The driver repeats his feat from last year, when he became the first competitor from the country to win a special stage in the most difficult rally in the world
After yesterday's fall, which took him out of the running for victory in the overall classification, this Sunday (12) Brazilian Lucas Moraes won the seventh stage of the Dakar Rally, a race that has been held from January 3 to 17, in Saudi Arabia. With the result, Moraes adds another victory to the one he achieved in 2024, when he became the first and still only Brazilian to win a special stage of the most difficult off-road adventure in the world. With 412km timed in the Al Duwadimi region, the section had several technical and physical challenges: fast and slow surfaces, very complicated navigation and, as the icing on the cake, a running phase in the mountains, with all the dangers that this modality offers.
Aboard a Toyota GR DKR Hilux, Moraes and his navigator, Spaniard Armand Monleón, compete in the Ultimate category, the main category of the Dakar. They led practically the entire day, definitively taking the lead after the 83rd kilometer section. With 183km contested and up to at least kilometer 213, another historic moment for the national rally. Lucas was the leader with another Brazilian in second place: Marcelo Gastaldi, partner of French navigator Adrien Metge in a Century CR7. Gastaldi ended up having problems and was unable to hold the position until the end, but Moraes and Monleón consolidated the victory.
“Nothing to lose” – “Considering everything that happened yesterday (Saturday), with the breakdown and everything else, in today’s special we had nothing to lose. So, we gave it our all today”, said Moraes, who celebrated the victory involving on a Brazilian flag. “And to be honest, since we started so far back on the grid, we were lucky because we could see the whole track (which made navigation easier). We tried really hard. It’s like the World Cup,” said the rider, who competes with support from Red Bull, Repsol, Strava, Oakley, Zapalla and OutField.
Lucas also spoke about the psychological moment. “This victory is also something very important after what happened yesterday, a personal achievement for me and Armand. It’s also important because we add more points towards the World Championship. And we have to keep fighting. If you want to be a serious competitor, for real, when you have a disappointment like yesterday's you need to "take a look back" and say: "Ok, it's over. Now it’s time to do the best you can again, don’t let your guard down.” That's what we did today. We push hard, we walk really fast. And, fortunately, it worked.”
Spectacular fight – Gastaldi and Metge finished the day in tenth position and are now 21st in the overall standings. The other representatives of Brazil in the Ultimate category, Marcos Moraes and Maykel Justo (Toyota Overdrive), completed the special in 30th place and occupy 20th place overall. Lucas Moraes, even after his car broke down yesterday, is in 19th place overall. In the Challenger category (light prototypes), the car of Brazilian navigator Cadu Sachs and Portuguese driver Gonçalo Guerreiro maintained second place in the group's overall classification, after reaching fourth place today. The lead is still held by Argentines Nicolas Cavigliasso and Valentina Pertegarini, with a 30-minute advantage.
The fight for victory in the overall classification, and in the Ultimate category, took on spectacular contours after today's stage. South Africans Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings (Toyota GR DKR Hilux) ended the day in 15th place and are now under a lot of pressure from the Toyota Overdrive of Saudi Yazeed Al Rajhi and German Timo Gottschalk who, after the 3,147km already covered against the stopwatch since the first stage, they are only 21 seconds behind. The Ford Raptor of the duo Mattias Ekström (Sweden)/Emil Bergvist (Sweden) and the Dacia SandRider of the perennial favorites Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar) and Edouard Boulanger (France) are also seriously in the running. They are just 10 minutes and 21 minutes behind the leaders respectively, quite reduced distances when you consider that there are still 1,323km to go in the Dakar – which includes a foray into the feared Empty Quarter desert, the main specialty of four-time champion Nasser Al-Attiyah.
Automatic translation of the Brazilian Portuguese version
Source: BestPR
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