“Piano, piano, si va lontano”, say the Italians, and that is a maxim that takes on maximum prominence in the Dakar. Little by little, she goes far. This is how Carlos Sainz has approached the dispute of this Dakar, aware that he still has ten stages ahead of him in which he must demonstrate that his experience is a degree and not a simple statistical curiosity in the competition.
El Matador will reach the third stage of the toughest raid in the world as leader of the general classification. Despite having a day that could clearly be improved, the Audi driver has masterfully taken on the task of containing him. With Guillaume de Mevius, as expected, giving up first place in the first kilometres, it was Stéphane Peterhansel who did not fail his appointment of the last 35 years, reaching 50 stage victories and equaling the historic Ari Vatanen in partials in the toughest raid in the world. He achieved it after having a good duel with another 'morlaco' of off-road motorsport, Sebastien Loeb, who entered less than half a minute at the finish line of 'Monsieur Dakar'. The Frenchman was the leader of Prodrive with the Hunter, since Nasser Al-Attiyah gave way to 6 and a half minutes. He continues in the fight, without letting go of his grip, although still somewhat far from the overall lead.
That head is for Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz. The Spanish duo did not have a comfortable day, which is demonstrated by the 17 minutes they lost with their teammate Peterhansel in the final finish line, but it did allow them to close the second stage with almost 2 minutes of advantage over the Saudi Yazeed Al-Rahji and some more than 4 over Loeb, who is presented as the first great rival for the Spaniard's options in this edition of the raid. Audi's big day was completed by Ekstrom, who finished just ahead of Sainz, both in a great 'top 10'.
The Spanish brilliance was not only Sainz, since Laia Sanz, with the Astara, and Nani Roma, with the M-Sport Ford, also finished in the 'top 20' of the stage and left the reddish seal on the sands of Al-Duwadimi before the full stage this Monday.
Goodbye to Santolino: Barreda remains
It seems that becoming the first Spanish candidate in the Dakar is a curse in this edition. After the early abandonment of Tosha Schareina in stage 1, in this second it was Lorenzo Santolino's turn. The one from Sherco was putting together a good performance, or so he had shown on Saturday and in the prologue on Friday, but this Sunday he had to say goodbye. He did it very angry, because there was no accident involved, an inopportune stone or similar, but a mechanical breakdown. His Sherco has only lasted three days of Dakar, proving once again the maxim that this is a test of endurance not only for the drivers, but also for their machines.
This makes Joan Barreda the only real alternative for the Spanish Navy on two wheels in this Dakar. The Valencian, with the newly released Hero project, reached the finish line just over 9 and a half minutes behind the winner of the day, Nacho Cornejo, who knew how to take advantage of the difficulties of a stage marked by the dunes in which he was fighting until the end for maintaining the minimum advantage over Luciano Benavides, second, and Pablo Quintanilla, third. The winner of the day took the victory despite a fall in a complex rocky area, but it was nothing serious or serious.
Botswana's Ross Branch holds the overall lead for just 2 and a half minutes after almost 900 kilometers of Dakar disputed. There is still a lot left and not everything has been decided at this point. Barreda is just over 21 minutes from the lead, closing the 'top 10' of the classification.
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