Since 2015 no Spaniard has raised the Tuareg in the motorcycle category. Marc Coma, who did it five times, was the last to do it. Tosha Schareina He wants to end that drought and continues to fight to win his first Dakar. The Honda rider had a good stage yesterday, which helped him cut more than three minutes off the leader, the Australian Daniel Sanders, who is managing his gap in the general classification very well. After crossing the finish line in Al Duwadimi and covering the 829 kilometers of the stage (605 special), the Valencian is 11 minutes and 46 seconds behind with six stages left to finish the toughest rally in the world.
The next three days could be crucial, as they are held on rocky terrain while the last three stages will be run on sand, where it is much more difficult to make a difference, although David Casteradirector of the Dakar, assured that the penultimate stage, which begins and ends in Shubaytah (507 total kilometers, 275 special), was more complicated than it seemed, so it could be crucial.
The winner of the stage was finally Ricky Brabeccurrent Tuareg champion, so this Sunday he will have to open the track in the Al Duwadimi loop. The American finished ahead of his Honda teammate, Adrien Van Beveren, with Hero’s Chilean José Ignacio Cornejo 51 seconds behind and Tosha in fourth place at 2’27”. Santolino, who for some time led the stagefought for victory until the end but could not achieve the second victory of his career in the Dakar and finished sixth, behind Luciano Benavides, 3’47” behind Brabec.
This sixth stage also provided a scare for Edgar Canetwhich leads the Rally2 classification. The 19-year-old debutant fell at kilometer 45 of the qualifying session, which forced him to stop for five minutes due to the severe pain he felt in his hand. In the end everything was a scare and he was able to continue the race, although KTM is pending the review of that sore handin which they will try to rule out a fracture. That fall caused him to lose time, although after the link, feeling recovered, he gave gas again, coming back and joining Santolino and Quintanilla in the dunes. Finally, he finished 12’58” behind Brabec and lost less than 5 minutes on Ebsterwhich is the one that precedes him in the silver category, so he remains leader of Rally2 by 11’56” over the Austrian.
The day on motorcycles also led to two abandonments. The current FIM W2RC raid world champion, Ross Branch He fell at kilometer 48 and had to abandon the test due to the strong impact, having to be evacuated by the helicopter. He also abandoned Bradley Coxwho was in 11th place overall before the start of the stage. The South African suffered a fall 100 meters after starting. He lasted 48 more kilometers, but decided to give up.
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