The Chilean José Ingnacio Cornejo won among the bikers, but the Australian Toby Price became the leader of the competition. However, he has a lead of only 28 seconds on second-placed Skyler Howes. Martin Michek finished 17th, but still remains thirteenth in the standings.
“Seventeenth place is a bomb, the loss to the winner was only five minutes. So everyone is going full speed, completely full of blood. Today there were soft dunes, it was fast and hard to ride in them. A big kick and I’m very happy to be at the finish line. We have twelve stages, which is a small Dakar. Normally, everything would be done, but there are still two stages ahead of us. I have to make it to the finish line physically and the bike technically,” said Michek.
In the cars, Sébastien Loeb confirmed his sovereignty from the last few days. He won the stage again, moving to second place overall, but Nasser al-Attija still maintains a safe and huge lead of one hour and 27 minutes.
Martin Prokop lost ten minutes to Loeb and finished seventh. He is still sixth overall, 26 minutes behind fifth place Henk Lategan.
“Today was a little more difficult, because some of the exits were really baked and gave us a hard time. It was clear from the beginning that the day would be difficult. I guess I rode too carefully, too calm pace, because Kuba Przygonski overtook us. I told myself that I won’t let my teammate like this and we started pulling. We overtook him a little before the finish line,” Prokop praised the fight on the track. “It can be seen that we know how to show something in the dunes and we can.”
David Pabiška revealed what it looks like in the bivouac. A long line for food and open tentsVideo: David Pabiška
The truck category was won by Janus van Kasteren, who also leads overall. Martin Macík was second for a long time, but now he is about 30 kilometers from the finish line. Jaroslav Valtr and Martin Šoltys took a big loss right at the start, they also solved the problems.
