Few would’ve guessed prior to Dakar 2022 that Gas Gas would be doing as well as they have been but Daniel Sanders taking another win today on stage 6 for around Riyadh, his third win so far of this rally raid and followed 2:26min behind by team mate Sam Sunderland who still leads overall by 2:39mins to nearest rival Matthias Walkner for factory KTM in second position who finished third on today’s stage.
In another tightly fought race there was only 4:29min separating the top ten making this one of the closest contests in living memory, well in terms of the number of riders who could realistically still challenge for the podium finishes.
Photo: Dakar.com
Quintanilla and Brabec on the Hondas finished 4th and 5th respectively, Mason Klein and Svitko again impressive 6th and 7th, whilst Van Beveren on the Yamaha 8th some 4:10mins off the pace, Toby Price 9th at 4:16min off the lead with Hero rider Rodrigues amazing again at 4:29 behind.
In fact the top 35 finishes today were only separated by 10mins so the field is very strong indeed. Barreda Bort still nursing injury finished 14th on the Honda and Kevin Benavides on the KTM 15th only 5:31 & 5:41min off the pace too.
So overall Sam Sunderland still leads, Walkner 2nd and Sanders 3rd but Van Beveren just a couple of minutes behind in 4th. Still lots of racing to do but tomorrow the competitors take a well earned rest and time to fix bodies and bikes if they are able. Then onto Sunday from Riyadh to Al Dawadimi for stage 7 and the rest of the competition continues.