Leading the GAZOO lineup, 2019 winners Nasser Al-Attiyah and navigator Mathieu Baumel have racked up victories in the Andalucia Rally, the Baja Spain Aragon and the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies – three consecutive times.
Al-Attiyah and Baumel will be intent on adding a fourth Dakar victory to their resumes in 2022.
The upcoming Dakar Rally is set to take place in Saudi Arabia starting on January 2nd, 2022, and the rest of the team lineups include Giniel de Villiers and partner and navigator Dennis Murphy, Henk Lategan and navigator Brett Cummings, running their second Dakar, and Shameer Variawa heads out partnered with navigator Danie Stassen.
Dakar 2022 will be held again entirely in the Saudi Arabian desert. The race begins in the northern city of Ha’il and proceeds south to the Empty Quarter. A rest day will be held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on January 8th, before the race heads south-westward to the finish in the city of Jeddah on January 14th.
The Dakar Rally – formerly known as the "Paris–Dakar Rally" – is an annual rally organized by the Amaury Sport Organisation and most of the events since the inception in 1978 were staged from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal. Due to security threats in Mauritania, which led to the cancellation of the 2008 rally, the events from 2009 to 2019 were held in South America, and since 2020, the race took place entirely within Saudi Arabia. Open to amateur and professional entries, the field is typically made of approximately eighty per cent amateur teams.
Photo: Toyota GAZOO Racing
“We are very pleased to announce a team that is very similar to last year. With Nasser and Giniel heading up our attack, and Henk gaining confidence, we are excited to take on the 2022 edition of the Dakar Rally,” said Team Principal Glyn Hall. “Our new GR DKR Hilux T1+ is progressing well, and we are confident that the new car will allow us to compete on a new level, come January.”
A prologue will determine the starting positions for Stage 1 and that route will feature two looped stages. Final course details have yet to be announced by the organizers, but it is known that the traditional Marathon Stage will have the crews start from the main bivouac to an unsupported encampment for an overnight stop. The teams then run back to rejoin their tech crews at the main bivouac. This challenging section often plays a major role in overall race outcome. It is expected that the terrain along the course will be similar to that the teams encountered in 2020 and 2021.
The latest iteration of the Hilux features a 3.5 liter twin-turbo powered petrol V6 engine and it was sourced from the all-new Toyota Land Cruiser 300. In stock trim, the engine produces 305 kW of power at 5,200 rpm and 650 Nm of torque from 2,000 rpm, but the race version sports “significantly higher” output.
The 2022 car is a new version of the Toyota Dakar Hilux which complies with the latest race rules and this Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+ shares components with the race-proven Hilux that was first introduced in 2018 and won the race in 2019. The new version includes a host of improvements, among them bigger running gear including 37-inches tires and greater suspension travel above the previous limit of 280mm. This suspension travel has been increased to 350mm.
Photo: Toyota GAZOO Racing
“I am very happy to be back with the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing team for Dakar 2022. We won the race together in 2019, and now we have a new bullet coming,” said Nasser Al-Attiyah. “I am excited for our prospects, especially with the new GR DKR Hilux T1+, which is definitely faster and more capable than the previous car.”
Giniel de Villiers was the winner of the Dakar Rally in 2009, and also won the Rally of Morocco in 2003, 2006, 2007, and 2019.
Al-Attiyah was the Dakar Rally Winner in 2011, 2015 and 2019, the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies Winner in 2008, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
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