After finishing third in the first stage the day before, Matthias Walkner had the dubious pleasure of an early start on untracked terrain at the Dakar Rally yesterday. The Salzburg man coped with the “orienteering run” quite well. After 14th place in the second stage, 14 minutes behind the winner of the day, Joan Barreda (Honda), Walkner is the best KTM rider in fourth place overall. Only 4:08 minutes separate him from front runner Sam Sunderland on the Spanish KTM brand GasGas.
“It was a pretty good day for me. I started third and had a good feeling. After the refueling stop, Daniel (Sanders) and Pablo (Quintanilla) made a navigation error. I stayed on their tracks , but then I realized relatively quickly that I had to be wrong, “said Walkner. The two pilots in front had lost more time. Walkner is optimistic about today’s stage: “I’m starting from further back and hope to be able to make up some time.”
Petrucci already out
For Danilo Petrucci the Dakar is over again. The 31-year-old Italian and MotoGP rider competed in the desert rally for the first time, but a technical defect ended the KTM rider’s adventure after finishing 13th the day before. Three days before the start, a positive corona test had put him at risk. After a second test, the traffic light turned green.
Source: Nachrichten
