As if stimulated by yesterday's Toyota Team, Audi worked collectively in the SS10 stage, with two veterans Peter Hansehan and Sainz winning the top two in one fell swoop, and 14-time Dakar champion Peter Hansel defeated his teammates to win the stage championship with a 2 minutes and 06 seconds advantage, which was also his first stage victory of this competition.
The SS10 stage, which runs between Wadi Ad Dawasir and Bisha, has a special mileage of 375 kilometers, which is also one of the fastest stages of the race. Early in the game, Peter Hansel trailed teammate Sainz, but soon took the lead at the third time point. Subsequently, Peter Hansel never gave another chance to the opponents behind him, and finally defeated Sainz in one fell swoop to win the first stage of the competition.
After the game, Peter Hansel said that the stage was Audi's best performance, with no shock absorber problems, no puncture accidents and heading problems. "The second half of the race, so far the car hasn't had any fatal mechanical problems, it's a good start. In 2023, we need to go for the championship, but with all kinds of preparations, even if there is no mechanical problem, if you lose an hour and a half because of getting lost, it is hopeless. ”
Following Sains' victories at SS3 and Extrøm at SS8, all three Audi drivers were tied to stage titles. It is worth mentioning that Peter Hansel suffered a 2-minute penalty in the SS8 stage because his electric drive car had a power exceeding the limit value once in a certain period of time. Also punished in the SS8 stage was Atiya, who, according to the video on social platforms, started racing without fastening his seat belt after changing tires, violating safety regulations.
Although brx team Terranova played more conservatively in the early stage of the race, ranking 23rd in the first time point, the subsequent race quickly increased the pace of the race, and finally beat toyota GAZOO team nova Ratgan to finish third in the stage, winning his best performance since the SS 6 stage championship. Polish driver Priganski, who drove a MINI car, finished sixth.
Ratgan finished third in the stage 12 seconds behind Terranova, becoming the best driver in the Toyota lineup of the day, with Atia only 7th and De Wileys only finishing 15th in the stage. WRC legend Loeb finished 5th and still couldn't wait for Atiyah and Toyota GAZOO to make a mistake. Loeb said the gap between him and Atiyah is too big now, and it will be difficult to catch up in the next stage.
And Qatari Atiyah even said that he would slow down the pace of the game in the last two stages, and it didn't matter if he lost two or three minutes: "We have performed well in the whole game, and it does not matter if we win the stage championship every day now." Last year we won seven stages, but we only finished second. We only won two stages this year, but are now in the lead. It's a wonderful feeling. ”
For the Chinese drivers, the Han Wei/Ma Li car group finished 27th in the stage and the overall result rose to 39th place; teammate Tian Po/Du Xuan yi car group finished 44th on the stage, ranking 34th overall. Zhang Guoyu/Pan Hongyu of the Beijing Off-Road Team finished 32nd in the stage and provisionally ranked 53rd overall.
KTM team Toby Price won the stage championship, HUSQVARNA team Luciano Bernavides second, Yamaha team van Beverren third and led the overall results table. Chinese driver Zakir was 36th in the 36th stage and 41st overall, Zhang Min was 65th in the stage and 63rd in the total, and Zhao Hongyi was 73rd in the 73rd stage and 81st in the total result.
On 13 January, the Dakar Rally will feature its penultimate stage (SS11), with a total of 500 kilometres and a special stage of 345 kilometres.
Top 13 overall results
Top 12 in the stage