The motorcycle category showed that even the penultimate stage, which again took place in the high sand dunes, hides some tricks. Two riders, who had been in the elite ten until now, disappeared from the standings.
Mason Klein didn’t even start after falling in the previous days due to a sore neck, Matthias Walkner had an accident at the 55th kilometer and ended the rally just before the finish.
The stage was won by South African Michael Docherty when the original winner Luciano Benavides was given a one-minute penalty. However, Toby Price remained in the lead, with a one and a half minute lead over runner-up Skyler Howes. Kevin Benavides, third so far, brother of the winner, but helping the injured Walkner on the track, reached the finish line with a loss of more than 22 minutes, but the organizers will still correct this. And if the 23 minutes he requested are deducted, he will become the stage winner and jump to second overall.
Although Martin Michek lost 11 and a half minutes, he finished 18th, but due to the withdrawal of the mentioned pilots, he moved up to 11th place overall. He is now five minutes short of the elite ten he dreams of.
Trable Buggyry in the 12th stage. The trucks of Jaroslav Valtra and Martin Šoltys lay on their sidesVideo: Buggyry Racing
In the car category, Sébastien Loeb won the sixth stage in a row, setting a new Dakar record. However, Nasir al-Attíja still leads the race, who has a luxury lead of one hour and 23 minutes on Loeb before the final stage on Sunday. Martin Prokop is still on the track, he is losing today, but he should keep his sixth position, as seventh in the order Brian Baragwanath crashed right at the start.
In trucks, Janus van Kasteren increases the overall lead at the 78th kilometer. Martin van den Brink, the second in the ranking, had problems on the track, so the third Martin Macík now lacks 20 minutes to move up.
