The Dakar Rally dishes up surprises each day, and the 2020 edition is no different. Racing from Al Wajh to Neom over a special stage of 367km, the Cars category saw the lead change a handful number of times.
It was South African and 2009 Dakar Rally winner Giniel de Villiers (Toyota Gazoo Racing) who claimed the stage win, ahead of Orlando Terranova (X-Raid MINI JCW Team) and Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Toyota). Al Rajhi set the early pace with fellow Toyota Hilux compatriots Nasser Al Attiyah and Dakar rookie Fernando Alonso. De Villiers joined this trio to make it a sweep of Toyotas at the top of the stage times through the first 100km of racing and the team looked set to dominate the Cars category.
However, the Dakar Rally doesn’t play to anyone’s plans… Alonso’s Dakar debut hasn’t started off in the best way. After 160km of racing, his Hilux suffered suspension and wheel damage along the rock-strewn roads to lose over 2hr 30min while waiting for assistance from the Toyota Gazoo Racing support truck for spare parts. ‘Mr Dakar’ Stephane Peterhansel (Bahrain JCW X-Raid Team) also lagged behind in the stage today, unable to match the pace of the Toyota Hiluxs.
The sheer pace of national hero Al Rajhi left his rivals in his dust, with a lead of over six minutes on De Villiers, Peterhansel, Al Attiyah and Terranova at the midway point of the stage. And then the lead changed hands again. Al Rajhi made a navigational error in the closing kilometers of the stage, allowing the faultless De Villiers to clinch the stage win ahead of Terranova, Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi (Abu Dhabi Racing), the consistent Mathieu Serradori (SRT Racing and the Toyota Hilux of Al Attiyah. The overall leaderboard sees major changes too: Terranova’s speed today saw him move to the top with a four-minute lead over ‘El Matador’ Carlos Sainz (Bahrain JCW X-Raid Team), Al Attiyah, Serradori, overnight leader Zala (Team Agrorodeo), and today’s stage winner De Villiers moved from 14th overnight to sixth overall today. Peterhansel is now eighth overall and 13 minutes down on the leaders, while Al Rajhi holds ninth place and has dropped 16 minutes to the leaders.
Terranova commented after today’s stage: “It was nice but very hard. We had been pushing from the beginning and we got a puncture 60 kilometres from the start. So, I started to drive more gently. In one area, we saw Nasser going the opposite way. We new that we were going in the right way, but we did a loop and it was a big mess. We lost a lot of time and started to get into a big fight until the neutralisation point. After that, I tried to push, but very carefully because it was still stony. But again, today it was okay and we did a good job”.
Botswana’s Ross Branch (BAS Dakar KTM Racing) took the Bikes category stage win today, after a ding-dong battle with Joan Barreda Bort (Monster Energy Honda Team 2020) and Pablo Quintanilla (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing). Leader Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Team) and team-mate Matthias Walkner lost time from navigational mistakes, dropping down the stage’s leaderboard.
Sam Sunderland (Red Bull KTM Factory Team) claimed second place in the stage, to jump from fifth overall to the overall lead with a 01min 18sec advantage over Quintanilla. Honda’s hard-charging Kevin Benavides (Monster Energy Honda Team 2020) and brother Luciano (Red Bull KTM Team) finished within four seconds of one another for fourth and fifth places on Day Two. Behind Sunderland at the top of the Bikes category, the Brit rider is followed by Quintanilla, Kevin Benavides, Walkner, Brabec (Monster Energy Honda Team 2020), and today’s stage winner moving into sixth place overall – and all are within five minutes of the leader.
Said Sunderland: “It’s the Super Marathon stage, so we have to try and take care of the bike the best we can. I used the rear brake quite a lot today and I just wanted to change the pads just to be safe for tomorrow. It was a really difficult day, really long with big variations in terrain and navigation, from high speed to really slow and technical, in and out of the canyons with a lot of tracks that were less visible. All in all, it was a good day and I’m just trying to keep a steady rhythm, to keep building throughout the race. It’s not so easy when you’re in the dust because you have to pay so much attention to the tracks in front of you, to not lose the way and try to miss any rocks… It’s really difficult, really difficult so far”.
Anton Shibalov (Kamaz-Master) took to Day Two’s stage with aggression, yet was trailed by Siarhei Viazovich (Maz-SportAuto) who followed by a minute. The Byelorussian was on a mission. And, as this is the Dakar Rally, the tables turned for Shibalov in the second half of the stage: Andrey Karginov (Kamaz-Master) charged to the lead, with nearly two minutes over Viazovich and Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz-Master). Title holder Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz-Master) approached the stage cautiously to take fifth place.
On the overall Trucks category standings, Viazovich has leapfrogged Shibalov to the top step. Second place is Sotnikov some four minutes behind, with Karginov third overall, Shibalov fourth and over 13 minutes down on the leader. Nikolaev is 20 minutes adrift in sixth place behind Martin Macik (Big Shock Racing).
Tomorrow will see competitors tackle 404km of timed distance out of a 489km route around Neom.
