Dakar 2022 Stage 10 Results — Toby Price & Stephane Peterhansel Claim Victory

Bikes

The bikes section of the Dakar saw riders traverse 375 kilometres across the sands of Saudi Arabia from Wadi Ad Dawasir to Bisha. KTM rider Toby Price finally laid claim to the top spot in the 10th stage of the 2022 Dakar rally. Price was initially declared the winner of the fifth stage of the rally but was hit with a 6 minute time penalty for speeding which saw him drop to 5th.

Today's stage saw Price take the lead at the 258-kilometre waypoint and the Aussie blitzed his way to victory with a time of 3 hours, 5 minutes and 32 seconds. Price ended the stage, 2 minutes and 9 seconds ahead of the Husqvarna of Luciano Benavides. Finishing in the third spot was Yamaha's Adrien Van Beveren, who now leads the bikes category.

Today's stage also saw Luciano's brother, defending champion Kevin Benavides retire from the stage, due to mechanical issues with his KTM. This rules out any chances for the KTM rider to be able to defend his Dakar crown, which he won astride a Honda last year.

Amongst the 5 riders astride Indian bikes in the Saudi desert, Spanish TVS Sherco rider Lorenzo Santolino was the highest-ranked ending the stage in 4th overall, just 5 minutes and 40 seconds behind Price. 4 places behind Santolino was his Portuguese teammate, Rui Goncalves. Aaron Mare won the battle between the Hero riders finishing the stage in 13th, one place and 27 seconds ahead of his teammate Joaquim Rodrigues.

There was bad news regarding Indian rider Harith Noah, (who was classified 44th yesterday after a 15 minute time penalty) as the TVS Sherco entrant failed to start today's stage which means his Dakar 2022 race is now just about done.

In the overall classifications, Yamaha rider Adrien Van Beveren now leads Dakar 2022. The Frenchman is currently 5 minutes and 59 seconds ahead of his brother-in-law GasGas rider Sam Sunderland. Honda's Pablo Quintanilla sits just 16 seconds behind Sunderland in third overall.

TVS Sherco's Lorenzo Santolino is the highest-ranked rider astride Indian metal on the sands of Saudi Arabia. Santolino currently sits 11th overall, after being hit with a 15 minute time penalty yesterday, which saw him drop 5 places in the overall rankings.

Hero's Rodrigues lies in 14th while his teammate Mare is another 2 places behind in 16th. TVS Sherco rider Rui Goncalves is currently ranked 24th while Noah, who didn't start today's stage, is now classified 63rd overall.

Cars

In the cars category, Audi enjoyed another day out in the sun. The German carmaker claimed a 1-2 finish with Stephane Peterhansel claiming his 49th career stage wins on 4 wheels. Peterhansel currently sits one stage win behind Dakar record holder Ari Vatanen.

The French driver finished the 10th stage of Dakar 2022 in 2 hours, 52 minutes and 43 seconds, 2 minutes and 6 seconds ahead of teammate, Carlos Sainz. Claiming the final podium spot was Bahrain Raid Xtreme driver Orlando Terranova.

In the overall rankings, Nasser Al-Attiyah saw his lead cut down to 32 minutes and 40 seconds after he finished the stage a minute and 25 seconds behind Sebastian Loeb. Al-Attiyah was also penalised an additional 5 minutes for a seatbelt infraction in yesterday's stage. In the final podium spot is Saudi driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi, who sits 55 minutes and 48 seconds behind Al-Attiyah.

Thoughts On Dakar 2022: Stage 10

The 10th stage of Dakar 2022 was full of drama. Defending champion Kevin Benavides had to retire due to mechanical issues and is now out of the running. Aussie Toby Price finally has a stage victory to his name this year and the battle of the brothers-in-law continues at the top of the overall rankings in the bikes category, which is still too close to call.

In the cars section, Audi claimed another victory which makes us wonder what would have happened if Stage 1 hadn't been the horrible nightmare that it turned out to be. In other news, Nasser Al-Attiyah is now just 2 stages away from his 4th Dakar win with Loeb needing a miracle to have any chance of dislodging him from the top spot.