2022 Andalucia Rally: “Complicated” Stage 1B ends with Al-Attiyah T1 win, glitches plague Hunters

Stage #1B of the Andalucía Rally continued the World Rally-Raid Championship T1 duel between Nasser Al-Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb, this time swinging in the former’s favour as he won with a time of 3:26:40.

The stage’s terrain proved to be difficult for many competitors, with Loeb and RallyGP rider José Ignacio Cornejo both calling it “complicated”. Ricky Brabec, the first rider on course for the day, called it “not my favourite kind of stage. It makes me feel like I don’t know how to ride a motorcycle, so I just want to get out of here safe and be ready for the Dakar.”

Yazeed Al-Rajhi was second at 3:35:26, followed by Loeb’s 3:38:05. Despite winning the prologue, Loeb was hindered by power stering failure and a technical glitch in his roadbook that caused it to not register a waypoint crossing. The same issues impacted fellow Prodrive Hunter driver Guerlain Chicherit, though he was able to salvage a fourth-place finish.

“The navigation was difficult in the initial kilometres so soon the other cars arrived around us. That was really tough,” said Loeb. “At the end of the first section some problems with the power steering appeared but fortunately it didn’t completely go, but it stayed with me.

“In some slow corners it was difficult to turn the wheel but in general we didn’t lose so much time with the actual technical problem as it was the navigation that was so hard. If you get a little bit wrong in the middle of the olive trees, everything looks the same and then it’s very difficult to hit the waypoints as so many have been positioned so close so if you are a little bit wrong you have to turn around immediately.”

While Al-Attiyah takes the overall lead in T1, drivers out of championship contention in their class or not competing for W2RC were more than happy to play spoiler. Most notable is Gerard Farrés Guell, who led the T4 category with a six-minute gap over Pau Navarro and points leader Rokas Baciuška. Guillaume de Mevius, mathematically eliminated from the T3 title hunt, drove off ahead of Seth Quintero—who lost his brakes eight kilometres in and struggled with an engine misfire and tyre punctures—and class standings leader Francisco López Contardo. Cristina Gutiérrez was fourth and is currently less than six minutes back of López in the overall.

Adrien van Beveren made it two-for-two in RallyGP as his 3:39:25 beat Sam Sunderland‘s 3:42:39, as did Jeremy Miroir in Rally3 with over an hour on Rajendra Revallar Eshwarappa (4:04:41 versus 5:12:14). Mason Klein won Rally2 with a nine-minute advantage on Toni Mulec. Alexandre Giroud took the Quad ahead of Mikołaj Krysik by a minute.

“Navigation was so difficult and technical. The roadbook nearly burned my head, because this is really different from desert riding,” Beveren commented. “In the end I enjoyed and my Honda CRF450 Rally was very good in this kind of terrain, with a lot of traction when its slippery and difficult to turn.”

Stéphane Peterhansel once again set the fastest time of the four Open entries.

Stage #1B winners

Leaders after Stage #1B

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