South African driver De Villiers, behind wheels of Hilux T1+, finished the stage near Wadi Ad Dawasir 9sec ahead of Stage 5 winner and compatriot Henk Lategan with Al Attiyah a minute behind, rounding off the all-Toyota podium.
Stage 9 winner Mattias Ekstrom held the Audi charge wih a fourth-place finish while Al Attiyah’s main challenger for title– Bahrain Xtreme Raid (BRX) Team’s Sebastien Loeb — finished fifth to stay in the hunt.
Dakar 2022: Desert dunes dominate landscape on Stage 8
Frenchman Loeb and his compatriot and co-driver Fabian Lurquin in a Prodrive Hunter are now 39min, 5sec behind Al Attiyah and his French navigator Matthieu Baumel.
Local hero Yazeed Al Rajhi, in the Overdrive Toyota is a distant third, nearly an hour adrift.
While a considerable gap remains between the leader and his closest rival, the hazardous nature of the route ahead over the last three days means the battle for victory in the world’s toughest rally is far from over.
Dakar 2022: Ekstrom wins Stage 8; Loeb reduces gap with Al Attiyah
“That was a good stage as we pushed hard right from the start, even if we had one little puncture as maybe I was aggressive in the stones because I’m pushing for time. So we had to change the wheel, but that was the only thing today,” World Rally Championship (WRC) legend Loeb was quoted as saying by BRX Team Media.
“I will continue to push hard, concentrate on doing good stages and we will see where we are come Jeddah, but we have quite some time to make up at the moment,” the nine-time WRC champion added.
Tuesday’s (January 11) Stage 9 was a 287kms loop around the Wadi Ad Dawasir bivouac featuring a mass of mountains and canyons.
Navigation, already a key theme of Dakar 2022, once again featured heavily.
With just three more stages to go, the Dakar 2022 has reached its business end with the ceremonial finish scheduled to be held in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on Friday (January 14).
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