Price slips out of Dakar top ten after tough stage 9

Australian Toby Price’s hopes of a third Dakar title has taken a major hit after he dropped out of the top ten with a 17th place finish on stage nine

Toby Price

Australian Toby Price finished 17th on stage 9 of the 2022 Dakar Source: Twitter (@Tobyprice87)

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The 2016 and 2019 Dakar champion is now 11th in the motorbike endurance event with only three stages to go.

Price is 35 minutes behind Matthias Walkner, of Austria, who took over the lead on Tuesday from Britain's Sam Sunderland.

Despite the result, the 34-year-old Gold Coast local was upbeat and tweeted: “It was a good day, I had a couple of little mistakes but nothing too crazy. I’m starting a little way back tomorrow, so hopefully, I’ll be able to grab time back then.”
Walkner, fresh from his second cross-country rallies world championship, has been in the top three for more than a week.

The Austrian's consistency in the Saudi Arabian desert paid off when he came fourth on the stage.

"With three days to go, there is not really any strategy, just really staying on the navigation and the roadbook, try to avoid losing so much time," Walkner said.
"There are two really long stages left, I think, and the last day is not so long."

Chile's Nacho Conejo won the stage ahead of Argentine Kevin Benavides.

A second successive eighth place enabled Australian duo Molly Taylor and Dale Moscatt to move into the top ten in the SSV category for four-wheel side-by-side vehicles.
In the car category, South African Giniel De Villiers claimed his 18th Dakar stage win.

Overall leader Nasser al-Attiyah, also in a Toyota Gazoo Racing, came third.

This increased his lead over Sebastien Loeb which is now 39 minutes and five seconds.

Loeb, the nine-time world rally champion, successfully fended off a time penalty for losing his last spare wheel while racing on Monday, after a puncture.

Drivers are supposed to retrieve the wheel but organisers accepted his excuse that he didn't know he lost it. He was only fined.


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Published 12 January 2022 7:25am
Source: SBS Sport


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