Yamaha – Dakar 2022 // Rest Day: Strenuous First Week
01/08/2022
- Eighth place overall for Camelia Liparoti
- Rocks and dunes dominate the opening week
After the X-raid Yamaha Racing Rally supported Team lined up with two Yamaha YXZ1000R prototypes last year, three blue side-by-sides are underway at the 2022 Dakar. After one week and six stages, Camelia Liparoti (ITA) and Xavier Blanco (ESP) currently lie eighth overall. The all-woman team of Annett Fischer (GER) and Annie Seel (SWE) will start week two from 25th place, while the Qatar pairing of Admed Alkuwari and Nasser Alkuwari go into the second week of the rally in 41st place overall.
Week one, which took the competitors from Jeddah, via Hail, to Riyadh, was a strenuous affair for the entire crew: Long stages, difficult navigation, rocky routes and dunes that are even more difficult to pass through than normal due to the rain.
Liparoti started well and soon worked her way into the top ten. She briefly held seventh place overall, but fell victim to the difficult navigation on stage five. She consequently lost a lot of time and fell back to eighth.
Camelia Liparoti: “I am pleased that the first week is behind us and we can recover a little on the rest day. We still have a tough second week ahead of us. I think it will be even more tiring than the first.”
Fischer also improved over the first few days. However, she then hit a mud hole whilst driving in the dark on stage four. She and her co-driver Seel found themselves up to their hips in mud, but were still able to free the Yamaha side-by-side. However, when race control contacted them to check that everything was okay, Fischer had to switch the engine off, and it then refused to start again. Fortunately, race trucks were able to help two the pair to the finish. This incident cost Fischer several hours and saw her drop out of the top 20 in the overall standings.
Annett Fischer: “It has been a very varied Dakar so far. The first two or three days had an awful lot of dunes, which were not always easy to cross. There were also many riverbeds, some of which had sharp rocks in them. Then we had faster sections at the end of the week. Navigation was difficult throughout. We actually coped with that really well and without any major issues. Unfortunately, we then hit the mud hole a couple of days ago, which cost us a lot of time.”
Ahmed Alkuwari: “It has been a nice but tough race so far. It rained a lot, which made the ground very compact in a lot of places. There are also an awful lot of dunes on the route. Driving the Yamaha is a unique experience and I am enjoying every minute. We had to make a few adjustments to the car in the first few days, but everything is running well now. I hope we can get some good results in the second week.”
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Overall standings after week 1
1. F. Lopez / J. Contardo / J. P. Latrach Vinagre – 24h 19m 17s
2. S. Eriksson / W. Rosegaar – 24h 42m 26s
3. C. Gutierrez / F. Cazalet . 26h 39m 33s
4. F. Alvarez / X. Panseri – 26h 49m 39s
5. P. Pinchedez / T. Gaidella – 26h 49m 41s
…
8. C. Liparoti / X. Blanco – YamahaYXZ1000R prototype – 29h 03m 28s
…
25. A. Fischer / A. Seel – YamahaYXZ1000R prototype – 34h 17m 13s
…
41. A. Alkuwari / N. Alkuwari – YamahaYXZ1000R prototype – 104h 12m 18s
