Overdrive Toyota’s Yazeed Al Rajhi, who lost out big time on the 48-hour chrono stage in last year’s Dakar Rally, thought he had achieved the best accumulated time over the two days this time around, but it was in fact his teammate Rokas Baciuška who took his first stage victory after being recredited time lost after faulty refueling, who won for the first time in his very youthful career at the age of 25 years. However, this did not prevent the Saudi driver from once again battling at the forefront of the rally, moving up to second overall behind Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Henk Lategan (pictured). Nasser Al Attiyah, too, is still primed to challenge for the overall lead, holding third place despite a 4-minute penalty for speeding on Monday. The Qatari driver is 11m14s off the lead.
Al Attiyah’s Dacia teammate Sebastien Loeb battled back from an overheating issue and is now sixth overall, 18m56s behind, trailing Overdrive’s Toby Price (+11m44s) and the first of the Ford Raptors driven by Mattias Ekstrom (+13m16s). America’s Mitch Guthrie has a second Raptor in ninth, 23m33s off the lead, but teammate Carlos Sainz Sr.’s hopes of repeating as Dakar winner look to be already over after the hour and a half he lost yesterday to a rollover and ensuing damage.
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“It feels like we just finished the whole rally, but it’s only Stage 2!” said Guthrie. “We had a good first day getting used to the car in the dunes. We had some craziness; helping out Carlos, getting stuck and a bit of navigation. We ended up opening for a while on the dunes, so that was a first for me.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Seth Quintero, who won the opening stage, remains in contact with the leaders in 13th overall, although the American is now 40m27s off the lead.
The Polaris riders continued their early domination in the SSV category, with America’s Brock Heger winning the stage in addition to his success on the prologue and Frenchman Xavier de Soultrait’s victory on the first stage. The two men currently occupy the first two places in the general rankings, with the Frenchman in the lead by 5m14s, but holding an advantage of more than one hour over third placed Alexandre Pinto.
Dutchman Paul Spierings upstaged the expected Challenger class front-runners to win the chrono stage, although Nicolas Cavigliasso, who finished just two seconds behind, retained his position as general rankings leader. America’s Corbin Leaverton is positioned strongly for the overall podium, holding third place in the general classification after achieving the same result on the chrono stage. He trails Red Bull teammate Goncalo Guerreiro, the pair 6m20s and 18m24s off the lead respectively.
On two wheels, Australian Daniel Sanders increased his bike advantage to 12m36s, with the pursuit now led by American Skyler Howes of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing after fellow American Ricky Brabec placed eighth on the chrono and is now fifth overall.
“When you’re opening, there’s no line so you don’t know if it’s going to be a soft or hard dune,” said Sanders. “Everyone bunched up because of the dust, so we were fighting to get the opening bonus. I don’t feel tired at all. I’m ready for what’s still to come.”
Tomorrow the Dakar contenders depart Bisha for the final time and head north to Al Henakiyah. The opening section of Stage 3 will be technical and a test for the bikers in particular. Then, the speeds will be stepped up as the convoy moves towards its new home for the night. The timed special stage measures a modified distance of 327km/203 miles, plus there’s also a liaison route of 521km/324 miles to tackle.