The dunes of Wadi ad Dawasir is a true master’s degree for those who want to learn to ride properly in a raid test. Is … That is why Edgar Canet, despite the fact that he sank a few days ago, has perfectly understood what he can get from this edition. The Valencian showed with an epic comeback that he still counts a lot for partial victories.
The data is devastating: at kilometer 30 of the 451 kilometers of the special he was 46th. At the end of the day, at the finish line, he was only almost five minutes behind Luciano Benavides, winner of the day to complete a great double for KTM. The general leader continues to be Daniel Sanders who maintained the trend of the days before the break and continues to be the most consistent. The Australian, who entered just over five and a half minutes behind the winner, maintains the overall lead with four minutes and 25 seconds ahead of Ricky Brabec, who now sees how that second place overall is in jeopardy after Benavides’ recent victories. The Argentine is third, but he will have to be very careful to open the track this Monday if he does not want to sink. Pending those first kilometers of the special that opens the last five days of the raid will be Tosha Schareina. The Valencian entered the finish line almost nine minutes away, which opens the gap he has to neutralize with the lead to fifteen. He is still the main Spanish option, but starting second on this day penalized him a lot and even despite the bonuses for opening the track he has seen how the lead in the general classification has slipped away more than expected.
Al Attiyah takes gold from the desert
The victory of the seventh stage of the Dakar in cars went to Matthias Ekstrom, who knew how to hold on until the last sector at the wheel of a Henk Lategan who sank. When it seemed that the South African was going to give Toyota another victory so far in Dakar, and therefore was going to tighten the screws on Nasser Al Attiyah, he left himself for more than eight and a half minutes. In fact, by kilometer 375 the ‘sorpasso’ had already been completed and Lategan seemed like he was going to settle on the throne of leadership at the end of the day… but far from it he ended up falling back more than seven minutes and, in fact, fell off the overall podium.
For the Spanish it was a better day than expected. Nani Roma had the penalty that cost him the victory in the fifth stage annulled, so despite losing six and a half minutes to the winner of the day, he climbs to third position overall, seven minutes behind Al Attiyah and with Ekstrom’s second place just under three. For the Catalan it is a golden opportunity, although he will have to deal with his teammate Ekstrom ahead and Lategan himself, whom he has only six seconds behind.
For Carlos Sainz it continues to be a Dakar of pure endurance. The man from Madrid set the ninth time of the day’s special, six minutes behind Ekstrom, but falls to fifth place overall and below the psychological limit of ten minutes. Seeing how in other years that has been practically a technical tie, for ‘El Matador’ it cannot be said that it has been a bad day by any means, but he would like to be a little closer to the lead if he wants to take advantage of the virtues of the Ford Raptor in the coming days. Both Roma and Sainz therefore remain in the fight to sustain their candidacy, although every mistake or problem that may appear from now on will weigh them twice as much, since they will have neither margin to fix it nor time to turn it around.
This Monday’s loop will be the longest special of this raid, which will pass through hard tracks and canyons but also through some areas of relative respite in the dunes. For the Spanish it is a good opportunity to hit the table and prevent Al Attiyah, who will have to grit his teeth against the large number of ‘sharks’ that are going after him.
