRC and Youtube.
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