The Monster Energy Yamaha Rally Team has reached the official rest day of the 2022 Dakar Rally following a week of mixed fortunes for the three-rider squad. Undoubtedly, the impressive form shown by Adrien Van Beveren has been incredibly positive, and after six stages he remains in contention for the overall victory thanks to his fourth place ranking in the provisional overall classification. For Andrew Short, since having to deal with a tough first stage of the rally, the American has demonstrated exceptional rally racing skills to work his way up the leaderboard to now lie in 11th place. Frustratingly, just as Ross Branch was finding his flow, cruel luck struck with a crash on stage six ending his time at the Dakar.
Arriving at the Dakar with the same strategy that rewarded him with a silver medal in the 2021 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, Adrien Van Beveren has approached each stage with a strong focus on ensuring precise navigation, minimising mistakes, and taking each day as it comes. Thus far, the Frenchman’s game plan is certainly paying off with consistent results on each day placing Adrien fourth in the provisional standings, just under eight minutes from the leader with a further six stages to go.
Despite his serious setback on stage one when Andrew Short, along with many other competitors, struggled to find a troublesome way point, the American has since set about making up for lost time. After entering stage two ranked 16th, Andrew, much like his teammate Adrien, has posted consistently strong stage results, including three top-10 finishes, and is now just over one minute away from the overall top 10 in 11th.
For Camelia Liparoti competing in the Light Prototype class, the Yamaha YXZ1000R Prototype driver has enjoyed a strong opening week of racing at the Dakar Rally. With a further six stages to complete, Camelia is placed ninth in the provisional standings.
Week two at the 2022 Dakar looks set to be just as challenging as the first, if not more so. With a scheduled 1,964 kilometres of racing remaining, the competition is certainly far from over. With Adrien and Andrew lining up for stage seven tomorrow with favourable starting positions on what will be a sand dune heavy special, they’re both poised to advance up the leaderboard and move one step closer towards the event’s finish line in Jeddah, on January 14.
Alexandre Kowalski – Yamaha Europe Off-Road Racing Manager
“The first week at the Dakar was going very well for the team until Ross had an unfortunate crash yesterday. It’s a real shame as he was just getting into his stride after placing second on stage five. It’s frustrating yet fortunately he is ok, just a big haematoma on his leg. Otherwise, with Adrien fighting for the lead all week, we cannot ask for anything more. He is riding really well, he has the experience, and he is putting together a really strong rally so far. Andrew is doing the same and is riding very well. It’s just a big shame about what happened on stage one as he has posted some really impressive stage results since then and for sure he would be much closer to the front without that problem he had. It effected many riders and it’s just unfortunate. Despite the problems, the team spirit is really high after week one and now we can all enjoy the rest day, catch up on some sleep, and relax as much as possible. The mechanics will prepare the bikes for week two, the riders will prepare themselves, and then I really believe that we will have a strong second week of racing as we make our way to the finish line in Jeddah.”
Dakar Rally 2022
Overall Provisional Classification (after stage 6)
- Sam Sunderland (GASGAS) 19:55:59
- Matthias Walkner (KTM) 19:58:38 + 0:02:39
- Daniel Sanders (GASGAS) 20:01:34 + 0:05:35
- Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) 20:03:42 + 0:07:43
- Pablo Quintanilla (Honda) 20:13:43 + 0:17:44
- Lorenzo Santolino (Sherco) 20:14:21 + 0:18:22
…
- Andrew Short (Yamaha) 20:34:11 + 0:38:12
