Nasser Al Attiyah and Matthieu Baumel now lead a proudly South African Toyota Hilux Dakar 1-2 by over 50 minutes after another tough day in the Arabian dunes. Argentine duo Orlando Terranova and Daniel Carreras’ BRX Hunter won day 6 in the cars. It was a positive day for South African crews. Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer’s Century fourth and Shameer Variawa and Danie Stassen’s Gazoo Hilux seventh. Gas Gas duo Sam Sunderland and Daniel Sanders led a truncated bike stage as Botswana hero Ross Branch tumbled out of the race.
The cars and other four wheelers swapped their Thursday routes with the bikes and quads for Friday’s 421 kilometre Dakar Day raid around Riayadh ahead of Saturday’s well-earned rest day. It was not without those regular Dakar dramas. Despite many tracks to follow, the day-to-day results yo-yo continued as the first cars and bikes on the road once again suffered greatly while opening the way.
First and second cars away Friday morning, Toyota Gazoo Hilux duo Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings and Sebastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin’s BRX Hunter fared well enough through the first sector. But they dropped well out of contention by the second waypoint to join third and fourth crews away, Luciano Alvarez and Araman Monelon’s Hilux and Mathieu Serradori and Loic Minaudier’s Century CR6 well outside of the top 30.
Seventh away Friday morning, overall leaders Nasser Al Attiyah and Matthieu Baumel’s Gazoo Hilux moved ahead by the 120 km waypoint. They were pursued by Terranova, Swedes Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist’s petrol-electric Audi and Baragwanath and Cremer’s CR6. Saudi home hero Yazeed Al Rajhi and Michael Orr, and Variawa and Stassen’s Hiluxes were next. All of them had started outside the top 15.
The drama escalated later in the stage when positions and the lead chopped changed as crews struggled to find their way. By the time the dust had settled, Terranova had taken the day from Ekström, Al Rajhi and Baragwanath. Nani Roma and Alex Bravo’s BRX Hunter popped up in fifth ahead of Bernhard ten Brink and Sébastien Delaunay’s Hilux, which pipped Variawa to sixth. Al Attiyah ended up tenth but well ahead of his closest overall challenger, Al Rajhi, who moved to second, 6 seconds clear of Loeb.
Orlando Terranova.
South African factory Hilux crew, Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy’s ended a provisional 14th, but their day was made when their 5-hour penalty for bumping a biker was retracted on new evidence, catapulting them back up to fourth on Friday evening. This means that there are four Toyota in the top five with Attiyah leading Al Rajhi, with Loeb’s Hunter third ahead of de Villiers and Alvarez of the other South Africans, Lategan and Cummings 30th. Thursday’s heroes Chris Visser and Rodney Burke’s ended 33rd, while Century teammates Ernest Roberts and Henry Kohne were running in the top 30, Schalk Burger and Henk Janse van Vuuren in the top 60. SA navigators Taye Perry was 35th and Ryan Bland 56th. Overall. Visser provisionally sat 14th, Variyawa 17th and Baragwanath 18th.
It was a similar scenario in the bikes, which did not start well for Thursday’s top two. MotoGP hero Danilo Petrucci crashed his KTM and dropped out of the top 50. Even worse off, Ross Branch tumbled from his Yamaha and was forced to retire. Up front meantime, in spite of the many tracks to follow, the route challenged the riders who opened the special are having serious navigation problems after 100 km, so as with the cars, the order was shaken up early on
Shameer Variyawa.
The motorcycle race was stopped at the second of the day’s planned 8 checkpoints as the track had become dangerous after being churned up by the cars ad trucks on Thursday. At which point Gas Gas duo, third man overall Sam Sunderland led overall leader Daniel Sanders and second overall Mattias Walkner’s KTM. SA riders, Aron Mare was 26th, Charan Moore 28th, John Kelly 34th, Stuart Gregory 67th, Werner Kennedy 81st, Paulo Oliveira 96th and Walter Terblanche 97th. Mare is 16th overall, Cox 20th and Moore 38th.
In the other Dakar classes, as ever in the trucks where overall leader Karginov led overall leader Sotnikov and Nikolaiev home in a Kamaz 1-2-3. Marek Goczal beat overall leader Rodrigo de Oliveira, and Sergei Kariyakin in the Side by Sides and Seth Quinterio and Christina Gutierrez led overall leader Francisco Contardo home in the for UTV honours. And Alexandre Giroud and Russian Alexei Maksimov headed overall leader Pablo Copetti in the quads.
78 of the 92 cars, 130 of the 144 motorcycles, 100 of the 117 lightweights and quads and 53 of 56 trucks that started 2022’s 44th Dakar Rally on New Years Day, reached the halfway point at Riyadh on Friday. Saturday is Dakar’s traditional rest day, before crews continue on their epic 4,000 km race on a 6,500 km route across the Saudi Arabian Desert to the finish in Jeddah on Friday 12 January. Sunday’s seventh stage is a 299 km race over the dunes to Al Dawadimi.
QUOTES:
Glyn Hall, Team Principal: “Today saw Shameer and Danie show their true pace, in a stage that was really surprisingly tricky, especially when it came to navigation. They had a clean run with no punctures, and we’re really pleased to see them do so well. At the same time, Nasser and Mathieu managed the stage very well, maintaining their position at the head of the field, going into the Rest Day with a handy lead. Giniel and Dennis also kept their heads down and their noses clean, and they continue to post highly competitive stage times. It was a bit of a tough day for Henk and Brett, having to open the road after winning Stage 5. But they came through without any real drama. Overall, we’re pleased with our performance on Stage 6.”
Henk Lategan: “A really tough day for us. We started okay, even though it was difficult to open the road. But we managed a good pace at the start until we went wrong in one of the canyons. We lost a lot of time there, but so did many other crews. We eventually picked up the correct route, and quickly got back to the head of the field, only to get lost again near a river. After finding the route again, we had two punctures, and in the end, we joined the front-runners for the final dune crossing to the finish.”
Nasser Al-Attiyah: “It was a tough but good day for us. The navigation was especially difficult, but Mathieu again did a good job. Our car and the tyres have been working well. The last part of the stage was very difficult, but everybody just followed us out. We are very happy to have a good lead after the first week of the rally, and now we just have to concentrate on managing the race during the second week of the Dakar.”
Giniel de Villiers: “Today’s stage was quite tricky, with difficult navigation, and towards the end the visibility in the dunes was really bad. We all ended up following Nasser through the final section, and a lot of cars finished together. In the end, it was a good stage for us, with only one puncture and otherwise no problems.”
Shameer Variawa: “Today we had a clean run, no punctures, no problems. There was a lot of dust though, and we were quite surprised with our time when we got to the finish. We thought we’d be quite far down, especially with all the dust, but I see we posted a good time. Overall, it was a good stage for us.”
