Dakar 2022 Review: Nasser Al Attiyah remains cool in the desert heat

The Hilux T1+ driver and his French navigator Matthieu Baumel took the lead on the first day and kept top spot until the end in the 44th edition of world’s most demanding off-road rally.

Benefiting from the meticulous navigational skills of Baumel, the 51-year-old won just three of the 13 stages, but applied a master class race strategy to eventually record a winning margin of 27min 46sec over France’s nine-time World Rally Championship (WRC) champion Sébastien Loeb.

Dakar 2022: Nasser Al Attiyah crowned champion

The fourth success for Al-Attiyah meant that he equalled Ari Vatanen winning quartet set in Africa.

“It was an incredible Dakar for us. We hadn’t won since 2019. We’re pleased with the new T1+ regulations. Matthieu and I and the team did a great job to win. We had finished second every time since we came to Saudi Arabia two years ago and now we are really happy to achieve our goal. The whole race went without a hitch. We were on high alert, but now we know that we have an amazing car and we will do our best for the World Championship,” said Al Attiyah.

Not many know that the ace Qatari is a multi-sports icon. He is a champion shooter, having won a bronze in skeet shooting in the 2012 London Olympics, rides horses, which is passion and can drive a powerboat with the same speed as a car.

Legend has it that there is a chapter on him in the history text books in Qatar.

“We opened up a gap on the first day and have since managed our lead. We’re fortunate to get to race the Dakar in Saudi Arabia and I would like to thank the government for this opportunity to discover such breath-taking landscapes,” added Al Attiyah, who has previously won the most-gruelling FIA off-road rally in with Volkswagen in 2011, MINI in 2015 and Toyota in 2019.

The most epic adventure that motorsports has to offer has taken its convoy all over the sands of Saudi Arabia. As the dust finally settles, Al Attiyah kept his cool while the desert sun rode high in the sky.

The entry field for the 2022 Dakar Rally included virtuall the crème de la crème of off-road racing. including France’s 14-time winner (across all classes) and defending champion Peterhansel, Spain’s rally legend Carlos Sainz and WRC monarch Loeb.

And more than 4,000kms of off-road racing over treacherous terrain, as the chequered flag was flown at the 2022 FIA Dakar Rally on Friday at the Red City of Jeddah, it was Al Attiyah who had the last laugh.

Whether the ace Qatari is the greatest rally driver of all times remains a subject open to debate. But for the time being he can bask in the glory of having crossed the chequered flag first in the deserts and dunes of Saudi Arabia. Kudos champ!