I may not have gone for a walk, but the second stage ended up being one for Al Attiyah that he forgot to look for the limit a long time ago. The Qatari does not need to do it to succeed, he has been demonstrating it since the beginning of the year, and avoiding risks helps in some way and is almost decisive when it comes to continue to consolidate leadership which seems immovable. There are three more days of the race left, but the almost 20 minutes that it has of margin with Al Rajhi they are a guarantee that the Toyota driver only has to know how to manage. And Nasser has more than demonstrated that in these situations he can hardly be blamed for mistakes, beyond those that the desert itself can cause.
Regardless of external factors, Al Attiyah is still the best. Because against a problem-free Loeb (until he reached the finish line), the Qatari’s advantage over what was to be his main rival in this test was more than seven minutes. To those who later 15 minutes had to be added that of BRX once exceeded the goal, since did not validate a waypoint, and the initial 50 that the team already had due to the change of engine after the breakdown it suffered in the first stage. Two setbacks that have not only punished the Frenchman overall in the race, but also in his search for points for the World Cup.
Things are not turning out, or even close, to what I expected a Loeb that came to the front of the championship. And in their absence in the fight for the first places, they have beenor Al Rajhi and Prokop Today, those who have been in charge of replacing, or imposing, depending on how you want to see it, the French. Because in the end the races just count Who wins and who loses, regardless of the ways, and the BRX pilot is being the worst off. But not all are setbacks. Especially for a ekstrom who is now fighting for a good performance in T3 and they only had to go through two stages to curdle it. The Swede, who also ran out of gasoline on Monday due to unexpected consumption that Cristina Gutiérrez also suffered, took the stage while the Spanish finished sixth.
Luciano Benavides keeps winning
It may seem excessive to talk about revelations in this type of race, but on a global level Luciano Benavides It is being in a season where it has gone from everything to nothing. The Argentinian debuted as a winner in the Dakar and can also say that has triumphed in the second appointment of the year with a victory that brings him closer to the lead (it is three minutes away) that Honda continues to maintain. The race escaped the Japanese factory by just over a minute, and this time it was Cornejo his best asset in a day where the reality of the category was relived: opening track has a price despite the bonuses and the one who paid Quintanilla was to fall to ninth position. The Chilean suffered too much and took advantage of Van Beveren (5th) to take a lead that each time has more suitors.
Classification cars Stage 2
Enlarge
Motorcycle classification Stage 2
Enlarge
