Dakar 2020: Bad day for Van Loon after punctures and dust

Erik van Loon and Sébastien Delaunay started in the stage as 8th after the good result of yesterday. The track was very fast with varied terrain and a lot of rocks. Van Loon had two punctures and drove in the dust of others for a long time. In the last fifty kilometers, some problems occurred on their car so Van Loon decided to consolidate. They finished 19th.

“We don't need to think too long about this,” says Van Loon. “It was not our day, we had a puncture in a riverbed and Nasser was already behind us, so I let him by. After that, we only saw dust. We had another puncture afterwards. At one point it seemed like there was some issue with the prop shaft or the gearbox. We have the marathon stage tomorrow, so I wanted to keep it all in one piece. So, we are looking forward to the marathon stage.”

It is the first part of the marathon stage and goes from Haradh to Shubaytah, in one of the emptiest places in the world: the “Empty Quarter”. The timed stage will be 534 km long and contains offroad, sand and dunes. The first car will start at 8:00 (6:00 CET) and is expected to arrive at the finish line around 14:00 (12:00 CET).

Source: Press release of Van Loon Racing