Dakar: bittersweet balance for the Argentine legion

The Dakar ends with a bittersweet taste for the Argentine legion that from January 1 to this Friday tried to travel more than eight thousand kilometers (4,200 of them against the clock), divided into 12 stages, throughout the sandy and rocky geography of Saudi Arabia. Held in that country for the third consecutive year after more than a decade in South America, where a new competitive horizon was lit up for the region’s pilots, the most important test of the Cross Country modality (which this year debuts as part of the new world championship steered by the FIA) andHe missed the opportunity for Kevin Benavides and Manuel Andújar to revalidate the victories achieved on motorcycles and quads in 2021. Neither could do it: the former had an engine problem on stage ten, when climbing up the general classification, while the latter hit hard on stage six, while sitting third overall. The good news came from the car side, where two Argentines finished in the Top 10: Orlando Terranova achieved the best result of his career by finishing fourth and Sebastián Halpern surprised by climbing to eighth position.

motorcycles

Benavides had won on a Honda bike, and this year he moved under the roof of KTM, historically the strongest two-wheeler. He was one of the main candidates in a category that, after ten years of alternating dominance between Marc Coma and Cyril Despres between 2006 and 2015, since 2016 presents every year no less than ten riders with chances to fight above. The Argentine had an unforgettable first stage, finishing 20th overall due to 36 minutes lost due to navigation problems. Since then, he did nothing more than smooth that difference, to the point of culminating the ninth day in fifth position and just ten minutes from the lead. But the next day everything changed: “I was driving very well and then the engine failed. I feel for the shit, it’s really very sad. We push every day, we try to get back to the front, to fight. I wanted to defend my number 1″, said the man from Salta with tears in his eyes as soon as he arrived at the camp.

Sunderland won the event for the second time in their career. (EFE)

The possibility of re-enlisting – that is, continuing to compete in the later stages, although already out of the general classification – gave him the sad consolation of winning the penultimate stage, cataloged by the organizers as the most difficult due to its mix of surfaces. Meanwhile, the fight for the lead heated up with the constant changes of leader and the final sprint of the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla, who finally finished second just three and a half minutes behind the British Sam Sunderland, In this way, he achieved his second victory after the one achieved in 2017. Three Argentines fulfilled the objective of completing the adventure: Luciano Benavides, Kevin’s brother, finished in 13th position, while Diego Gamaliel Llanos and Diego Noras did it 26th. and 53rd, respectively.

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cars

Like Benavides, Orlando Terranova made a career from less to more. Located during the first stages around the 10th position, with the passing of the days the Mendoza was gaining speed and reducing inconveniences, two essential conditions to obtain good results in a race of this type.. So much so that he managed to win the sixth stage, something he had not achieved since 2015. by dint of regularity climbed to the fourth final position, thus surpassing the fifth places it had achieved in 2013 and 2014. That same regularity opened the doors to the Top 10 for Sebastián Halpern, who also achieved the best position of his career by finishing eighth, one place ahead of her 2018 result. Further back were Lucio Álvarez (18th) and Juan Cruz Yacopini (20th), while Paraguayan Andrea Lafarja, sailed by Argentine Eugenio Andrés Arrieta, finished 64th.

Álvarez’s final position – who had not raced since 2015 – is not consistent with a performance that, until the problem with his car that caused him to lose several hours, was remarkable. fighting inch by inch for the top of the standings with drivers of the caliber of multiple rally champions Carlos Sainz and Sebastien Loeb, the 14-time Dakar winner Stéphane Peterhansel and Nasser Al-Attiyah, who claimed yet another victory. The Qatari achieved what few did by leading the competition from end to end, courtesy of the regularity of his Toyota but, above all, of the difference that he was quickly able to make thanks to the mechanical flaws of his rivals. Mainly, those of the Audi team, which presented an electric prototype that arrived at the start without even a previous test. That translated into several problems in the first stages for Peterhansel and Sainz, which they solved after the rest day to show the full potential of a car that won in four stages – the first electric car to do so – and everything already points out as a firm candidate. for the 2023 edition.

ATVs

The star category for Latin Americans during the local years is in sharp decline since the emergence of buggies, which edition after edition increases its park to the detriment of quads. In this race there were only 19 such vehicles, and more than half dropped out. Among them was Manuel Andújar, who until his accident in stage six was in third position. The absence of the defending champion paved the way for the first and comfortable victory of Frenchman Alexandre Giroud by more than two hours over Argentinean Francisco Moreno. The other surviving national rider was Carlos Alejandro Verza, who reached the finish line in a creditable sixth position.

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