Briton Sam Sunderland (Gas Gas), 32, won his second Dakar rally-raid on a motorcycle in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) on Friday, after a first success in 2017 in South America.
He is ahead of the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda) and the Austrian Matthias Walkner (KTM).
Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) finished just off the podium.
The first British biker to win the Dakar, Sunderland had already nearly doubled the lead in 2019, but he finished 3rd behind his teammates Toby Price and Matthias Walkner, and again in 2021, when he finished 3rd again in the wake of Kevin Benavides and Ricky Brabec.
A family struggle
This winter, he started a new adventure.
After six contested editions with the Red Bull KTM factory team, he joined the official Gas Gas team.
This questioning was therefore fruitful.
In a particularly eventful edition, Sunderland, leader of the general classification during the first week, animated the passing of arms of the last days to finally take back the first place from his brother-in-law Van Beveren - Sunderland is married to the sister of the French driver - only the day before arrival.
He had also been cautious before this final step. "The race is not over until the checkered flag is crossed," he said. As we know, the navigation on this race is very difficult, I will stay focused and continue to give the best of myself, which the others will also do. Everyone worked hard, the team and myself included, but we can see it this year, the times are very tight”.
The scenario was indeed terrible for Adrien Van Beveren who watched, powerless, his dream of victory fly away on Thursday in the sands and dunes of the Bisha loop.
Leader of the race before the 11th and penultimate stage of the Dakar 2022, the Yamaha rider had lost 21'33'' on the winner of the day, Kevin Benavides (KTM), and especially 21'19'' on Sam Sunderland (Gas Gas).
As Toby Price left in the opening position, the Northerner, who had started in 3rd position, had dropped long minutes on the track, while his opponents for the victory, who started far behind (Sunderland in 17th position), had benefited from the footsteps of their predecessors.
