At the wheel of his Audi: Carlos Sainz achieved victory on stage 3 of the Dakar 2022

Surprise on a new day of Dakar 2022. Carlos Sainz won the third stage in competition cars, this Tuesday in al-Qaisumah, at the wheel of his hybrid Audi, a first victory for this engine and the victory number forty for the Spanish in the legendary rally.

After a chaotic first stage on Sunday, the three Audi hybrids had a good day with Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel in third place, 1 minute 41 seconds, while Sweden’s Mattias Ekström was fifth, 2 minutes 59 seconds.

Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah (Toyota), eighth on the stage, only lost 5 minutes and 10 seconds and performed a good operation on the day, displacing second overall, Frenchman Sébastien Loeb, more than 35 minutes away, at break his longitudinal transmission and finish the stage on two driving wheels.

This third stage was played in a context of reinforced security around the rally. A pilot who was aboard the vehicle hit by an explosion on December 30, wounding another French participant, said Tuesday that he was convinced that it was an “attack.”

The Saudi authorities ruled out on Saturday the track of a criminal act to explain what they described as an “accident”, which seriously wounded in the leg the also French Philippe Boutron, 61, who was repatriated after being operated on in Saudi Arabia.

The organizer does not stop remembering the watch instructions, regarding the shelter for the next few days for the members of the caravan who have planned to stay outside the official structure.

Notably, the longest special of the Rally will be held on Wednesday with 465 km between al-Qaisumah and Riyadh before linking two stages around the capital and a rest day eagerly awaited by the participants.

Stage 3 classification

1. Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (ESP/ESP/Audi) 2 h 26:51.
2. Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings (RSA/RSA/Toyota) a 38.
3. Stéphane Peterhansel / Edouard Boulanger (FRA / FRA / Audi) 1:41.
4. Nani Roma/Alex Haro Bravo (ESP/ESP/Prodrive) 2:41.
5. Mattias Ekstrom / Emil Bergkvist (SWE / SWE / Audi) 2:59.

General ranking

1. Nasser Al-Attiyah/Matthieu Baumel (QAT/AND/Toyota) 9 h 31:22.
2. Sébastien Loeb / Fabian Lurquin (FRA / BEL / Prodrive) at 37:40.
3. Lucio Alvárez/Armand Monleon (ARG/ESP/Toyota) 42:06.
4. Giniel De Villiers / Dennis Murphy (RSA / RSA / Toyota) 45:22. (penalty: 5:00.)
5. Yazeed Al Rajhi / Michael Orr (KSA / GBR / Toyota) 47:29.