↓
 
Bikesportnz Posted on by

Daniel Sanders leads Dakar Rally after opening stageAustralian Daniel Sanders and Chilean Pablo Quintanilla lead the way after the prologue stage that kicked off the 2022 Dakar Rally.

The 2022 Dakar Rally is underway after the opening leg of a special stage.

The first brief 19-kilometre prologue, for the most part over sand, also featured a small number of dunes.

With the curtain raiser out of the way, riders headed off to complete a lengthy liaison section which led them to the first Dakar bivouac in Ha’il.

Monster Energy Honda Team rider Quintanilla came out guns blazing over the opening kilometres of the rally.

The Chilean crossed the finish-line 12 seconds adrift of the day’s winner, GasGas Factory Team rider Sanders (pictured here).

The prologue’s conversion factor, a coefficient of five, put Quintanilla one minute behind the Australian, with Quintanilla now lying in second place in the rally’s overall standings.

Joan Barreda was the second rider in the RallyGP group to take the start.

With a lot of dust in the air over the opening stretches and without any major references ahead, the Spaniard posted tenth on the day, three minutes behind the leader.

American Ricky Brabec opted not to push too hard on the first day and took 12th place, however, without dropping any significant time to his rivals.

In his usual fashion, José Ignacio Cornejo produced a fairly reserved prologue. The Chilean from Iquique, who is 25th, is likely to pick up the pace as the race progresses.

 

At the drivers’ briefing, the top finishers will be able to choose the starting order for the next stage 1B, a looping stage in Ha’il, including 333 kilometres of special stage.

It will be run over sandy tracks, reaching an altitude of 1300 metres, with a fair degree of navigational complexity.

However, not all of the route will be against the clock: a total of 181 kilometres of liaison section will complete the day’s 514-kilometre total.

The departure from the Ha’il bivouac will be at 05:45 and the first riders are expected to arrive back at the bivouac from 12:45 (local time) onwards.

Rider Standings

Provisional Standings after Prologue (Stage 1A)

Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Sanders Daniel 4 AUS Gas Gas Factory Team Gas Gas 00:55’30
2 Quintanilla Pablo 7 CHI Monster Energy Honda Team Honda +00:01’00
3 Evan Branch Ross 16 BWA Monster Energy Yamaha Rally Team Yamaha +00:01’55
4 Benavides Kevin 1 ARG Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team KTM +00:02’00
5 Walkner Matthias 52 AUT Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team KTM +00:02’35
6 Van Beveren Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Yamaha Rally Team Yamaha +00:02’40
7 Sunderland Sam 3 GBR Gas Gas Factory Team Gas Gas +00:02’55
8 Price Toby 18 AUS Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team KTM +00:02’55
9 Short Andrew 29 USA Monster Energy Yamaha Rally Team Yamaha +00:03’00
10 Barreda Joan 88 SPA Monster Energy Honda Team Honda +00:03’00
12 Brabec Ricky 2 USA Monster Energy Honda Team Honda +00:03’55
21 Cornejo José Ignacio 11 CHI Monster Energy Honda Team Honda +00:08’45

 

Photo courtesy GasGas

Find BikesportNZ.com on FACEBOOK here

Comments are closed.

↑