On January 10, the 2022 Dakar Rally ended with the SS8 stage, and Audi's third driver, Extröm, played bravely to win his first stage of Dakar with a time of 3 hours, 43 minutes and 21 minutes. BRX team Loeb and Audi team Peter Hansel finished second and third respectively.
The SS8 stage is 830 kilometers long, of which the special stage is 395 kilometers, consisting of 30% sand, 46% dirt roads, 24% sand dunes, the racers will cross the valley to the south of Saudi Arabia, and the nearly 200 kilometers of desert has also caused a lot of riders to suffer a lot, which is the most difficult stage since the start of the race.
The Audi team was getting better, with two-time DTM champion and one-time WRX champion Extröm from Sweden and teammate Peter Hansel alternately leading in the 395km special stage, with only BRX's Loeb leading the way in the middle of the race, preventing the SS8 stage from becoming the world of Audi's team.
In the end, Extrøm beat his teammate Peterhansel to win the stage with a 49-second advantage, and the overall ranking has risen to eleventh place. Sainz finished fourth in the stage, and after the race, the Spanish veteran said that Audi electric drive cars are now performing better and better, especially the debut of new technologies such as electrical systems, which are almost perfect.
BrX team Loeb suffered a puncture accident early in the race, but quickly resumed the pace of the race, even maintaining the lead in the 4th and 5th time points, but late in the race, Loeb could not keep up with Audi's pace and eventually finished third with a 3:8 second trail.
On the contrary, it was the favorite to win the championship, Qatari driver Atiya's car had a rear differential failure, and he could only complete the following race in two-wheel drive state early, and the car even encountered a puncture accident. Although Atiya finished only eleventh at the top of the table after 10:09 after the SS8 period, Atiya remained at the top of the overall results table, about 37 points ahead of Loeb. This also proves that this T1+ car is still very strong even if it is only the front drive.
South African Toyota driver Hank finished fifth on the stage, with BRX team TERRANOVA behind him. Matthew of the South African Racing of the Century finished seventh and Yakubu Pzhigonski of the MINI camp broke into the top eight.
The top three in the automotive group remained unchanged and remained at the top of atAtia, second in Loeb and third in FIA Champion Driver Aragi. Argentina's Alvarez, who finished fourth yesterday, suffered a mechanical breakdown and the total has fallen out of the top twenty. Audi Team Extrøm rose from thirteenth to eleventh, and if this kind of play is continued, the top ten are just around the corner.
In terms of the Chinese legion, the No. 273 Tian Po/Du Xuan charity car group gradually entered a better situation, and completed this difficulty upgrade stage with the result of 35th place in the car group, and the total result was temporarily ranked 34th; the No. 220 Han Wei/Mali car group was trapped in the desert due to the failure of the automatic inflation and deflation system of the car, and the tire pressure could not be adjusted in time, and some time was lost, and finally finished the race in the 25th place of the car group. The Beijing off-road team Zhang Guoyu/Pan Hongyu suffered a mechanical breakdown and failed to complete the race in this stage.
In the motorcycle group, Zakir finished 42nd in the stage, and Zhang Min and Zhao Hongyi finished 75th and 94th in the stage respectively.
On January 11, the 2022 Dakar Rally entered the ninth stage of the journey, with a total distance of 491 kilometers and a special stage of 287 kilometers, which is faster, but the navigation is still very difficult, testing the pilot.
Top 15 overall results in the automotive category
Top 12 in the car stage