Coronel: Dakar Rally Issues & Potential Penalty

Tim and Tom Coronel were able to continue their way in the Dakar Rally after their serious crash on Monday. Long repairs were necessary, but in the end the brothers drove to the finish line in the dark. The third stage seemed to pass with fewer problems, as evidenced by the 58th place and few delays along the way. Yet things went wrong again beforehand, Tom tells us RacingNews365.

“It was quite a tough stage,” says Tom. “It was tough, very tough. We actually only drove behind the others through the loose sand and dunes. We were just in the dust, so that was difficult. Of course we started 185th and were really behind everyone. Then you have to make up spots very carefully and it takes you two to three days before you can push forward.”

“If you drive through the dunes, you can pass them left and right. But on those paths that is simply not possible. It is what it is.”

Still, the day did not go completely smoothly, Tom continues. “The car was just not ready on time this morning. That was a shame and in the end we were eight minutes late at the start. We will get a penalty for that, I think. Fortunately, in the end we made it to the start.”

Consequences of the crash

What exactly was going on? “We had a problem with the brakes, because the brake cups were blown off yesterday. There was a lot of sand in them. That was of course because we drove the last 3.5 hours at night to get in. That sand got into all those pipes, near the brake pressure distributor and so on. That destroyed everything. We found that out a little too late this morning.”

“It started leaking along the rubbers. Those rubbers were of course sanding with sand in them, so everything broke. We made it, because we fixed it again.”