With no help from the teams and 971km of timed races, drivers and navigators were tested to the limit. Brazilian Lucas Moraes is in 6th place after three days of racing
Rollovers, crashes, fires, hundreds of jams. The 47th edition of the Dakar Rally ended one of its most risky stages on Monday (6), with the completion of the second stage, which began yesterday to cover a 971km stretch in 48 hours, in the Empty Quarter desert in Saudi Arabia. One of the favorites already in his third participation in the famous challenge, Brazilian Lucas Moraes went through a moment of overcoming in this section of the race: two jams and a flat tire took away his chances of a good result in the two days of the race - in total, the event will have 12 days of competition until January 17.
Even so, Moraes and Spanish navigator Armand Monleón finished 12th in the 48-hour special and are eighth in the overall standings - a result the driver considers satisfactory. They are competing in the Ultimate category, the main one in the competition, which at the end of this stage has the Toyota Hilux IMT EVO of South African duo Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings leading the overall standings.
Champions overturned - Another strong duo who faced setbacks were Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz, the reigning Dakar champions. The Spanish duo's Ford Raptor overturned at km 327 of the first part of the 48-hour stage on Sunday and had to be pulled up by a cable attached to another car to be put back on all four wheels. With the fairing in tatters - part of it discarded at the scene of the accident - and damage to the mechanical part, Sainz and Cruz lost a lot of time, but continued in the race. Now in 20th place in the overall Ultimate standings, the experienced Sainz apologized to the team for the accident: “After that, I think my chances of winning this Dakar are gone,” said the Spaniard, a four-time winner of the race.
A highlight of the first stage on Saturday, when she finished fifth in the Ultimate, Spain's Cristina Gutierrez and her navigator and fellow countryman Pablo Moreno came to the aid of the Dacia SandRider of multi-time rally champion Sebastién Loeb, which was navigated by Belgian Fabian Lurquin. One of the big stars of the Dakar, Loeb stopped due to problems at km 401 on Sunday and is now sixth in the overall standings. But on Monday it was the turn of the only driver with the potential to win the Dakar 2025 to have mechanical problems. Her Dacia SandRider didn't complete the stage - which takes Cristina out of contention for victory in this edition of the race, although she can continue to take part in the competition.
“Positive balance” - ”It was a very difficult stage, really. But in the end the balance was positive for us. On the first day, which was the first part of the 48 hours, we started seventh, according to the team's strategy. We managed to pass about six cars fairly quickly in the first 250-280km. That's why we had to open the race, in other words, be the first to start the specials. We drove like that for more than 100km. The problem is that when you open the race you don't have the trail formed by the tire marks of other cars and you're left without any reference in the middle of the dunes, which is a very, very high risk. That's why, in order not to crash, you have to slow down a lot,” said Lucas Moraes.
“I still made a few mistakes, because I'm still learning how to ride in the desert, which is a very specific technique that you can't learn just by riding in Brazil. But on Monday we took 6 to 8 minutes off the pace and managed to close the gap. So I think we did well overall. We're only at the start of the Dakar and it already feels like a week! But there's still a lot to do. It's important to stay focused and minimize tiredness, because the mental part is very important in the Dakar,” he added.
Brazil has more representatives in the Ultimate. Debuting in the category, the duo Marcos Moraes and Maykel Justo (Toyota Overdrive) are in 28th place after the stages. “These last two days have seen a lot of dunes cut up, with one side rising and the other falling sharply, as if half the dune had been removed. It was difficult and a lot of learning for us. But we survived and we're still in the game,” said the driver.
“That's the Dakar” - Marcelo Gastaldi, who has Frenchman Adrien Metge as his navigator in his Century CR7, had a mechanical problem and is now 39th in the overall standings. Brazil's fifth representative in the race is navigator Cadu Sachs, who competes in the Challenger category (light prototypes) aboard a Taurus T3 Max alongside Portuguese driver Gonçalo Guerreiro. On Sunday, the young duo experienced a scare when they got stuck after jumping a dune.
“Unfortunately yesterday (Sunday) we had this difficult moment. But we managed to fix the car. We lost a bit of time, but that's how the Dakar is, it's part of it,” said Gonçalo, who is second in the Challenger category alongside the Brazilian. First place in the overall standings is held by Argentinian duo Nicolas Cavigliasso and Valentina Pertegarini, also in a Taurus T3 Max. At the moment, the other leaders in the Dakar are Australian Daniel Sanders, of KTM, in the Motorcycle category, and the Czech trio Martin Macik/Frantisek Tomasek/David Svanda, with an MM Powerstar, in the Truck category.
Storms alter race - The Dakar organizers announced that the third stage, to be held this Tuesday, has been altered due to the forecast of strong storms in the Empty Quarter desert. The statement distributed at the end of today and published on the official website reads: “The Al Henakiyah region is subject to severe storms, which are expected to continue for some time. As a result the end of the stage will be located after kilometer 327 of the original route (which was previously 496km), removing 169km (of the stage) in the rain-affected zones.” The starting location remains the same, in Bishá.
Automatic translation of the Brazilian Portuguese version
Source: BestPR
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