RALLY DAKAR 2022
Brazil is again champion of the Dakar. Gustavo Gugelmin, navigator teammate of American Austin Jones, won his second title of the biggest rally in the world in the dispute of the UTVs. Partner of Reinaldo Varela on the path towards the competition cup in 2018, the Santa Catarina native triumphed again four years later, this time with an achievement confirmed with a lot of drama and only on the last day of disputes of the 2022 edition, in the last kilometers of the last special in this Friday (14), between Bisha and Jedá, in Saudi Arabia.
Spaniards Gerard Farrés Guell and his co-driver, Diego Ortega, opened the final Dakar special in the lead of the UTVs competition, with just 1min41s ahead of Jones and Gugelmin, and set off for the short timed stretch of 164 km. They would, theoretically, be the favorites to win the title.
But, even more in the face of such a tight advantage, any problem can put everything at risk. And that's what happened to the Spanish duo, who saw the tables turn again. But, in a very different story from last Thursday, this time the Europeans suffered the hard setback and lost the chance to celebrate the title in the final kilometers.
It is the second time that Farrés Guell is runner-up in the Dakar in the UTVs. The Spaniard repeated the 2019 campaign, when he competed alongside navigator Daniel Oliveras, who in this 2021 competed alongside Argentine Orlando Terranova in the car competition.
In the 12th and last stage of the Dakar in UTVs, the victory went to the duo formed by the Lithuanian Rokas Baciuska and the Spaniard Oriol Mena. The Brazilians Rodrigo Luppi and Maykel Justo, who came to lead the competition in the general classification and emerged with title chances before suffering with mechanical problems, finished the stage well, in second place, 3min23s behind for Baciuska and Mena. Jones and Gugelmin finished the special in third, 5:47 behind the leaders.
Farrés Guell and Diego Ortega concluded the final stage with 10min05s of delay for the winners and saw the title narrowly escape against Jones and Gugelmin.
In the general classification, the Brazilian-American duo had a total time of 47h22min50s and finished the Dakar in the UTVs with just 2min37s ahead of the Spaniards Farrés Guell and Ortega. Baciuska and Mena finished third in the overall standings, 15min18s behind the champions. Luppi and Justo finished the 2022 Dakar in sixth place in the UTVs competition.
It is, therefore, the third Brazilian victory in an edition of the Dakar. In 2017, with Polaris, Leandro Torres and Lourival Roldan achieved a historic and unprecedented achievement in the inaugural dispute at UTVs. The following year, Reinaldo Varela won the triumph alongside Gugelmin aboard the Can-Am, again in the UTVs category. Last year's runners-up Jones and Gugelmin led the Can-Am to yet another victory in the world's biggest rally.
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