Australian Daniel Sanders (KTM) won the first Dakar-2022 motorcycle special on Saturday, a 333 km loop around Ha’il, in northern Saudi Arabia, and confirmed his performance on the prologue of the day before. Sanders was 2:07 ahead of Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda) and Austrian world champion Matthias Walkner (KTM) by more than eight minutes, followed by young American Mason Klein, a 20-year-old beginner, also on KTM.
Several riders got lost while looking for a crossing point at kilometer 261, causing already significant gaps: the winner of the 2021 edition, the Argentinian Kevin Benavides (KTM), was relegated to more than 30 minutes.