In the second stage of the Dakar Rally, the best result at the helm of the “Prodrive” was achieved by WRC legend Sebastien Lebe. Nassir Al-Atija with Toyota retains the lead in the overall standings.
The 338-kilometer-long Dakar Rally from Haila to Kaysuma was completed in 3 hours and 25 minutes, beating his closest follower, Al-Atiya, in less than three and a half minutes. This was Leb’s first race in the Dakar Rally since 2019. This has allowed the Frenchman to reduce Al-Atiya’s lead in the overall standings to 9 minutes and 16 seconds.
Audi’s Carlos Saintz and Stefan Petransel were the third and fourth best performers, but both faced serious problems from the very beginning of the rally and the overall standings are outside the Top 25, as is their teammate Matthias Ekstrom.
The battle for third place in the overall standings is currently very tense. Lusio Alvarez and Toyota are currently in this position, half an hour behind Lēba ahead. Meanwhile, Alvarez’s five closest followers are within 8 minutes. Among them is a Russian Vladimir Vasilyev with a “BMW M5”, whose co-driver Oleg Uperenko starts with a license issued by the Latvian Automobile Federation.
The crew with the only Latvian Didzi Zariņa, who is the co-driver of the Lithuanian Antanas Juknevičius, achieved the 36th best result today, however, the damage to the front gear that took place yesterday allows him to be only in the 65th place.
The situation in motorcycles is much more tense at the moment. Joan Barreda won the stage with Honda, but the 2017 winner Sam Sanderlands took over the lead in the overall standings with GasGas. He took advantage of the fallacy of former leader Daniel Sanders. The failure of the navigation forced Sanders to return to third position. Due to technical difficulties, Danilo Petruchi, known in MotoGP circles, could not reach the finish line.
A little calmer day awaits the participants tomorrow. The 255-kilometer stage will be the shortest until the last day of the rally. The winners will be announced on January 14 in Jeddah.
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