Dakar 2022 Stage 6: Joaquim Rodrigues And Hero MotoSports Continue Upwards Trajectory

Dakar 2022 reached the halfway point with Stage 6 that had competitors tackle a looped section around Riyadh, spanning 620km long that included 404km of special stages. In fact, due to safety concerns regarding terrain degradation, the stage had to be shortened. Here’s everything that transpired down: 

Hero MotoSports were back in the top 10 with Joaquim Rodrigues leading the charge in the bikes category. Teammate Aaron Mare finished 25th while Harith Noah completed the stage in 35th position. At the top of the bikes category, it was Daniel Sanders taking his second stage win of the rally, with teammate Sam Sunderland making it a GasGas 1-2 finish. Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM Racing) crossed the line in third place.  

Sam Sunderland (GasGas) extended his lead in the overall standings over Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM Racing), with Sunderland’s teammate Daniel Sanders ranked third overall. The Hero MotoSports duo of Joaquim Rodrigues and Aaron Mare are ranked 18th and 16th, with Harith Noah moving up to 28th overall.

 

The cars category was a closely contested stage with the lead changing hands at multiple points in the stage. When the dust settled, it was Orlando Terranova (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) coming out on top ahead of Mattias Erkstrom (Team Audi Sport), with Yazeed Al Rajhi finishing third (Overdrive Toyota). Despite finishing in 10th place at this stage, Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) still leads the overall standings with Yazeed Al Rajhi second, and Sebastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) ranked third.  

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With Dakar 2022 halfway done, the rally will take a day’s rest before resuming on January 9 with Stage 7. This stage will see competitors travel from Riyadh to Al Dawadimi with the route being 701km long and  402km of it comprising the special stage.