Dakar 2022 | Stage 7 results
January 9
th
2022
- 13:50
[GMT + 3]
BIKES | Yamaha and Van Beveren take control
Cornejo has won the special ahead of Kevin Benavides (+ 44") and Barreda (+ 2'51"), but all eyes are on the men who started the special at the top of the general standings: VBA came in eleventh at 12'34", while Walkner and Sunderland finished seventeenth and eighteenth, respectively, over 22 minutes down on Nacho.
VBA has taken his Yamaha to the summit of the overall, where he now leads Walkner (KTM) by 5'12" and rider no. 1, Benavides, by 5'23". Sunderland's Gas Gas is 5'38" down, while Santolino's Sherco is back in the top 5, 6'34" down, thanks to a fifth-place finish today. Quintanilla and Barreda fly the flag for Honda at just over 8', while Cornejo moved up to ninth. Price is eleventh at under 30' down, closely followed by the breakthrough performance in Rally2, Mason Klein. What a close-run affair!
CARS | Second win of the year for Loeb!
Sébastien Loeb claimed today's special and gained over five minutes from Nasser Al-Attiyah in the fight for the overall. The Frenchman's sixteenth career win makes him the tenth most prolific stage winner of all time, right behind Giniel De Villiers with seventeen. Yazeed Al-Rajhi finished on the bottom step of the stage podium.
LIGHT PROTOTYPES | "Chaleco" brings it home
Seth Quintero may be the clear frontrunner when it comes to stage wins, but he has been out of contention for the overall honours since a broken differential doomed his chances in stage 2. "Chaleco" López, on the other hand, is all about consistency and has held the lead since the same stage. South Racing's key driver benefited enormously from today's stage as Sebastian Eriksson's mechanical troubles widened the chasm between the two men in the general standings. Cristina Gutiérrez, running in third place, gained nine minutes on the Chilean, but it barely made a dent in his two-hour lead. The clock is ticking…
TRUCKS | From Russia with Shiba-love
Anton Shibalov has just bagged his first stage win in the 44th Dakar. The Russian put over 1′30″ into Eduard Nikolaev and 4′25″ into Martin van den Brink, who placed his Iveco bang in the middle of the Kamaz trucks. Andrey Karginov gained a couple of minutes and finished fourth at 6′39″. The 2020 champion holds a 13-second lead over Dmitry Sotnikov, his successor on the throne.
QUADS | Consolation prize for Medeiros
Brazilian Marcelo Medeiros led the special at km 259 by 1′39″ over Giroud and 9′03″ over Copetti. It is but a consolation prize, as he has a deficit of more than 22 hours to Giroud in the general standings. The Frenchman remains the virtual leader ahead of Copetti at 12′16″ and Maksimov at 46′33″.
SSV | Farrés muscles through but Domżała clinches the win
This is Gerard Farrés's fifteenth Dakar. The Spaniard, second in the SSV category in 2019 and winner of three stages in 2020, seized the lead at km 337 but ended up losing the special, sandwiched between the Goczał Bros., Michał and Marek. Aron Domżała recovered from a distinctly lacklustre start to pip everyone on the line and take his second special of the year. Rokas Baciuška took the provisional fourth place at almost five minutes down.
Austin Jones, who conceded close to sixteen minutes to Domżała , and Rodrigo Luppi de Oliveira, who lost almost an hour (and the overall lead) due to a mechanical at km 97, are the big losers of the day.
