Dubai Intenational Baja 2022:In his big debut in the desert, Brazilian Lucas Moraes repeats performance and loses only to Middle East champion

 FIA World Cup for Cross Country Bajas

Indisposition during the race hindered Lucas Moraes, who still finished in second place during the preparatory race for Dakar

Lucas Moraes repeated the amazing performance during the Dubai International Baja, the last stage of the FIA Baja Rally World Cup. Competing for the first time in the desert, after winning yesterday the first of the two days of the competition, the young Brazilian was the second place in the closing stage, held this Saturday (3) in the sands of the United Arab Emirates. The event also finalized the driver's preparation for the Dakar 2023, to be held once again in Saudi Arabia, starting on December 31.

Together with the experienced German navigator Timo Gottschalk, winner of the Dakar in 2011, Moraes ended Saturday in the second position of the day, the same position that the duo achieved in the final sum of the race's times. After having completed last Friday's 194.40 km in first place, the Brazilian ended up feeling ill on Saturday during the 195.98 km stage between Al-Marmoun and Lisaili. In the sum of the two days, the victory of the Dubai International Baja went to the duo formed by Saudi Yazeed Al-Rajhi and German Dirk von Zitzewitz, who with this result became world champions.

Better than expected - "I could never have expected to finish second in my first desert race. I am very happy with this second place. For me personally, it is much better than expected," says the Brazilian, who drove a Toyota Hilux DKR IMT from the Overdrive team. "Of course, you can't not think about the fact that we had a chance to win - I never imagined fighting for the victory in my first race in the desert! Unfortunately we had to stop twice during the race for me to recover from a bout of seasickness, probably caused by not having hydrated better in the desert - it's all part of the learning curve! But anyway, this race was very important training for the Dakar, which is our objective. Now the focus is 100% on the Dakar," concluded the driver, who is part of Red Bull's team of athletes.

The Dakar Rally 2023 is scheduled to start on December 31, 2022, with the prologue. The race will be held between January 1st and 15th.

Check out the overall results in the Dubai International Baja:

1. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Arábia Saudita)/Dirk von Zitzewitz (Alemanha) - 7h02min32s
2. Lucas Moraes (Brasil)/Timo Gottschalk (Alemanha), a 1min07s
3. Eryk Goczal (Polônia)/Oriol Mena (Espanha), a 15min05s

Automatic translation from the original Portuguese version
Source Official press release