Heavy Rain In Saudi Arabia, 2022 Dakar Rally Cancels Marathon For Stages 2 And 3

JAKARTA - Organizers of the 2022 Dakar Rally on Sunday canceled marathon regulations for stages two and three after heavy rains lashed Saudi Arabia and flooded the crew and riders' accommodation area.

After completing the prologue and first stage at Ha'il on Sunday, the riders are scheduled to undergo a two-day marathon stage in which they must be independent and not allowed to accept help from their team members.

However, Ha'il and parts of northern Saudi Arabia were hit by heavy rains on Saturday afternoon so the bivouac, where competitors spent the night in their unmechanized tents for Monday night, was flooded.

ASO, as the organizing committee, as reported by Antara from motorsport.com, has decided to make stages 2 and 3 as normal stages that allow riders to receive outside assistance at the end of each stage.

As a result, the special stages of each stage have not changed, but the second liaison route, which originally finished at Al Artawiyah will change its ending point at the Al Qaisumah bivouac, located 100km from Kuwait.

Stage 2 with a 338km special stage will present a range of sand mountains that challenge competitors for the first time in Dakar this year.

A number of manufacturers and participants had previously complained about the position of the marathon stage that was held at the start of the competition, which had never happened in the history of the Dakar.

However, ASO chairman David Castera explained the earlier scheduling of the marathon was due to logistical reasons.

After winning two wins in prologue (1A) and stage 1B, three-time Dakar Champion Nasser Al-Attiyah will head to stage 2 with a 12-minute 44-second lead over nine-time rally world champion Sebastian Loeb in the car category.

Meanwhile, defending champion Stephane Peterhansel had an accident and found suspension damage in his hybrid Audi RS Q e-tron after km121.

The 14-time Dakar champion and his co-pilot Edouard Boulanger were not injured in the crash. The incident also dashed Peterhansel's hopes of winning the 15th Dakar title.

However, it is rumored that Peterhansel will continue to participate in the rally for as long as he can to continue the development of the electric powertrain of Audi cars that debuted in Dakar for the first time.

His team mate, Carlos Sainz, who both debuted in Audi uniforms this year also failed to shine after getting lost close to the 250 km.

The racer nicknamed El Matador lost quite a lot of time to finish in 27th place two hours and seven minutes adrift of Al-Attiyah.

In the motorcycle category, GasGas rider Daniel Sanders dominated stage 1B of the 2022 Dakar Rally at Ha'il on Sunday to claim a second stage win in his career to widen the gap as the overall leader.

The win saw Sanders pocket a three-minute margin of Chile's Pablo Quintanilla of the Honda team and 11 minutes and six seconds of Matthias Walkner, the 2018 champion, of the KTM team.

Defending champion of the KTM team Kevin Benavides is in 12th place with a gap of 36 minutes 22 seconds after losing valuable time in today's stage.

Another mainstay of the KTM team, Toby Price also had a bad day after the two-time Dakar champion ended the first stage at 22nd in the standings, trailing 47 minutes and eight seconds.