The French Sebastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) won the second stage of the Dakar with 3 minutes and 28 seconds ahead of the general leader in cars, the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota), thus placing at 9’16 ” of the three-time winner of the category (2011, 2015 and 2019).
For its part, the Spanish Carlos Sainz went further back in the special stage (Special) and in the absence of passing through two checkpoints, he has completed the previous six in third position, 4 minutes and 9 seconds behind the Frenchman.
In motorcycles, the Spanish Joan Barreda (Honda) achieved this Monday the stage victory on the third day of the Dakar competition, thus placing third motorcycle racer with the most victories in the history of the competition (28), five from the record of 33 shared by the French Stéphane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres.
The day began marked by heavy rains and storms that forced the cancellation of the marathon stage and, in the competition, to the surprise of the Portuguese Rui Gonçalves (Sherco), who started dominating.
Always with Barreda in second position, lurking, until the Portuguese lost the devilish rhythm with which he started. At the first checkpoint, with only 40 timed kilometers, he led the Spaniard by 5 minutes and 56 seconds.
In the second he dropped to 3’28 ”, in the third to 35”… and in the fourth it was the Spanish who hit Gonçalves (1’36 ”) and the rest of the rivals, which was worth him to win the stage victory with 5’33 ”advantage on the second classified, a surprising Sam Sunderland (Gas Gas), since he did not appear in any control point of the organization until the last, when he sneaked second.
Third was Argentine Kevin Benavides (KTM), who was slowly picking up pace until he was placed in the best times aware that he had to cut back after suffering with navigation on Sunday.
And he did so by cutting down to 19 minutes and 4 seconds the one who was leader of the general classification after the first two days of competition, the Austrian Daniel Sanders (Gas Gas), who this Monday was very far from the rhythm shown previously, accusing the opening track as the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda), which in his case lost 30’53 ”.
Bad day for the first two classifieds in the general classification before starting the second stage this Monday. Sunders lost 24’58 “and He gave up the leadership of the motorcycle general in favor of his teammate Sunderland for 3 minutes and 29 seconds.
Worse still for the Italian motorcycle racer Danilo Petrucci (Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing), who had to end his first participation in the Dakar Rally after suffering mechanical problems at kilometer 115 and asking the organization to be evacuated due to the impossibility of continuing.
In the second stage ends the new project of the former MotoGP rider for ten seasons, who left the premier category of motorcycling to enlist in a totally different challenge, from asphalt to sand, dunes and rocks, and that haunted his head for a long time.
.
