Dakar 2022

Well, on the first day of the new year the 2022 edition of the Dakar Rally will start in Saudi Arabia. Edit: found a map

Lots of small shenanigans going already

- light panic at Toyota when Giniel De Villiers had a positive covid test. But he tested negative later, so Kris Meeke and Bernard ten Brinke were not needed

- then a light panic at Toyota customer Overdrive, Erik van Loon unable to start, positive coronatest. So Ten Brinke was needed after all

- in the Trucks a Kamaz vs Iveco Battle is ramping (yeah right, Russian Pro's versus International amateurs). Maybe Macik has a chance with Kees Koolen in a second Big Shock Iveco / Tatra, but no Gerard de Rooy again. His uncle Hans Stacey was slated to drive, but he had to bow out due to a discovered heart condition. Vic Versteijnen will replace him.

- Also a merger, Mammoet Rallysport works in a joint venture with De Rooy, Martin and Mitchell vd Brink driving Iveco's

- co driver replacements, First Wouter Rosegaar was slated to guide Khalid al Quassimi, but he's been drafted away by Mattias Ekströms Buggy team EKS to help Sebastian Eriksson

- Sven Quandt upped sticks and moved the whole Mini infrastructure over to Audi's new E Tron Project. Peterhansel, Sainz, Ekström all aboard

- Hans Weijs makes his debut in the SSV's with his own built Arcane buggy together with Michel Bex. Wishing him luck

- First retirement already, after a shakedown one of the Rebellion Buggies caught fire

- A bit of sad news as well, just before the start, Karel Loprais, Paris Dakar veteran and uncle of trucker Ales Loprais has passed away. His career reads a lot like that of Jan de Rooy. Started as a factory worker for Tatra in the sixties, became a test driver and participated in the African Dakar rallies from 1986 until 2006. Odpočívej v pokoji

Edited by Alex79, 31 December 2021 - 18:21.

Love seeing all the different drivers that participant in this event: legends of the event, legends of WRC, circuit racers, ex-MotoGP and so on.

So far I can see the Dakar at 8.00pm without any delays for the 1st week

In the U.S. it looks like coverage is on the Olympic channel but it doesn't start until Jan 2nd.  Don't know if the first day is being shown delayed.

Yanks coverage on Peacock.  An hour per stage this year plus extras.

https://racer.com/20...ts-and-peacock/

https://www.dakar.co...-world/partners

https://www.dakar.com/en/

https://www.worldral...ionship.com/en/

Looks like the usual 1 hour coverage on Eurosport........One day the event may get the coverage it deserves.

Great topic start!

Good to see a positive thread on this forum from people sharing the same passion for (desert) racing.

I'll be keeping a close eye on Dakar as usual, but the news updates from Alex79 always seem to come up with things my usual news sources don't bring. Keep up the good work. 

It will be very interesting to see if the new rules for the 4x4 T1+ will allow them to finally jump over the 4x2 buggies and dominate the rally.  Hilux vs the Mini, bring it on.

So the Rebellion owner's buggy caught fire which meant he was going to take Dumas' car, which would have meant no race for the French driver but now Al-Attiyah has lent his 2019 Hilux to the team for Dumas to race.

So the Rebellion owner's buggy caught fire which meant he was going to take Dumas' car, which would have meant no race for the French driver but now Al-Attiyah has lent his 2019 Hilux to the team for Dumas to race.

While Mitch Guthrie have tested positive, so the Red Bull team have drafted in... Andreas Mikkelsen, who will be in the buggy together with Ola Fløene. So after doing WRC together, and splitting up a total of three times, they are now back together 

As usual, an iceberg at the start. A small tip of 16 special stage km's and a whopping 600 km's of liasion to Hai'l

At the bikes, KTM divided his assets intro three brands: the Red Bull KTM's, the GasGas factory teams and the Husqvarna. All are the same bikes, but with a different sticker on it so that Spain and Sweden can share in the glory of the Austrians. The first 15 riders in this prologue are allowed to choose their starting position for tomorrow. The quickest one today was Daniel Sanders on a GasGas, 1 min faster than Pablo Quintanilla who switched from Husky to Honda. Ross Branch did well on the Yamaha in third. Kevin Benavides (switched from Honda to KTM) came home in 4th. Best Dutch biker was Wiljan van Wikselaar (27th) on a BAS KTM, who had an interesting companion for the first clicks in the stage, former MotoGP rider Danilo Petrucci is trying his hand at rally raiding on a KTM funded by Tech3.

In the cars there are c-c-changes as Bowie would have said. The new t1+ category should allow Toyota some more benefits compared to the conventional 4x4's. Larger tires, larger suspension travel, wider track. Also both T1 and T1+ are allowed to have twin turbo's. Toyota's main gripe before Dakar was the power of their V6 was good, reliability not so. Anyway, Nasser Al Attiyah won the car race today 12 seconds ahead of the hybrid Audi buggy of Carlos Sainz. The Rs Q  buggy can drive fully electric and uses a gasoline engine to recharge the batteries. Sainz was grumbling a bit at the finish, finding the car a bit too heavy and down on power when he needed it. His teammates Peterhansel and Ekström both lost a minute to Al Attiyah. On 3rd place two South African's. Henk Lategan in the 2nd Gazoo Toyota and Brian Baragwannath in the Century buggy. Both lost 36 seconds and finished just ahead of Sebastien Loeb in the new Jaguar buggy (yeah I know its called different, go jump in a nova, the bodyshell is pure Jag). After the messy breakup with Daniel Elena Loeb now has Dakar veteran Fabian Lurquin next to him. There is a whole fleet of Century CR6 buggies in this years race. Two for SRT Racing, four for Century Racings own team and even the Coronel brothers have come out in a privately entered Century. They finished 34th today. Bernard ten Brinke came home in 12th in Erik van Loons car

https://pbs.twimg.co...=jpg&name=large

In the light buggies there is also a divide: the heavier light prototypes and the smaller SSV's. Red Bull offroad claimed a 1-2 with ace driver Seth Quintero and "Adje Interim" (replacement) Andreas Mikkelsen. Myrvold already described the weird dynamic between him and his well known co driver Ola Floene. VW wanted Mikkelsen to ditch Floene after the Skoda team up, and later (iirc) it was Floene's agent who wanted Ola to codrive with O.C. Veiby. Lost sight of them then and guess what, the bad penny always pops up again when Guthrie had to drop out. A nice suprise is Guillaume de Mevius, son of a favorite Belgian rallydriver and Dakar veterain Gregoir de Mevius, who came home fourth in this prologue. Sebastian Eriksson and Wouter Rosegaar came home in fifth, Hans Weijs trundled in as 36th. In the SSV's Marek Goczal and Michel Goczal were 1 and 2, all in the family

Raz, Dva, Tri, Tjetirye (1-2-3-4) The Kamazki fleet sailed home in the first four places, Eduard Nikolaev in the vanguard, worker drones Shibalov, Karginov and Sotnikov behind him. Ignacio Casale was 5th in the Tatra, best Iveco today was Janus van Kasteren as 7th, just pipped by the hybrid Renault of Gert Huzink. Not everyone came home safely, Albert Llovera was reported to have crashed and landed on the side, he was righted again and lost 2 hours. Two trucks I really try keeping an eye on are driving in the classics category. In the eighties Jan de Rooy used the Two Headed Monster, a truck with two cabines and two engines (us dutch fans called it Dubbelkop (double head). The truck was rusting away in a yard, but Gerard de Rooy restored it to former glory. Also coming along for the ride, "Brummeke", an old Ginaf 2222 that already drove the African dakars since 1982 as a De Rooy service truck, then got sold repeatedly to other aspiring crews, like Kees Tijsterman and Hans Bekx. And alas in all their wisdom, the Dakar has no tracker for the classics so I have to glean their results either from RTL GP or maybe Rallymaniacs as their own site only displays "ranking coming soon". Such a shame

Been waiting for this thank you Alex79.

Y'all can watch a peak cringey preview show below to get you in that zone:



I am here to support my main dudes:

Bike: Toby Price
Car: Sebastien Loeb
T3: Cristina Gutierrez 
T4: Austin Jones
Truck: Martin Macik

Let's have a good and safe one!

Happy New Year

As usual, an iceberg at the start. A small tip of 16 special stage km's and a whopping 600 km's of liasion to Hai'l

How utterly pointless when it's all in the same country...

I look forward to the Africa Eco Race in March

Loeb is going to have a busy January.  Dakar to 14th, and then Monte Carlo from 20th.  Sand & rock to ice & snow.  How versatile the rally driver has to be!

Peterhansel has apparently crashed. Not the best of starts for Audi as Ekstrom and Sainz were running in top positions in the first Waypoints but don't appear in the last 2 yet.

It seems it will be Daniel Sanders with the first proper stage win on the bikes.

Edited by JRodrigues, 02 January 2022 - 11:28.

Lot's of people getting lost today, in both bikes (Barreda, Short, Price, Brabec, L. Benavides) and cars (Roma, Ekstrom and Sainz).

I look forward to the Africa Eco Race in March

And now strengthened security after a car explosion in Jeddah https://www.autospor...jeddah/7051965/

Didn't they use the safety and risk of attacks as an argument to move Dakar from the actual route to Dakar previously?

And now strengthened security after a car explosion in Jeddah https://www.autospor...jeddah/7051965/

 

Didn't they use the safety and risk of attacks as an argument to move Dakar from the actual route to Dakar previously?

They did. The reason Dakar was moved to South Africa was because some terrorist groups were out prowling along the route in Mauretania. That is also the reason why the Africa ECO race always takes a coastal route in the last years. In SA they have the problems in Yemen and maybe some will recall the happenings in Formula E last year, when Huti rebels fired off missiles aimed at the circuit (none hitting luckily)

Lot's of people getting lost today, in both bikes (Barreda, Short, Price, Brabec, L. Benavides) and cars (Roma, Ekstrom and Sainz).

Lol, it's only Stage 1. I'm getting ready for more navigation complaints from everyone the whole Rally Raid. 

I am quite skeptical of the organizers given so many strange admin decisions.

They did. The reason Dakar was moved to South Africa was because some terrorist groups were out prowling along the route in Mauretania. That is also the reason why the Africa ECO race always takes a coastal route in the last years. In SA they have the problems in Yemen and maybe some will recall the happenings in Formula E last year, when Huti rebels fired off missiles aimed at the circuit (none hitting luckily)

Blick was already talking about possibilites of attacks two days ago:

Rallye Dakar: Auto geht vor Hotel in Flammen auf – wegen Bombe? - Blick

The team says they found evidence it was a bomb and that the organizers asked them not to say anything. The Quai d'Orsay (i.e. the French Minsitry of Foreign Affairs) is getting involved:

Dakar 2022 : "il n'y a pas de doute c'est un attentat !" La team girondine Sodicars extrêmement choquée par l'explosion d'une de ses voitures (francetvinfo.fr)

Edited by FLB, 02 January 2022 - 15:45.

"Confusion!" is what ELO would have said of Stage 1B, as it is officially known. A day some will remember in a frenzy of frustration. And shortly after the stage the news popped up that "due to unexpected rainfall the marathon bivouac cannot be reached" so the marathon stage on monday and tuesday turns into two regular stages. Climate change baby!?

At the bikes Daniel Sanders chose to start 15th on the road, leaving other to do the searching. It worked and the Australian sailed through everything. Pablo Quintanilla had started 14th on the road and the Chilean brought his Honda home 2 minutes behind Sanders. After them it was complete mayhem with lots of riders searching for two difficult waypoints. Dutch biker Wiljan van Wikselaar descibed he was chasing another bike and wasn't watching the roadbook meaning he had to stop and drive back for 12 minutes to get the point at km 258. I think the same happened to usual suspect Joan Barreda, who lost more than half an hour. Sam Sunderland and Toby Price lost around 26 minutes, Ricky Brabec even almost an hour. Mattias Walkner came in third at 11 min distance, and up pops another BAS Dakar rider, Mason Klein putch the Dutch KTM in 4th place. Former winner Kevin Benavides finished a lowly 20th place. In the standings Sanders now has 3 minutes lead on Quintanilla, Walkner is 3rd and Adrien van Beveren climbs up to fourth, ahead of Klein who is now fifth

In the cars this seems the day Audi can kiss goodbye to a good classement general. Peterhansel was chasing Al Attiyah in the first 100 clicks, but a hard landing seems to have broken a rear driveshaft, so he had to wait for Mattias Behringers MAN workshop find him. The same seems to have happened to Henk Lategan, who first had a puncture and then lost the whole wheel. The other Audi's lost their bearings on a fork in the road: "The track went off right, but Mattieu said to go left." Mattieu Baumel, Al Attiyah's codriver proved to be right and the Qatari could write a new stagewin on the list, the Audi's steered right and got lost. Sebastien Loeb's Jaguar caught up with Al Attiyah and at the finish the Frenchman clocked the 2nd time. The biggest surprise was "Shrek", the new T1+ version of Martin Prokop's Ford Raptor in 3rd. Then came a host of customer Mini's and Toyota's, and still no Audi in sight. Tom and Tim Coronel drove their Century buggy to a 19th place because Tom spotted a tv chopper hovering over the right WP. And Finally after 90 minutes the first Audi was home, Mattias Ekström in 40th, Carlos Sainz came home 50th after 2h06m of searching. Waiting to see his firespitting reaction on tv Lategan finished 56th, Peterhansel came home 64th

Another navigator in form is Wouter Rosegaar. In the light prototype he has to guide Sebastian Eriksson and the former rallycrosser came home a surprising 3rd today after teammate and former winner "Chaleco" Lopez (2nd) and Seth Quintero. Christina Gutierrez looked to be in contention for a podium today until she also hit navigation trouble. She recuperated to finish fifth with 29min lost. Andreas Mikkelsen also lost time in the same manner, 10th at an hours distance. Guillaume de Mevius was long in second place today until he stopped with mechanical issues with two WP's to go. Hans Weijs and Michel Bekx came home 34th and 35th in the Arcane buggies, it seems they need to drive cautiously as the cooling system seems to overheat rather quickly In the SSV's another Polish victory, this time Aaron Domzala

In the Trucks the only threat to the Kamazki fleet at this point is the lonely Praga truck of Ales Loprais. Sotnikov and Nikolaev were dicing for the lead all day. In the end Sotnikov gained only 38 secs to win the stage, Nikolaev came in 2nd, Loprais 3rd 9 min back. Martin Macik was the quickest Iveco in 6th, Janus van Kasteren again 7th and best Dutch trucker. In 9th we find the "Fire truck" of Richard de Groot, the voluntary firemen bought a De Rooy Iveco and benefitted from the navigational woes others were having. Martin vd Brink lost time both to a flat tire and stomach troubles, 48 minutes to be exact. Son Mitchell vd Brink had to stop and fill out damage forms as he hit a buggy when backing up from a steep incline. It was not at a great pace and only damaged tin, but it took a while to disentangle themselves. In the standings Sotnikov has a minimal lead on Nikolaev, Loprais is at 10 minutes, the rest of the mob already 20 minutes behind

Edited by Alex79, 02 January 2022 - 20:24.

I will try follow it this year on Eurosport, fingers crossed for Toyota 

I will follow it here with Alex's peerless and passionate analysis. 

The new and improved longer highlights on the official Dakar Rally Youtube channel is just the cherry on top of this thread.

Thank you Alex 

I will follow it here with Alex's peerless and passionate analysis. 

Same. I've not been able to get that into "Dakar" after it went away from Dakar. At times in South America it was ok, but got gradually worse as well. Now that they drive around in one country it's just like any other rally-raid, and I don't have that much of an interest.

This thread however!

You're welcome, luckily Eurosport Germany sometimes has insight Mr Kirby misses. His German collegue Norbert Ockenga is much more well read, much more easily to understand.

After the confusion yesterday, today was a day to play catch-up. Two of four categories had winnners coming from way behind. In the bikes we have a usual suspect who always gets it wrong big time when he has to navigate on his own and loses an opportunity for the overall win. And then he strikes back the next day when he has to start from 17 and can follow all the tracks to victory. I'm talking about Joan Barreda who did just that today. After the first half Barreda was still second after Rui Gonçalves who started even lower (70th place). But the Portugese Sherco rider fell back in the second half to still finish a creditable 14th. Barreda pushed on and gave Honda the first stagewin this rally. Sam Sunderland had an irritracker that didn't work, so the GasGas rider only popped up as 2nd at the finish, 5 minutes slower than "Bang Bang". Kevin Benavides and Skyler Howes came home 3rd and 4th, only a few seconds between them.

Yesterday's winners were the losers today. Daniel Sanders and Mason Klein opened as one of the first, but all the searching cost them precious time. Sanders lost 24 min. as 23rd, Klein came in 33rd after 40 min. In the standings the new leader is Sunderland, so GasGas retains the lead. Adrien van Beveren is 2nd, Sanders 3rd and Walkner 4th. Another big loser is Pablo Quintanilla, who started 2nd but is now dropping back to 7 after losing half an hour.

In the cars Sebastien Loeb had fun, as the stage looked like an extralarge rally special stage with high top speeds. He was battling all day with Al Attiyah and the difference in the first half was never more than a minute. After the stop the Jaguar overtook the Toyota and at the finish Loeb had the fastest time, 1st victory for Prodrive, 15th stagewin for Loeb. Al Attiyah came in 2nd at 3m28s on three wheels as he had a puncture close before the finish line. Both Audi's of Peterhansel and Sainz did a runner from the midpack, starting 23 and 24, clocking the 3rd and 4th time at the finish. Nani Roma finished the 2nd Jag buggy in top 5 as well, he started even further back than the Audi's. The Jaguars are having troubles with body panels falling off and doors suddenly opening, not very assuring with these speeds. Bernard ten Brinke came home in 10th today, Tom Coronel (30th) drove a bit slower: "they are going so fast up front, we started top 20 but just backed off and spared the car. See, not a scratch on her. Only two careful elder owners" At the finish Tom and Tim were accosted by a very agitated Vitautas Zala, who thought the brothers hit his Mini when they overtook him. When the Lithuanian had blown off steam he saw he got the wrong Century buggy, as the guilty party was painted blue yellow white, not blue orange. Apologies given and accepted

This morning Wouter Rosegaar caused me to spill my coffee. He was talking to BVSC (radio show here on NPO Radio1) about his exploits in the Dakar in Africa/America and the current race. He also explained why he quit being a codriver for Khalid Al Qassimi. "He is an Arabian prince, he always has these people fluttering around him for his every whim, I called them Elfs. The culture clash was just too big, I could not see myself sharing a car with someone I don't see eye to eye with. I talked to Sebastian (Ericsson) for an hour and I saw we were on the same wavelength." So Rosegaar transferred to EKS whereas veteran Dirk von Zitzewitz took over with Al Qassimi. As the prince got lost yesterday, I wonder how the discussion in that car went

Ericsson had another very good day, together with teammate "Chaleco" Lopez he was fighting for a stagewin. For two hours Lopez thought he'd won it, but then Guillaume de Mevius trundled in, starting almost bog last after mechanical problems. The Belgian was 4 min quicker than Lopez and almost 7 min quicker than Ericsson. Not bad at all, as he had intented to start with Dakar veteran Tom Colsoul as his codriver, but (again) a positive coronatest meant Colsoul had to be replaced with Robbie Gordon's old co driver Kellon Walch. Seth Quintero had been in contention for the win as well until 290 km, the last WP he got. After that he stopped with a broken front diff and is now waiting for the repairtruck. The OT3 buggy is quick, but like the Audi TT it takes the lines of, it is also prone to breaking down. Lopez leads the Light proto category by seven minutes on Ericsson Behind the Red Bull and EKS entries Pavel Lebedev continues to impress. He's not driving real fast, but very consistent. This consistency brought him a win in the Rally du Maroc, and the Russian slips into 3rd place now. Hans Weijs had a good day, arrived in 17th an hour after De Mevius.

I owe an apology to Dimitri Sotnikov. Turns out he's not just any Kamaz worker drone, he was largely involved in design of the new Daimler Kamaz (the cabin makes it look like a Mercedes Actros). Today again no stopping the Rooskie Fleet: Andre Karginov clocked the fastest time 38s before Sotnikov. Nikolaev lost 2 min and Shibalov lost 4. Loprais was again the first non-Kamaz, Janus van Kasteren has a subscription to 6th place, although he was really happy today with the way his Iveco "danced" through all the dunes and camelgrass. Also back is Maurik vd Heuvel in an International Truck with Scania engine, although he admits he is not fast enough to reach the speeds of the top5 trucks: "I already had trouble catching Pascal (De Baar) and Richard (De Groot)". In the end Vd Heuvel caught up with Gert Huzink and both managed to trump their opponents by a few minutes. In the standings Sotnikov has a 30s lead on Nikolaev, Shibalov (3rd) has a deficit of 18 minutes already

At last there is somewhat of a standing in the classics category, but when you have for example two Lada Nivas, a Daf Dubbelkop, a Peugeot 205 T16, a Porsche 911 and a Citroen CX competing in the same rankings, you're bound to lose track if there IS no tracker. Today's stage was cancelled because of the rainfall which turned the classics route in a swamp, but the ranking was at least amended for yesterday. Leader is Spaniard Xavier Pina in a Landcruiser, 2nd is Yannick Paniagotis in a old Chevy Protruck and third is Stephane Lamarre in the Sunhill buggy that won last year. Best Dutch competitor is Jack Brouwers, 33rd in the Ginaf 2222 "Brummeke"

Edited by Alex79, 03 January 2022 - 20:39.

Well, if things do stay like this, it's a first win for Joaquim Rodrigues! This should be a very emotional one.

This one's for Speedy  

Edited by JRodrigues, 04 January 2022 - 09:44.

In the meantime, Al-Attiyah was given a suspended disqualification for having datalogger disconnected! Toyota says it was a mechanical mistake. Or was it Toyota doing Toyota stuff?

In the meantime, Al-Attiyah was given a suspended disqualification for having datalogger disconnected! Toyota says it was a mechanical mistake. Or was it Toyota doing Toyota stuff?

Toyota is on the short end of the stick. Giniel de Villiers seems to be in trouble for hitting two bikers in the same stage. For the first he got 5 minutes timepenalty, but the second might induce a bigger sanction

Ouch! What kind of funny games could they play without the data logger?

Speed limits? Turbo boost?

Edited by JRodrigues, 04 January 2022 - 10:16.

Ouch! What kind of funny games could they play without the data logger?

Datalogger is used for TRO of engine performance, so Toyota is doing Toyota stuff to the engine... well they have history so to speak ;)

Toyota is on the short end of the stick. Giniel de Villiers seems to be in trouble for hitting two bikers in the same stage. For the first he got 5 minutes timepenalty, but the second might induce a bigger sanction

Woah, I hope those bikers didn't get hurt. Pretty rough if the cars consider their stage time more important than the safety of the bikers. 

Alas, it is not new. Peterhansel caused a biker to fall in South American dakar and the guy had to abandon as the bike fell in a riverbed. Nothing coming from ASO at that time Kamaz also had an incident in that same south american rally where Nikolaev crashed into a Toyota, but instead of helping the crew, they checked their truck for damage and drove on. Nothing would have happened if the idiot hadn't tried to get time back for "helping". That's were the datalogger came in, proving Nikolaev had not done anything. He was disqualified for that

Edited by Alex79, 04 January 2022 - 10:36.

Not a follower of Dakar but is hitting a PERSON with a CAR normal ? I saw the video, it's sick. 

1st stage win for Audi/EV. (Sainz)

Here is the video

That really doesn't look good!

Alas, it is not new. Peterhansel caused a biker to fall in South American dakar and the guy had to abandon as the bike fell in a riverbed. Nothing coming from ASO at that time Kamaz also had an incident in that same south american rally where Nikolaev crashed into a Toyota, but instead of helping the crew, they checked their truck for damage and drove on. Nothing would have happened if the idiot hadn't tried to get time back for "helping". That's were the datalogger came in, proving Nikolaev had not done anything. He was disqualified for that

I've never forgotten that. Peterhansel is a tainted champ to me, always. 

In the meantime, Al-Attiyah was given a suspended disqualification for having datalogger disconnected! Toyota says it was a mechanical mistake. Or was it Toyota doing Toyota stuff?

Never in doubt he was going to get away with it.

Almost 2 years ago (January 12th), Rodrigues was crying in the middle of the desert the loss of his brother-in-law. Today, he gets his and Hero's first victory.

During this time he has shared all the depression and mental struggles he's been through. I can't imagine all the emotions he's feeling, but I'm sure he's got a huge weight off his chest.    I'm really, really happy for him. 

Any Eurosport veterans know if Carlton Kirby is doing it this year?

As already mentioned, a special day both for Joaquin Rodrigues and Hero. The Portugese started sixth in the stage around Al Qaisuma and was in podium contention all day, never more than a minute behind Daniel Sanders together with Toby Price. Sanders stopped in the last section of the stage "to grab a bite", but more than hunger I think this was to prevent a hopscotch Dakar like Barreda always has, win the first stage, lose big on a navigation error in the next. Norbert Ockenga called it "Der Neuralgischen Punkt", one particularly nasty WP were most get it wrong and a few bust through.

Sanders wás through (even though he had to play "dodge the camel" on camera) but his pause means he drops back to fifth today. Rodrigues takes an emotional win for Hero, himself and the memory of Gonçalves, like it showed on the helmet: For Speedy. Price grabs second place and there is BAS dakar rider Mason Klein again, grabbing 3rd spot. Dakar.com put a spotlight on his young teammate Bradley Cox yesterday. Alfie Cox' son debuts on Dakar and is doing good sofar: 14th today, 14th overall. Oh, and Barreda proved my point, started first and lost 10 minutes, coming home 24th. Prepare for a stagewin tomorrow

In the cars it was hard work for Loeb today. He could start second yesterday and let Al Attiyah do all the cautious driving for sharp stones, but now he was first on the road. It showed as the Alsatian lost 4WD after a few clicks in the stage, had to stop twice with a puncture and lost half an hour, arriving back a distant 38th. After the shenanigans at Toyota because of switched off data loggers and the refusal to fill out damage forms Al Attiyah kept a lower profile, started 2nd and finished 8th just behind De Villiers coming in 7th. Henk Lategan looked like he could win a stage today, but the South African saw his time pipped by 38secs courtesy of Carlos Sainz. The 40th stagewin for Sainz, the first for an electric vehicle. Edit: NOT the first for Audi, as Bernard Darniche won once in Mali in an Audi Quattro. Peterhansel and Roma came home 3rd and 4th. Today Tim Coronel took over driving for Tom (they are twins so ASO will not catch on who is driving    ) and they landed in 34th place today. Bernard ten Brinke was on course for 9th place finish but stopped after KM167 with technical issues, a broken driveshaft and a cracked oil pipe. He has finished the stage in 2WD and arrivcd 2 hours back in 68th. Former MotoGP rider Carlos Checa crashed his Optimus buggy and is out. In the standings there are now 4 Toyota's and one Jag. Al Attiyah leads Loeb by 37min, Lucio Alvarez sneaks into 3rd place just in front of De Villiers and Yazeed Al Rahji

The OT3 Overdrive buggies once again prove my point. They're quick and they're quick to break down. Christina Gutierrez (one clutch), Seth Quintero (one diff and a transmission), Guillaume de Mevius (one diff and one transmission) and Andreas Mikkelsen (rolled after crash) all have had their troubles until now. Mikkelsen even had to abandon today because of a damaged rollcage. De Mevius again stopped in the desert with diff issues and Gutierrez also stopped again (transmission) so the service truck of Red Bull Offroad is real real busy. Quintero wins the stage, but apart from stage wins there's nothing much to be done. Apart from getting some sleep, as according to codriver Dennis Zenz, they only got three hours sleep after the troubles a stage back

The CanAm Mavericks of EKS are not so fast but way more reliable until now. Chaleco Lopez and Sebastian Ericsson came in 2nd and 3rd and remind first and second in the standings. Privateers Lebedev (3), Pinchedez (4) and Alvarez (5) make it a Can Am lockout. In the smaller SSV's it's the battle of Polish Winged Hussars against a lone American Cavalryman. Aron Domzala, Marek and Michel Goczal face off against Austin Jones. The Poles won the battle today, but Jones leads because Michel Goczal got a speeding ticket (15min penalty) and drops back to fourth.

Another in memoriam in the trucks. Janus van Kasteren got his seat in De Rooy this year in a very bitter way this autumn. Ton van Genugten, who was supposed to drive the 504 Iveco, died a few months ago in a work related accident. The "504" still carries his name on the Cab, and Van Kasteren flew through the dunes today. "Maybe Ton really rode along today, as we flew of a dune much too fast and just like Ton last time, we hit so hard the windshield flew out." The worlds largest buggy only lost 3 minutes on two Kamazki's coming in third behind Sotnikov (1) and Karginov (2) and in front of Shibalov (4). Nikolaev lost 9 min and had to let Martin vd Brink(5th) and Ignacio Casale (6th) through.

Mitchell vd Brink was at the other end of the spectrum, the Iveco broke down with a suspension failure, but they still got home before dark. Adversor et Admorsus is a motto from the Belgian "Chasseurs Ardennais", but truckers from Brabant sometimes use it as well: Resist and Bite! One of the only Iveco's NOT bought from De Rooy is driven by the brothers Jan en Ben vd Laar and Welsh "chief engineer" Simon Stubbs. Their Magirus Iveco is a converted truck built in league with the Fontys Hogeschool voor Techniek but still with teething problems they took it slower today: 18th place with an unwieldy shock absorber  In the standings van Kasteren is still glued to 6th place, but Loprais lost some time today so he is aiming for fifth.

Edited by Alex79, 04 January 2022 - 20:36.

In addition to the datalogger issues at Toyota, Henk Lategan got 5 minutes timepenalty because his turboboost was too high. So I'm starting to think indeed, Toyota doing Toyota-things

So what do they mean with 'suspended DSQ'? Does it mean they will be unpunished? Seems like it

In Dutch they'd say "voorwaardelijke straf". Do it again and you're toast.

In Dutch they'd say "voorwaardelijke straf". Do it again and you're toast.

That's how I interpreted it and what I feared. I don't think it's fair that someone can ignore a rule and get away with it without any consquence. Shouldn't have been a DSQ for me but at least some punishment.

Edited by William Hunt, 05 January 2022 - 00:53.