Nasser Al Attiyah and Mattieu Baumel in their South African-built Gazoo Toyota Hilux
Nasser Al Attiyah and Mattieu Baumel have won the 2022 Dakar rally in their South African-built Gazoo Toyota Hilux.
Al Attiyah and Baumel led the 4 000 km two-week race across the Saudi Arabian Desert from start to finish, ultimately winning the race by 27 minutes from Sebastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin’s BRX Hunter.
Yazeed Al Rajhi and Michael Orr’s Hilux was third from Orlando Terranova and Daniel Carreras’ Hunter.
South African Gazoo Racing heroes, Giniel de Villiers and Denis Murphy made it three South African-built Hilux bakkies in the top five.
De Villiers has never been out of the Dakar top ten in any of the 19 Dakar rallies he has raced.
Al Attiyah and Baumel’s Hilux took the advantage at the New Year’s Day Prologue leg and never looked back.
Critically, they dodged any real problems throughout the event to deliver a perfect Dakar, and score Nasser’s fourth, Mattieu’s third and the South African Gazoo Racing Toyota Hilux's second Dakar victories.
Perhaps surprisingly, Attiyah and Baumel only won two stages throughout, however, they were only outside of the top ten once in two weeks of racing.