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Dakar 2024: Dakar: Baumgart brothers overcome challenges and aim for evolution
The Brazilian duos from the X Rally team overcame the challenges posed by the 438 timed kilometers of the third stage of the Dakar, held on Monday (8), the day that marks the start of the marathon stage, in which the competition vehicles have just two hours set aside for maintenance and repairs.
It was a day of objectives met for brothers Marcos and Cristian Baumgart, on a day of Brazilian victory among the cars with Lucas Moraes' Toyota. After having to deal with a gearbox leak in the previous stage, Marcos Baumgart and Kleber Cincea had a "clean" day.
"Special without stopping once; it went from start to finish - you started, you arrived. However, it was very difficult in terms of driving and especially navigation," said navigator Kleber Cincea. "The dunes were very high and it was a very long stretch. Overall, it was a good development for us because of the pace we were able to set today," he said.
Marcos Baumgart recalls that the result could have been better - on a stretch of canyons, the duo got "stuck" behind the dust of another car ahead and lost a lot of time. "Maybe we could have finished the day in the top ten, but the Dakar has only just begun. The car is in one piece, we're doing well and tomorrow we'll be looking for a place in the top ten," he said.
Cristian Baumgart finished the day with the 20th fastest time, together with navigator Beco Andreotti, and is in 25th place in the overall car standings. He opted for a stiffer suspension setup in the Prodrive Hunter, with a focus on more speed in the final part of the 438-kilometer special.
"We hit a lot of rocks in the early part of the race and our suspension was stiffer, but then we managed to come in at a very strong pace. The problem was that from then on, despite being faster, it was difficult to pass the other cars and we spent a long time in the dust. All in all, we'll start ahead tomorrow and it'll be an even better day," said Cristian.
The fourth stage has 299 timed kilometers in a total of 631 between Al Salamiya and Al-Hofuf, in Saudi Arabia.
The X Rally Team is sponsored by Vedacit, Motul, BF Goodrich, Rodobens, Center Norte, Rock and Opaoma.
Automatic translation of the Brazilian Portuguese version available on www.todoterreno.pt
Source: X-Rally's official press release
Helder