The Mendoza, labeled by the organization as a legend of the rally for his 16 presentations, the first two with motorcycles, covered the distance this Friday with 3:06:45 and a difference of 6:16 with respect to the leader of the general, the three-time champion qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, which entered tenth.
With his Prodrive Hunder, from the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, the 42-year-old Argentine arrived with a 1:06 advantage over Swedish guard Mattias Ekstrom, aboard a Team Audi Sports hybrid car. The third place was occupied by the local Yazeed Al Rahji (Overdrive Toyota), who snatched the second place of the accumulated from the French Sebastian loeb (Prodrive).
Loeb did not have a positive day as he qualified in 31st place, ahead of the Argentines Sebastián Halpern (Mini), Lucio Alvarez (Overdrive Toyota) y Juan Cruz Yacopini (Overdrive Toyota).
The nine-time holder of the World Rally Championship (WRC) was 50:25 with respect to Al-Attiyah that conditions him in the search for the title, as well as the Argentine Álvarez, who fell from third to fourth place in the global positions, now with a difference of 1:05:58.
Terranova, seventh overall (+1: 24: 00), obtained its sixth partial victory in the Dakar, a merit that it had not achieved since the 2015 edition when it prevailed in 4 that barely reached it to place itself in 18th. final position.
The Argentinian Manuel Andújar, current champion in quadricycles, crashed and left the competition in a stage that was suspended for motorcycles and quads after completing a quarter of his planned route.
The 25-year-old Buenos Aires pilot saw his dream of retaining the title truncated when he hit a stone at 110 kilometers per hour, which caused him to be fired from the unit without physical consequences.
The Lobos native’s Yamaha YFM 700R quad broke its front suspension grid as it averaged the 10th kilometer of the 404 timed course set for the loop stage in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia.
The organizing company Amaury Sport (ASO) reported that “the special of motorcycles and quadricycles stopped at kilometer 101 due to the poor condition of the track due to the passage of cars and trucks yesterday, added to the heavy rains of the last few days, which have made the track impassable. “
In this way, the final classification was based on the times set up to that distance and the Russian Aleksandr Maksimov (Yamaha) was the winner, escorted by the general leader, the French Alexandre Giroud (Yamaha).
The citizen of Cordoba from the United States Pablo Copetti (Yamaha) qualified in fifth place and is still second in the accumulated but with a gap widened to 4:52.
On motorcycles, the defending champion, Kevin Benavides (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) entered 15th. and he recharged three minutes to his difference with the leader of the category, the British Sam Sunderland (Gas Gas KTM), who this Friday arrived as an escort for the winner, the Australian Daniel Sanders, from his same team.
Benavides from Salta, consecrated in 2021 with Honda, retained eighth place overall and still hopes to retain the crown with a different brand, for which he will have to discount 24:56 in the second half of the rally.
His younger brother Luciano, the official Husqvarna driver, took 11th place and placed 17th. in the category, at 1:03:36.
The Chaco Juan Manuel “Pato” Silva, with a MAN from the Puma Energy Rally Team, celebrated the arrival of the rest day by arriving in the 25th. position in the sixth stage of the Dakar, and remains in the same position in the general classification of trucks, stage that was contested in Riyadh, round trip, with a distance of 635 kilometers.
Silva, arrived in 25th place of the day, and occupies the same position in the general classification of trucks, led by representatives of the Russian team Kamaz, with Dmitry Sotnikov at the head.
For the rest day, Silva, together with his crew, the Argentine Carlos Mel Banfi and the 17-year-old Spanish man, Pau Navarro, will carry out a general check-up of the truck and will seek to solve the electrical fault that affected them during the entire first part of the Dakar
The Dakar Rally will have a rest day on Saturday and will resume on Sunday with 402 timed kilometers and 299 connecting kilometers between Riyadh and Al Dawadimi, in the center of the Arabian peninsula.
Source From: Ambito
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