Argentines Kevin Benavides, on motorcycles, and Pablo Copetti, on quadricycles, were forced to leave this Wednesday due to mechanical failures, while the 10th was passing. stage of the Dakar Rally automobile crossing, which takes place in the territory of Saudi Arabia.
In this way, the illusions of the Argentine pilots of entering the podium area in their respective categories escaped in the first sections of Stage 10, which includes the itinerary between Wadi Ad Dawasir and Bisha.
The first misfortune corresponded to Benavides from Salta, when at kilometer 133, he suffered the explosion of the engine of his KTM machine. “It is very sad. It was very good, today was a good day to defend the number 1, but the engine exploded. Thank you very much to all of you who have always been there and we will have to return, ”Benavides commented on official TV, while he waited for the helicopter to take him to the bivouac.
“With great helplessness I have to tell you that I am out of the race. I wanted to defend that number one as it was and the conditions were in place to be able to fight until the end,” the Salta, winner of the last edition, lamented on his social networks.
A few kilometers later, an identical situation suffered from the American nationalized from Cordoba, who was second in the general classification, behind the Frenchman Alexandre Giroud.
Copetti, who had prevailed in the ninth stage and had cut five minutes the difference that the leader had to place himself at just over 24m., Felt the cracking noise of the engine of the Yamaha unit. At the time of abandonment, the 46-year-old nationalized American was running second on the stage, behind Giroud, 25 seconds behind.
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