Stรฉphane Peterhansel has hit the big five-oh! After navigating the fast, maze like dunes over 462 km Nacho Cornejo bagged his seventh career stage win with Peterhansel speeding his way to his fiftieth car special.
The tide of fate can turn in an instant in the Dakar, as we saw in stage 2. While Ross Branch managed to cling on to the overall lead, the other standout performer of yesterday’s motorbike special will cry bitter tears tonight. Mason Klein running into mechanical trouble with his Kove seemed a matter of “when”, not “if”.
Disaster struck at km 46, forcing the American to screech to a halt and spend two hours repairing his mount. His podium ambitions are dead and buried, but he remains in the race and could still pull a rabbit or two out of his hat on the road to Yanbu.
Nacho Cornejo, no stranger to the places of honour, capitalised on his navigational acumen. Starting in third place, he soon linked up with Ricky Brabec and Ross Branch to form a well-oiled three-cog machine that crossed the finish line together and hoovered up the time bonuses at stake. The Chilean’s seventh Dakar stage win propelled him to within 2โฒ55โณ of the Botswanan leader as the highest-ranked of the three Hondas near Branch.
The tide went out even further in the car race, a day after many of the movers and shakers of the sport had a ghoulish experience in the first stage. Stรฉphane Peterhansel bounced back from his 32-minute loss yesterday to claim his fiftieth stage win (see “Performance of the day”) and put himself back in contention. Meanwhile, Sรฉbastien Loeb started the day 23 minutes behind Guillaume de Mevius, but his finish within 29 seconds of “Peter” catapulted him to 4โฒ47โณ from Carlos Sainz, the new sheriff in town. Experience carried the day, with Nasser Al Attiyah, also on the back foot yesterday, moving into more familiar reaches (seventh).
“It was good, very fast. We pushed from the beginning, but we broke a rear arm and we stopped for more than ten minutes to repair. I think it’s a weak point of this car because Sรฉb’ broke the same arm yesterday. We’ll try to speak with the team to fix the problems. I enjoy the car a lot, even with all the problems we had today and yesterday, we’re still in the game, it’s only twelve minutes in the overall.” – Nasser Al Attiyah
The top 10 of the Ultimate class in Al Duwadimi features all the favourites, including the rising stars that shone yesterday, Seth Quintero (fourth) and Guillaume de Mevius (fifth). The hierarchy is also starting to emerge in the Challenger class, where the Goczaล family’s three Taurus cars flexed their muscles. Eryk, still undefeated and still only 19, secured a new triumph and leads a Goczaล whitewash on the provisional podium.
Can-Am is back on top of the SSV race thanks to Gerard Farrรฉs, who clinched the stage ahead of Xavier de Soultrait and is the new master of the overall, and the Portuguese Joรฃo Ferreira, who came in third. Janus van Kasteren is still in control of the truck competition, but Aleลก Loprais gave him a proper scare today by finishing within 6 seconds of the Dutchman.
CLASSIC RALLY
Lidia Ruba, the victorious co-driver in the 2023 Dakar Classic, is showing her dogged determination in her third start, this time in a replica of the Porsche that Jacky Ickx drove in 1986. However, she will tell anyone who listens that she would rather spend early January with her three children.
According to her driver โand husbandโ Juan Morera, the only reason she agreed to enter was so that he did not end up with another co-driver who might not know how to handle him.
The Spanish couple emerged victorious from the prologue, only for an electrical problem to send them careening down the standings yesterday. Even so, they won four out of six tests despite finishing the second and third tests emptyhanded.
Today’s provisional results again mark them as the victors in four tests, this time out of five! Lidia will continue to keep a close eye on her husband and on the trophy.
WORLD RALLY-RAID CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE
The motorbike constructor duel is starting to take shape after two days of racing in Season 3 of the W2RC. Ross Branch, in command of the overall for the last two days, raised the white banner of the Indian squad in his role as team leader, aided by Sebastian Bรผhler’s fourth place finish today.
Cornejo netted Honda the stage win, but the red banner shines even prouder in the general standings, where Nacho, Brabec and Quintanilla rank second through fourth on their CRF 450 Rally motorbikes. It is the kind of teamwork that has already brought the reds two manufacturers’ titles. Even so, the fresh recruit Joan Barreda could be just what Hero need to throw HRC into disarray.
As “Bang Bang” chases his thirtieth stage win, it could be a good idea to start engraving the letter H on the FIM Manufacturers’ Trophy to save time.
