Nasser Al-Attiyah has become a four-time Dakar Rally champion after sealing victory in the 2022 event in a factory Toyota Hilux.

Al-Attiyah driver started the 12th and final stage with a 33:19s margin over Bahrain Raid Xtreme’s Sebastien Loeb, meaning the latter needed something dramatic to occur in order to snatch first place in the Cars.

That drama never came, with Toyota Gazoo Racing’s lead driver prevailing by 27:46s overall after taking a conservative approach to the last day of Dakar 2022.

The title is the Japanese marque’s second at a Dakar after Al-Attiyah drove a Hilux to the win three years ago in Peru, following his triumphs with Mini in 2015 and Volkswagen in 2011.

It was another Toyota Gazoo driver in Henk Lategan who won the final stage of 2022, beating Team Audi Sport’s Stephane Peterhansel by 49 seconds.

Century Racing’s Brian Baragwanath took third on the day and Loeb fourth, at 2:20s off the pace of Lategan on that 164km special between Bisha and Jeddah.

Al-Attiyah would end up no higher than 19th on the day, 7:53s slower than Lategan, and still with a quick Christiaan Visser (Century Racing) to reach the finish.

More importantly, however, he ceded only 5:33s relative to Loeb.

UPDATE: Al-Attiyah 19th in final stage classification

Behind those two in the overall standings ended up Overdrive Toyota’s Yazeed Al Rajhi, from Bahrain Raid Xtreme’s Orlando Terranova and Toyota Gazoo’s Giniel De Villiers.

Rounding out the top 10 were Jakub Przygonski (X-Raid Mini JCW), Mathieu Serradori (SRT Racing), Sebastian Halpern (X-Raid Mini JCW), Mattias Ekstrom (Team Audi Sport), and Vladimir Vasilyev (VRT TEam).

Carlos Sainz (Team Audi Sport) ended up 12th, having dropped out of contention for overall honours after navigational dramas and damage to his RS Q e-tron earlier in the event.

Team-mate Peterhansel officially ended up more than 68 hours behind rally winner Al-Attiyah having copped a big penalty for failing to finish Stage 1B when he broke an axle on a rock.

CLICK HERE for Bikes report

CLICK HERE for extended highlights of Stage 12

General classification: Cars Top 10