Six things you need to know about Dakar Rally 2022

It was just the second stage when British rider Sam Sunderland (GasGas Factory racing) took the overall lead of the Dakar Rally for the first time and spent more than half of the 12-day event at the top of the leaderboard. He finished second that day, five minutes behind Joan Barreda Bort (Monster Energy Honda), but held onto the overall lead for the rest of the first week.

He headed into the rest day 2m39s ahead of former teammate and reigning world champ Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM), but failed to make the most of the rest day, losing over 22 minutes in Stage 7 to start the second week.

The Brit made up for it in the sandy eighth stage the following day, and rode hard to win the stage and regain his lead in the general standings. Leading out for Stage 9, he lost eight minutes to the leader, then lost another six minutes in the tenth stage, but did very well during the penultimate stage – using his head and experience to set himself up for the win. Finishing just four seconds behind last year’s winner Kevin Benevides (Red Bull KTM), he did enough to take the overall lead once again by almost seven minutes, but he made sure it wasn’t enough to be forced to lead out on the last sprint to the line on the final day.

Then he did what he needed to do, and after 3888km of timed specials over 12 gruelling days of racing, he lofted his second Dakar Rally winner’s trophy, five years after scoring his first, and on two different brands of motorcycle. New Honda recruit Pablo Quintanilla finished second ahead of 2018 winner Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM).

Of course it’s all ifs, buts and maybes, but when Australia’s two-time Dakar winner Toby Price was one of a handful of top riders to fall victim to this year’s particularly tough navigation in just the opening stage, it never looked as if the talented KTM rider would recover.

The first timed section was 333km long and roadbooks were handed out to riders just 20 minutes before the start. It was only about 50km from the end when Price and others lost their way with the Aussie eventually losing some 44 minutes to the leader.

His first stage win didn’t come until the 10th stage, and it elevated him up to sixth overall – his best overnight position all race. But with just two stages left and 27m43s adrift of the leader, his hopes of victory were all but dashed.

He dug deep during Stage 12’s 164km sprint to finish the day in second place, which landed him with an overall result of 10th place – 49m20s behind Sunderland. Theoretically, if you subtract the opening day’s time from his eventual finishing place, he’d have been on the last step of the overall podium.

Of course that opening stage was won by a certain Daniel Sanders (GasGas Team Racing), whose decision to start 15th after winning the prologue the day previous paid enormous dividends.

Danilo Petrucci made history when he became the only former MotoGP rider to win a stage of the Dakar Rally. As a two-time MotoGP winner and now a Dakar stage winner, the notoriously emotional Italian had tears streaming down his face when he said “when they told me some minutes ago [that I’d won the stage], I started crying. I cannot believe it.

“Growing up, my father used to give me video tapes from MotoGP and from Dakar and every day after school I would watch them. I wanted to leave a mark in motorsport, and today I made it.”

Just five seconds separated Petrucci in top spot and Nacho Cornejo Florimo (Monster Energy Honda) in third place. They say margins are tight in MotoGP, but five seconds separating three riders after 346km is something else altogether.

The victory – on let’s not forget was just his sixth day as a Rally rider – came after a crashing while trying to avoid a camel. “I wanted to kill that camel, but here they consider the camel more important than women,” he said.

Petrucci was actually nearly ruled out of the Dakar before then end of the second day after he was unable to fix a mechanical issue, but new rules allowed him (and Kevin Benavides after Stage 10) to continue.

Even though the Aussie rider’s second week ended in a hospital bed before it even started, Daniel ‘Chucky’ Sanders is brimming with the talent and self-belief required to win the toughest race on earth.

In just his second-ever Dakar Rally, he won the prologue, backed it up with another stage win the following day and even though he got lost during the early part of Stage 2, hooked in during the final section to limit the damage to a few minutes.

His self-belief was clearly evident in Stage 3 where, feeling like he’d put in more than he needed to, stopped towards the end to ensure he didn’t claim the day’s win and therefore be forced to lead (clearly a strategy of the GasGas Team) out for stage four, the longest and toughest day of the event.

He ended Stage 4 with a split lip after a close call with a dune. Husqvarna’s Skyler Howes probably described Sanders’ riding style best: “Absolute mad dog, he was sending stuff – I’m sure you’ll see his lip. I’m mind blown with how it went.”

Chucky dislocated his shoulder in the dunes on Stage 5 while he was searching for a hidden way point and was granted his third win of the Rally on Stage 6 after it was cut short early due to safety concerns.

With a day and a half’s rest and still in great shape, Sanders never got to lead out the motorcycle category in the first day of the second week, however. He crashed his GasGas on the road during his transport section between the bivouac and the start line, breaking his elbow and his wrist and ruling him out of the race.

“I’ll be back for sure next year, back at it! And I’m not high on drugs either,” he said from his hospital bed later that day.

Aussie hardman Andrew Houlihan failed to finish what was just his second-ever Dakar Rally after being medically ruled out following the fifth stage of the rally – despite not even crashing.

The 52-year-old Albury local has fought back from some horrific injuries during the past few years in order to better his maiden Dakar result of 50th overall in 2021, but it wasn’t to be.

“My Dakar came to an end today,” he said after Stage 5. “Not by my choice. The medical staff and officials will not let me continue due to my rib fractures.

“Today’s stage started well and I was feeling really good, had perfect navigation, passed many bikes and had worked my way up in 62nd position. The track was very fast with some rocks and stones littered in the sand. I misjudged a small section with a deep hole. I hit it very hard at high speed but did not come off, just jarred my upper body really bad.”

Twenty-year-old American rider Mason Klein was the best-ranked rookie after the 12-day event, finishing a credible ninth overall riding for the BAS World KTM Racing squad. After no less than six top-10 stage finishes and a worst of 33rd on the second stage, he showed he’s got what it takes.

Meanwhile, with 11-time Dakar finisher Laia Sanz entered in the car category for the 2022 event, there were just two women riding in this year’s Dakar, where 168 riders left the start line. In her rookie year, Spanish rider Sandra Gomez (Husqvarna) improved consistently all race and ended the event in a credible 62nd overall. French rider Audrey Rosset rode her KTM to 98th overall in what was her second-ever Dakar rally.

Lithuanian rider Arunas Gelazninkas won the unassisted Original by Motul category in his fourth Dakar, the second time in the toughest class, ending the overall staging in 28th place.

There was also a father and son riding in the event with Italians Aldo and Andrea Winkler. Dad Aldo ended the race in 108th, with Andrea going 11 places better in 97th overall. Just 124 riders made it to the finish.

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