Dakar 2022 Stage 9: Hero MotoSports Maintain Consistent Form, Harith Noah Loses Ground

Dakar 2022 reached the ninth stage of the rally spanning 491km, out of which 287km comprised the special stage that looped around Wadi Ad Dawasir. It had competitors take on a slightly different challenge than the usual sand dunes with mountains and canyon stretches spicing things up a bit. Here’s how things transpired:

Hero MotoSports maintained their consistent run in the bikes category with both riders in the top 20. Joaquim Rodrigues finished in 11th place, with teammate Aaron Mare finishing 20th.Harith Noah on the other hand lost a bit of ground in this latest stage, finishing down in 44th position. Moving towards the battle at the front, Jose Ignacio Cornejo Florimo (Monster Energy Honda) took another stage win, with Kevin Benavides (Red Bull KTM Racing) in second place, and Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda) third. 

There’s been a change of hands in the lead of the overall standings with Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM Racing) overtaking Sam Sunderland (GasGas), with Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Yamaha) ranked third. The Hero MotoSports duo of Joaquim Rodrigues and Aaron Mare are ranked 15th and 17th, with Harith Noah in 27th position.

 

In the cars category, Toyota Gazoo Racing dominated proceedings with Giniel De Villiers, Henk Lategan and Nasser Al-Attiyah making it a 1-2-3 finish. In the overall standings, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Sebastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme), and Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Toyota) continue to take up the top three spots. 

Stage 10 of Dakar 2022, spanning 759km, of which 375km comprises the special stage, will have competitors travel from Wadi Ad Dawasir to Bisha.