Cycle News Staff | October 25, 2022
Monster Energy Honda’s Adrien Van Beveren captured the overall win at the Andalucia Rally in Spain, October 20-23, while GasGas Factory Racing’s Sam Sunderland wrapped up the 2022 FIM World Rally-Raid Championship.
Adrien Van Beveren took the overall win at the Andalucia Rally in Spain, winning two of the three stages. Photo: Honda HRC
Van Beveren won two stages (one and four) of the three in Spain. (Stage two was canceled due to inclement weather.) Red Bull KTM’s Kevin Benavides won the other stage (three) and finished out the rally second overall.
This was Van Beveren’s first win since joining the Honda team earlier this year.
“This is not Dakar, but for me it was very important to win here in Andalucia,” Van Beveren said. “I knew Kevin Benavides would push a lot, so I had to go as fast as I could.
“This is a very emotional day,” he said. “I am so happy to deliver this first victory to Honda since they welcomed me like family. Now I am looking forward to the next Dakar.”
“Unfortunately, losing stage two due to the weather and with the event so short, I couldn’t quite regain the time I lost to [a] penalty on day one,” Benavides said. “It’s frustrating, but in the end, I know I did my best here, and I have a really strong pace. With two months to go to Dakar I’m feeling really confident. This season doesn’t look so good on paper; I had an issue at the Dakar, and again in Abu Dhabi, but my speed has been right up there with the best.”
Dakar winner Sam Sunderland wrapped up the 2022 World Rally-Raid Championship at the Andalucia Rally season finale. Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
GasGas Factory Racing’s Sam Sunderland wrapped up the 2022 FIM World Rally-Raid Championship after placing 10th overall. Sunderland needed just three points to seal the deal and was challenging for the overall Andalucia win but suffered a time penalty during stage three that set him well back in the field. All he needed to do to wrap up the title was finish the final stage. He ended up fifth overall in the Andalucia Rally.
“Amazing! It’s been a crazy year with the Dakar win and then winning in Abu Dhabi, but then we had a big gap over the summer,” Sunderland said after stage four. “We were back in action for the last round in Morocco but that one was tough, as I hurt my wrist in a crash before we even started. But with the championship on the line, I had no choice but to push through it and my result there really made things easier for the final round. I had a couple of close calls yesterday and after that and knowing that getting on the overall podium would be almost impossible, I kept things super steady.
“I’m really grateful to have the GasGas Factory Racing team behind me, it’s been an amazing year, and I know we’re all looking forward to celebrating this one!” CN
OVERALL
- Adrien Van Beveren (Hon), 9:58:48
- Kevin Benavides (KTM) +3:14
- Luciano Benavides (Hus) +6:37
- Lorenzo Santolino (She) +12:55
- Sam Sunderland (GG) +15:22
