Dakar 2022, stage 9: Held stays in the top 20 while Noah fights

Published January 12, 2022 11:48:00 AM

Rodrigues finished the 9th stage in 11th place.

Giniel de Villiers led a Toyota 1-2-3 finish.

Honda’s Jose Ignacio Cornejo took his second stage win at the 2022 Dakar.

Listen to this article

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Honda’s Jose Ignacio Cornejo and Toyota’s Giniel de Villiers won the 9th stage.

The ninth stage of the Dakar Rally 2022 presented unusual terrain, as the participants covered almost 300 km on narrow stretches between valleys and rocky gorges as well as some fast stretches.

With only three more stages left, both Hero MotoSports riders kept their places in the top 20. Harith Noah had some mechanical problems, but managed to finish the stage anyway.

• Matthias Walkner takes over the management of Bikes
• Nasser Al-Attiyah retains the lead of the cars despite a penalty

Both Hero MotoSports riders in the top 20

The key to this phase was taking it easy. Joaquim Rodrigues showed a consistent performance and set the 11th fastest time of the stage to improve to 15th place in the overall standings.

Aaron Mare lost some time to a navigational error in the valleys and a small fall, but he recovered and finished the stage in 20th place and is now 17th overall.

Noah overcomes the braking problem

It was a difficult day for Harith Noah as the TVS supported rider lost the rear brake of his motorcycle after about 30 km. He also had some navigation problems, but managed to finish the stage safely in 44th place.

As a result, he loses a bit of ground in the overall standings, but still holds 27th place.

Cornejo, De Villiers win stage 9

Honda rider Jose Ignacio Cornejo secured his second stage win this year after beating KTM’s Kevin Benavides. Overnight front runner Sam Sunderland (GasGas) had a difficult time opening the stage and Matthias Walkner from KTM took full advantage of this to take the lead again. The 2018 Dakar Rally winner now has a lead of just over 2 minutes over Sunderland.

Toyota secured the top three places in the cars category, with Giniel de Villiers winning ahead of Hank Lategan and Nasser Al-Attiyah. Overall leader Al-Attiyah received a five-second penalty for violating a seat belt in the 8th stage. That reduces his lead, but still has 34 minutes and 05 seconds ahead of Sebastian Loeb from Bahrain Raid Xtreme.

See also:

Dakar 2022: Hero MotoSports gets another top 10 result in stage 7

Copyright (c) Autocar India. All rights reserved.