2022 Andalucia Rally: Inaugural W2RC champions crowd in Spain

Sébastien Loeb might have won the Andalucía Rally T1 class overall, but it was not enough to overtake Nasser Al-Attiyah for the category’s inaugural World Rally-Raid Championship. While he barely edged out Al-Attiyah for the race victory by a mere six seconds, Al-Attiyah claimed the rally’s fourth and final stage on Sunday to put the cherry atop his inaugural W2RC title.

Al-Attiyah fell behind Loeb after a challenging Stage #3 but rebounded to win the fourth by twenty-two seconds on Loeb. While his total time of 8:40:41 was not enough to surpass Loeb’s 8:40:35 for the overall, Al-Attiyah’s twenty-two-point advantage in the standings entering Andalucía only decreased by two in the end as he defeated the Frenchman 169 points to 149. The victory bookends a strong year for Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel that began with winning the Dakar Rally.

“The main objective here was to win the first-ever world championship,” said Al-Attiyah. “It was an amazing year of racing. Things were always very tight between ourselves and Seb.”

Francisco López Contardo was assured the T3 title after Cristina Gutiérrez‘s difficult run on Saturday such that even finishing behind her and outside the podium in Stage #4 did not make a dent in his points edge. Guillaume de Mevius won both the stage and his first international rally raid ahead of fellow Red Bull racer Seth Quintero; while he finished fourth in the driver’s points, co-driver François Cazalet claimed his respective championship ahead of Quintero’s partner Dennis Zenz.

“It’s been a really long year going all the way back to the Dakar,” López said. “We’ve needed to be at our best all year to stay on top. I have to say a big thanks to all of my team for making this result possible.”

The T4 championship fight consisted of three drivers separated by as many total points entering the final round. Marek Goczał assumed the lead entering the penultimate stage before being eliminated in a wreck, which left Rokas Baciuška to successfully fend off dark horse Austin Jones. Outside of the title picture, Pau Navarro claimed the stage and rally win to settle for fourth in points.

Sam Sunderland basically had the RallyGP title locked up barring disaster and a masterclass by Ricky Brabec, who was third and twenty-four points back (second-placed Pablo Quintanilla did not race due to a shoulder injury he sustained at the Rallye du Maroc). Unfortunately for Brabec, the Dakar winner proved too strong as he finished fifth overall to Brabec’s eighth. Adrien van Beveren scored his maiden overall victory as a Monster Energy Honda Rally Team member.

“It’s great to bring home the title for the team, I’m super grateful for all their hard work and happy I can give them the championship,” Sunderland commented. “The season started perfectly with the Dakar win and also the win in Abu Dhabi.”

While Amine Echiguer finished Andalucía in third in Rally3 and two hours behind winner Jeremy Miroir, his Morocco win—in which Miroir did not take part—helped ice the class title. Alexandre Giroud won all three of his starts in the Quads to claim that championship.

Kees Koolen (T5) and Mason Klein (Rally2) clinched their respective titles at the previous round in Morocco. While the T5 trucks did not race at Andalucía, Klein dominated Rally2 by winning all but the final leg to cap off a dominant season.

Stage #5 winners

Class	Number	Driver/Rider	Team	Time
T1	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Toyota Gazoo Racing	1:17:15
T2	214	José Gameiro	Mracing Portugal	1:40:49
T3	307	Guillaume de Mevius	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	1:24:07
T4	408	Pau Navarro	FN Speed Team	1:26:04
RallyGP	42	Adrien van Beveren	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	1:22:53
Rally2	102	Romain Dumontier	Team Dumontier Racing	1:30:15
Rally3	151	Jeremy Miroir	DB Motors	1:30:07
Quad	173	Jaraj Varga	Varga Motorsport Team	1:40:10
Open	700	Stéphane Peterhansel*	X-Raid Yamaha Racing Rally Team	1:25:15

* – Not competing for W2RC points

Overall winners

Class	Number	Driver/Rider	Team	Time
T1	201	Sébastien Loeb	Bahrain Raid Xtreme	8:40:35
T2	214	José Gameiro	Mracing Portugal	14:21:22
T3	307	Guillaume de Mevius	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	9:07:42
T4	408	Pau Navarro	FN Speed Team	9:33:50
RallyGP	42	Adrien van Beveren	Monster Energy Honda Rally Team	9:58:48
Rally2	101	Mason Klein	BAS World KTM Racing Team	10:32:26
Rally3	151	Jeremy Miroir	DB Motors	10:50:21
Quad	170	Alexandre Giroud	Drag’on Rally Team	12:09:57
Open	700	Stéphane Peterhansel	X-Raid Yamaha Racing Rally Team	9:22:45

W2RC driver’s champions

Class	Driver/Rider	Team	Total Points	Runner-Up	Margin
T1	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Toyota Gazoo Racing	169	Sébastien Loeb	20
T3	Francisco López Contardo	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	199	Seth Quintero	30
T4	Rokas Baciuška	South Racing-Can Am	176	Marek Goczał	6
T5	Kees Koolen	Project 2030	186	Martin Macík Jr.	26
RallyGP	Sam Sunderland	GasGas Factory Racing	85	Ricky Brabec	26
Rally2	Mason Klein	BAS World KTM Racing Team	113	Romain Dumontier	37
Rally3	Amine Echiguer	Amine Echiguer	41	Jeremy Miroir	16
Quad	Alexandre Giroud	Drag’on Rally Team	88	Jaraj Varga	28
FIM Women	Mirjam Pol	HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing	63	Sandra Gómez Cantero	8
FIM Rally2 Junior	Mason Klein	BAS World KTM Racing Team	113	Konrad Dąbrowski	37
FIM Senior	Mario Patrao	Crédito Agrícola	88	Franco Picco	28

W2RC co-driver’s champions

Class	Co-Driver	Driver	Team	Total Points	Runner-Up (Driver)	Margin
T1	Mathieu Baumel	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Toyota Gazoo Racing	169	Fabian Lurquin (Sébastien Loeb)	20
T3	François Cazalet	Guillaume de Mevius	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	175	Dennis Zenz (Seth Quintero)	6
T4	Łukasz Łaskawiec	Marek Goczał	Cobant-Energylandia Rally Rally Team	170	Gustavo Gugelmin (Austin Jones)	3
T5	Wouter de Graaff	Kees Kolen	Project 2030	186	Frantisek Tomasek (Martin Macík Jr.)	26

W2RC manufacturer’s champions

Class	Manufacturer	Total Points	Runner-Up	Margin
FIA	Toyota Gazoo Racing	163	Bahrain Raid Xtreme	28
FIM	Honda	146	KTM	56