Daniel Sanders remains in 2022 Dakar Rally hunt

Australia’s Daniel Sanders has maintained his position in the overall top five of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia despite finishing 17th in a challenging Stage 4.

The GasGas rider began the fabled race with wins in both the Prologue and Stage 1, before mistakes in the subsequent stages saw him lose the overall lead. He now sits in fourth place overall, about 7 minutes off the pace.

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His teammate Sam Sunderland leads the race by three minutes over Matthias Walkner (KTM) and Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha).

Another Australian, two-time winner Toby Price (KTM), finished Stage 4 in 30th place and now sits 16th overall; 43 minutes behind Sunderland.

The fourth stage of the race saw riders tackle a timed section of 465 kilometres. The route featured a mix of fast tracks, and technical rocky sections and river crossings.

Honda’s Joan Barreda won the stage ahead of teammate Pablo Quintanilla. Notably, former MotoGP star and Dakar rookie Danilo Petrucci finished third in the stage aboard his KTM.

Meanwhile, Sanders is looking to become just second Australian to win the Dakar Rally, following the path blazed by his countryman Price.

Price finished third on debut in 2015 before winning the race in 2016. He won again in 2019. Sanders echoed Price’s rookie heroics, taking fourth place in his first Dakar in 2021.

Hailing from Three Bridges in Victoria, Sanders has experienced success both locally and globally in enduro racing, but his switch to Rally Raid racing came earlier than expected due to the pandemic.

His first year was as a waterboy for the KTM team, but his impressive top-five finish earned him a contract with the relatively-new GasGas Factory squad.

There are nine stages of the Dakar Rally remaining with the riders expected to finish in Jeddah on the 14th of January.