The 2026 Dakar Rally continued today with Stage 2 from Yanbu to Alula and Buggyra ZM Racing was able improve compared to yesterday. Despite steering issues and almost an hour lost in the service zone, Aliyyah Koloc and navigator Marcin Pasek showed good pace and made it to the finish in 58th position. Martin Koloc and his navigator Mirko Brun, however, had continued technical issues. As a wheel failure cost them significant time, and as the issues persisted, they decided to continue from the 143-kilometre control point to the bivouac via the road section.
Based on split times, Aliyyah held a solid pace in the first part of the stage and stayed close to the competition until necessary work cost her significant time at the pit stop. Nevertheless, the crew was able to carry on and completed Stage 2 without further incidents. “Unfortunately, at around kilometre 115, we lost power steering, and it started leaking again. We then drove about 35 kilometres without power steering, which was very, very demanding,” Aliyyah Koloc explained. “We had to go really slowly and we were already quite exhausted, but we managed to reach the service area where we decided to replace the power steering as we still had another 250 kilometres to go. The repair took almost an hour, but thanks to this repair work the rest of the stage was fine, and we could really push. Overall, it was a pretty good day, but unfortunately, we didn’t achieve the result we wanted due to these issues. Hopefully tomorrow will be better,” she concluded.
Martin Koloc described the stage as eventful, but also painful. “From kilometre 30, we were driving without power steering. I drove over a rock and the wheel came off, so we knew we had a problem with the front suspension arms. “We have prototype spare parts with us which we’ll start testing. We want to log in as many kilometres as possible, train and test,” said Koloc.
The Dakar Rally continues tomorrow with Stage 3, Alula–Alula. The crews will face a 422 kilometer long special stage with a 314 kilometer liaison, thus 736 kilometers in total.
Source: Buggyra Racing
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