Dakar 2022 Stage 3: Joaquim Rodrigues And Hero MotoSports Score Maiden Win

The gruelling Dakar 2022 rally continued with the third stage(out of a total of 12) taking place in Al Qaisumah. Despite the route being altered a bit due to heavy rains in certain sections, the route covered a total of 636km with 255km of it being a special stage. Here’s how everything went down:

A terrific stage for Hero MotoSports in the bikes category, with Joaquim Rodrigues taking his and the team’s maiden stage win at a Dakar rally. In fact, for most of the stage, it was Daniel Sanders leading the pack, but a late charge by Rodrigues in the last sector got him the stage win. Finishing a minute behind Rodrigues was Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Racing) in second place, with Mason Klein (BAS Dakar KTM) finishing third. 

The other Hero MotoSports rider, Aaron Mare, fell back a bit compared to the previous stage, finishing 18th. Harith Noah also didn’t improve from yesterday, finishing in 29th position. In the overall standings, Sam Sunderland (GasGas) still holds the lead ahead of Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Yamaha) in second place. Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM Racing) now stands third overall. The stage win promoted Joaquim Rodrigues to 17th overall with Aaron Mare dropping to 10th overall. Hairth Noah stands 31st in the overall standings after the third stage.

It was a historic day for Team Audi Sport and its RS Q e-tron challenger as Carlos Sainz took the team’s first ever stage win at a Dakar rally after late stage punctures by initial leader Sebastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme). Finishing in second place was Henk Lategan (Toyota Gazoo Racing) with Sainz’ teammate, Stephane Peterhansel making it an Audi 1-3 finish. The situation in the overall standings remains unchanged with Nasser Al-Attiyah, Sebastien Loeb and Lucio Alvarez (Overdrive Toyota) making up the top three.  

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Stage 4 of Dakar 2022 will see competitors travel from Al Qaisumah to Riyadh. The ruote features a mix of rocky terrains and challenging dunes, and covers a total of 701km, out of which 402km comprises the special stage, the longest in the rally.