South African competitors embrace stage 10 of Dakar
Barring any serious mishaps or mechanical challenges, it would seem that Nasser Al-Attiyah will bag his fifth Dakar win.
Dakar’s stage 10 bombarded competitors with 114km of sand and more sand, but the South African bike and car competitors did well.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Nasser Al-Attiyah still led the cars and Botswana’s Ross Branch took his second stage win in as many days. Another South African, Mike Docherty, now features third overall in the rookie class.
Cars
Sebastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin once again proved relentless in their pursuit of Al-Attiyah, but closing the gap, unless something drastic happens, seemed unlikely. Al-Attiyah may well be on his way to win his fifth Dakar race.
Rookie Lukas Moraes, in another Hilux, delivered a stunning performance to finish second position overall. Henk Lategan and Giniel de Villiers have moved down in the top positions, with Brian Baragwanath in a Century CR6-T now sitting in eighth position. This means that South African built and developed cars now lead in three classes.
Bikes
Branch on his Factory Hero and Docherty’s R2 amateur-class FK Husqvarna were giving it their all from the start of this stage.
Docherty is back in the top 20, overall in 19th, as he now leads the motorcycle rookie rankings. SA Malle Mote Hero Charan Moore finished 52nd after a tough day, but he’d crucially done enough to hold onto his 21-minute overall no-service class lead.
South African Iron Lady Kirsten Landman occupies 79th.
SA rookie leaders Eben Basson and Leander Pienaar in the T3 side-by-side prototype class ran 14th to retain their seventh spot overall. Twelfth overall in this class is Geoff Minnitt, and Gerhard Snyman ended in 20th position on the day.
With four days of racing still to go, anything can happen to topple the apple cart. In the Dakar race, the impossible is always possible.
Source: MotorsportMedia
