Al-Rajhi wins 48hr test, Lategan takes lead and Sainz loses time

Yazeed Al-Rajhi got here out on prime within the 48-hour chrono stage on the Dakar Rally as Henk Lategan took over the general lead.

Toyota privateer Al-Rajhi completed with a time of 10h32m54s, 4m29s up on Dacia’s Nasser Al-Attiyah after the duo pulled clear on the primary day of the mammoth stage.

Manufacturing unit Toyota driver Lategan took over from Seth Quintero on the prime of the general rankings after ending 6m16s down on the stage winner.

Day one of many stage noticed among the rally protagonists hit hassle, with Carlos Sainz rolling his Ford Raptor over and Sebastien Loeb affected by fan issues, permitting Al-Rajhi and Al-Attiyah to stretch clear.

#225 Ford M-Sport Ford: Carlos Sainz, Lucas Cruz

Photograph by: A.S.O.

Opponents have been tasked with finishing as a lot of the route as potential in the course of the first day of the stage, with a cutoff of 5pm native time splitting the stage into two components.

After tenting at their ending factors in a single day, the main duo had 341km left to journey to finish the stage on day two, with Mattias Ekstrom hanging on to a top-three place. Whereas Al-Rajhi gained two minutes over Al-Attiyah from the day’s beginning gaps on the 782km mark, Spaniards Nani Roma and Cristina Gutierrez hit hassle, the latter pressured to retire to the bivouac and finish her possibilities of victory. She is going to be capable to rejoin the rally to help the opposite Dacia drivers.

Reigning W2RC champion Al-Attiyah was in a position to lower the hole to Al-Rajhi again to only over a minute with barely 100km left within the stage – and at one level earlier than that had slashed the benefit to only 26 seconds – however would lose out within the closing phases to complete over 4 minutes again. Lategan took the rally lead together with his third-place end on the stage, although that turned second when bonuses have been utilized.

#201 Overdrive Racing Toyota: Yazeed Al Rajhi, Timo Gottschalk

Photograph by: A.S.O.

Juan Cruz Yacopini was fourth, 6m46s down on the stage-winning time however over three minutes up on fifth-placed Mathieu Serradori. Rokas Baciuska could not maintain his robust fourth-position standing from early within the day and completed sixth forward of Loeb, who was in a position to consolidate his rally place regardless of his points.

Ekstrom misplaced time on day two of the Chrono to slide to eighth, whereas Toby Value was ninth after minor problems with his personal. Mitch Guthrie Jr accomplished the highest 10 for the stage, whereas navigation points late on noticed Sainz drop over an hour in rally time in complete, ending the stage twenty third.

Lategan leads the rally by 4m45s over Al-Rajhi, with Al-Attiyah virtually seven minutes additional again in third, with Value fourth, Ekstrom fifth and Loeb sixth, all inside 20 minutes of the general lead.

The following problem for the rivals would be the third particular stage, with 495km of timed working and 352km of untimed journey from the Bisha bivouac to Al Henakiyah.