On the eve of the first truth stage of the Dakar 2020 – 478 km of 100% off-piste off-piste, between Ha’il and Riyadh, where the only rest day is scheduled for Saturday -, the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Mini), leader of the general classification in the auto category, asserted himself a little more as being the boss of the peloton.
In Ha’il, he defeated the title holder Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota) of 2.56 “and his distinguished colleague at Mini, the Frenchman from Montana Stéphane Peterhansel, by just over 6 minutes. The three men occupy the same positions in the general classification, within a “range” of 17’53 “.
Got 99 problems but sand, dunes, rocks and shrubs ain’t one.@CSainz_oficial simply flies over them ??# Dakar2020 pic.twitter.com/4pMqCltmdE
– DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 9, 2020
The Lausannois Alexandre Pesci (Rebellion) won his … fifth personal success, he who admitted before the start: “Each stage completed will be a victory for us!” Passionate about motorsport and owner of the main competing team of Toyota in the championship of endurance world, Pesci points, before the key stage of this Friday, to 50th place in the general classification.
SSV: Horn wins … for fun
Forced to retire after the breakage of the engine of their buggy during the third stage, the Frenchman Cyril Despres and the Vaud adventurer Mike Horn offered themselves a day of rest, before resuming the track this Thursday for pleasure, in “Dakar Experience” (the competitors who had to give up can continue the course under the conditions of the race, they are timed, but of course no longer appear in the rankings).
A perfectly successful operation since Despres-Horn set the best time of the day! It was also an excellent day for Genevan Vincent Gonzalez: 16th in the stage, the 60-year-old “rookie” enters the top 20 in a developing category.
Sam Sunderland eliminated
On two wheels, the caravan again lost one of its strongmen: the Briton Sam Sunderland (KTM), winner of the race in 2017, was victim of a big fall at km 187 and suffers from lumbar and l ‘left shoulder.
? Winner of the 2017 Dakar @Sundersam has had to quit the race on day 5 of # Dakar2020 after a crash.
He didn’t lose consciousness and was quickly attended to by by the medical staff of the race. pic.twitter.com/TTeoDC6iMl
– DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) January 9, 2020
The victory went to the Australian Toby Price (KTM), the defending champion, who returned at the same time to 9’06 ” from the American Ricky Brabec (Honda) at the head of a general classification where the first eight are held in less than 35 minutes.
The Lausannois Nicolas Brabeck-Letmathe (KTM), who had tried to spare as much as possible the day before in view of the difficulties to come, lost almost two hours: “A navigation error, which cost me a detour more 20 kilometers ”, explained the Lausannois, the finish line crossed.
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Created: 09.01.2020, 4:19 p.m.
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