The KTM rider ousted French Adrien van Beveren (Yamaha) from second place overall on Wednesday as stage eight. Sam Sunderland (GasGas) maintained the lead with the seventh fastest time. The Briton is now three minutes ahead of Walkner. Van Beveren is five minutes behind, the rest more than ten.
The stage win went to the Spaniard Joan Barreda for the second time. The Honda driver was more than four minutes faster than the closest competitor on the longest stage on the way from Al-Qaisumah to Riyadh with 465 kilometers.
Walkner was almost twelve minutes off Barreda, Sunderland a minute and a half ahead of him. “It was the longest day so far and with an average speed of 100 km / h it was also one of the fastest days. This enormously high speed makes the navigation quite a challenge, the road book notes just fly around. I have here too lost time, “explained Walkner.
The Salzburg native was nevertheless satisfied. “Basically it was a very good and relaxed day. With eighth place I got myself a good starting position again,” said the 2018 Dakar winner. He’s getting along better and better with his bike. “We changed a few things again and it turns out that it was the right decision. We are heading in the right direction.”
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Source: Nachrichten
