With the completion of Stage 11 of the Dakar 2022, riders have one more day of action in Saudi Arabia before completing their journey. There are a total of six Portuguese riders among them, none of the previous stages had a Portuguese rejection. Today is over and it’s time to take a look at the national riders in terms of overall standings.
In this sense, Joaquim Rodriguez is again in the best position, taking 14th place. On the day he was the third-best driver in the Special, Rodriguez won the position in the world rankings and is now 1 hour 11 minutes 25 seconds ahead of Sam Sunderland, the leader of the race.
The second best Portuguese is António Maio. The rider is in 21st place, almost six minutes behind 20th place after moving up one position in the overall score today. The difference with the fastest in this rally is 2 hours 39 minutes 48 seconds, while Rui Gonçalves is 23rd and 2 hours 56 minutes 30 seconds off the top of the table.
Mario Patrao is close to breaking into the top 40, finishing 43rd overall. The Portuguese, who competes in the Malle Moto class, running unassisted except provided by Motul, has always moved up in the overall standings (except in the ninth round, where he kept 47th) and that hasn’t changed today. He currently holds a distance of 8:39:53 for Sam Sunderland.
Alexander Azinais is ranked fourth among the best Portuguese and is slightly lower in the table. At number 96, the Club Aventura Tourareg is 68th, 14:19:20 behind. Arcelio Couto is 12 positions further down, dropping two positions today to 80th overall. The day before the end of the rally, Couto sees the race leader at 16:04:39.
In last place is Pedro Bianchi Prata, who is not in the top 100. The Portuguese in 107th place is 24 hours 56 minutes 04 seconds behind him and is considered the fastest in this competition.
