On board his Toyota Hilux, from the Overdrive team, the Mendoza rider reached the finish line with a difference of 2:10 compared to the South African Henk Lategan (Toyota), winner of the test ahead of the French Sebastien Loeb (+1:58).
Alvarez, 44 years old, thus advanced from fourth to third step in the accumulated table of the category, which is led by the three-time Qatari champion Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) with a distance of 51:15 compared to the Argentine.
On his return to competition after a three-year absence, the San Rafael driver is on track to meet the goal of signing his best ever performance: fifth place in the 2012 edition.
In the other six participations it culminated with a dropout (2010, in quadricycles), 15th. (2011), 10th. (2013), 22nd. (2014), desertion (2015) and 10th. (2018).
Within the first ten places of today’s partial, below the Qatari Al-Attiyah, the Argentine was ranked ninth Orlando Terranova (Provide), which in turn is eighth in the accumulated with a difference of 1:25:16.
And in the seventh step of the general lives the also Mendoza Sebastián Halpern (Mini), who this Thursday arrived twelfth in Riyadh.
The salteño Kevin Benavides, defending champion in the motorcycle division, qualified eighth and regained a place in the global positions dominated by the British Sam Sunderland (Gas Gas KTM) with a total record of 19:01:50.
The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider was able to cut his gap by just over 3 minutes in relation to the leader, who was thirteenth behind Matthias Walkner of Austria, teammate of the Argentine and escort in the general classification.
Ahead of both, in eleventh place, was the Argentine Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna), Kevin’s younger brother, who remains among the 20 best in the category (19th).
The fifth stage on motorcycles, interrupted by the mobilization of air resources to assist some competitors, was awarded to the Italian Daniel Petrucci (Tech 3 KTM) due to a penalty to the Australian Toby Price (Red Bull KTM), champion 2016 and 2019, that he had been the first to reach the goal.
The podium was completed by Ross Branch (Monster Energy Yamaha) and José Ignacio Cornejo (Monster Energy Honda) from Chile.
The suspension determined by the Dakar authorities also reached the category of quadricycles, in which the current champion, the Argentine Manuel Andújar (Yamaha 7240 Team) showed navigation problems.
Pablo Copetti (Yamaha), leader of the “quads” division, suffered the same inconvenience in a stage that was led by his escort, the Frenchman Alexandre Giroud (Yamaha Racing SMX Drag’on).
Due to the abrupt outcome of the day, the officials of the International Motorcycle Federation (FIM) were evaluating the fairest way to compute the times of the day to order the classification and establish the starting order for Friday.
The sixth part of the competition, prior to the rest day, will be run again with a loop design in the Arab capital with a 620-kilometer circuit (404 timed).
The Dakar 2022 will run until Friday, January 14, divided into 12 stages, with a total route of 8,000 kilometers (4,300 timed).
Source From: Ambito
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