Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah (Toyota) won his fourth Dakar rally-raid by car, after 2011, 2015 and 2019, at the end of the 12th and final stage in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) this Friday.
He is ahead of the Frenchman Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive), at the end of a race which he dominated throughout, without ever leaving the top of the classification.
Neither Sébastien Loeb (BRX Hunter), nor Stéphane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz, at the wheel of Audi RS Q e-tron managed to shake up the Qatari who won with more than 25 minutes ahead of the Alsatian and his co-pilot Fabian Lurquin.
At 51, the prince of the desert pocketed his fourth success in eighteen participations, the third for his co-driver Mathieu Baumel, after those won in 2011 with Volkswagen, in 2015 with Mini and in 2019 with Toyota.
For the second time, the Japanese manufacturer has entered its name on the list of winners of the premier rally-raid event.
After increasing their lead to more than 48 minutes during the rest day in Riyadh (48′54′' over Yazeed Al-Rajhi, 50′25′' over Sébastien Loeb), Nasser al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel then reached manage the race without taking too many risks.
The only scare was the 350 km covered in two-wheel drive on stage 8 which finally made them concede only seven minutes to the nine-time WRC world champion.
🏆 @AlAttiyahN and @matthieubaumel won #Dakar2022!
👏 pic.twitter.com/VsCBoULgrH
— DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 14, 2022
Still far from Stéphane Peterhansel's record with his eight victories in cars (plus six on motorcycles), Nasser al-Attiyah, bronze medalist in clay pigeon shooting at the London Olympics, joins Ari Vatanen in the closed club of quadruple Dakar winners.
In quad, Alexandre Giroud (Yamaha) became the first French winner of the Dakar.
The 40-year-old, whose best result in six outings since 2018 was fourth place in 2019, wins the 2022 edition, 25 years after his father Daniel became the first to reach the finish on this type of vehicle.
