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Rally dos Sertões 2023: Moraes and Bentivoglio won the first stage and took the lead of the race with comfortable margin
In the 674km between Petrolina (PE) and Raso da Catarina (BA), the team finishes the day with 9min03s27 of advantage
“It was a difficult stage. One of the toughest of my career at Sertões. Congratulations to those who made the roadbook”, said Lucas Moraes, stressing the level of wear suffered by the duo that competed the first stage of the 31st edition of the BRB Sertões Rally, the test that ran this Saturday a total of 674km between Pernambuco and Bahia and that will have its closure on the next 16 August. Moraes drove the Toyota GR Hilux DKR T1+ navigated by also paulist Kaique Bentivoglio and completed the task in 4h11min51s67 – result which gave him the victory and a considerable advantage over the second placed, the duo Cristian Baumgart/Beco Andreotti (Prodrive Hunter T1 +).
Like other competitors, Moraes and Bentivoglio had a tire hole, but the training carried out with the team gave the duo a good level of efficiency in the change: in about a minute, the wheel was already replaced. “We only noticed we had a flat tire when we were in a radar zone, where speed is controlled for safety reasons. So our loss was not great,” Moraes explained. Even adding all the shots, the current champion duo of the Sertões ended the day with an advantage of 09min03s27 over Baumgart and Andreotti – a result considered very good for only one test day.
“Of course we didn’t expect that. This year the grid is spectacular, with cars, drivers and navigators of an incredible level. It's an honor to run against this class. But from the start we managed to keep a very good pace. And it was important to arrive with the car intact, without damage, because with so many jumps, stones and holes it is common to break something, even by some beating. But we did well,” said Moraes, who this year made his debut at the Dakar Rally, finishing on the podium and positioning himself as one of the great revelations of the international scene.
“There is no lack of potential winners here”— “Today was only the first of the eight days of the race. We've got more than 3,100km ahead and we know there's a lot of lions in the rally every day for you to kill. What is not missing here is fast drivers,” navigator Kaique Bentivoglio joked. “Tonight we will talk about the strategy for tomorrow. We were surprised by the great difficulty that this special had, with change of terrain and direction all the time, pretty dangerous stones, many narrow sections – we scraped the whole car to pass. A lot of people ended up beating because of all this. And that's at high speed. So the team will want to review everything, review every detail of the car and our strategy. At Sertões, every day is a race. And each race is a separate chapter in this adventure,” he added.
The Sunday stage again has started in Petrolina and continues towards Juremal, in Bahia, to then return to the starting point, in the state of Pernambuco. The timed stretch will be 174km, considered small for the standards of the Sertões or Dakar. “This detail may mean a lot,” says Lucas Moraes. “Normally the reason for making a small stretch in the middle of the race is that it is extremely difficult, with many difficulties in the route, in addition to complicated navigation. But we will only know that on Sunday,” he added.
The double champion of the Sertões has the support of Toyota Gazoo Racing, Red Bull, SpeedMax (PneuStore), Zapälla, Strava and Sparco. The Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+ from Moraes and Bentivoglio is operated in Brazil by the MEM Motorsports team, with the support of experts from the Belgian Overdrive Racing, defended by them in international races. Check out below the six best of the day and the schedule of the next days in the BRB Sertões Rally:
Result Stage 01, Saturday (12/08), category Cars
1º) Lucas Moraes/Kaique Bentivoglio (Toyota GR Hilux DKR T1+), 04h11min51s67
2º) Cristian Baumgart/Beco Andreotti (Prodrive Hunter T1+), a 09min03s27
3º) Sylvio de Barros/Ramon Sacilotti (Toyota IMA Overdrive), a 14min37s65
4º) Marcelo Gastaldi/Cadu Sachs (Century Racing CR6-T), a 17min07s14
5º) Dan Nacif/Fred Budtiekevitz (X Rally Ranger), a 17min19s97
6º) Marcos Baumgart/Kleber Cincea (Prodrive Hunter T1+), a 20min54s54
Automatic translation from the original Brazilian-Portuguese version available on www.todoterreno.pt
Source: BestPR/ Toyota Gazoo Racing
Photo: Marcelo Maragni / Red Bull Pool Content
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