Price wins Stage 10 as Van Beveren reclaims Dakar lead

KTM’s Toby Price has won Stage 10 of the 2022 Dakar Rally while Yamaha’s Adrien Van Beveren reclaimed the overall lead.

In another hotly contested stage, which included a 375km special between Wadi Ad Dawasir and Bisha, Price came out on top by 2:09s from Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Luciano Benavides.

The Australian jumped up to sixth overall but is still 27:43s behind Van Beveren, whose margin over the field is a healthy 5:59s with just two stages to come.

GasGas Factory Racing’s Sam Sunderland remains second in the rally classification, albeit further from the lead than when he started the day.

Monster Energy Honda’s Pablo Quintanilla would have taken second off the Brit but instead rose only to third, 6:15s from the top, once a two-minute penalty was added to his time.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Matthias Walkner dropped from first to fourth in the event at another 2:09s back after finishing 27th on the day, with Joan Barreda Bort fifth on another Monster Energy Honda.

While Walkner said after winning Stage 9 that he would not be taking a strategic approach to the business end of Dakar 2022, Price had little choice but to push hard, and that is seemingly what he did.

The two-time Dakar champion was never more than a minute off the pace at any waypoint, and decisively rode his Red Bull KTM into the lead at Kilometre 258.

CLICK HERE for Price reaction

Luciano Benavides was always prominent without ever setting the pace, but Barreda was in the box seat until he gave up more than five minutes on the way to the Kilometre 213 waypoint.

Van Beveren was fourth on the day on his Monster Energy Yamaha, one position and 2:05s ahead of Sherco TVS’s Lorenzo Santolino.

More importantly, the Frenchman beat Sunderland to the stage finish by 7:43s and Walkner by 12:20s.

The latter was in fact fastest than Van Beveren to Kilometre 258, where he still held the ‘virtual’ event lead, but it was from there that his day began to unravel.

Red Bull KTM’s Kevin Benavides was a contender for the rally win until he stopped with a mechanical issue and is now out of the event.

The stage win is Price’s first of Dakar 2022, having lost honours on the fifth special due to a speeding penalty.

Stage 11 is a 501km loop around Bisha, including a 346km special.

CLICK HERE for extended highlights of Stage 10

General classification: Bikes Top 10