Dakar | Trucks, Stage 10: Sotnikov “stretches”, Loprais gives up

The goal was reached three days earlier than the checkered flag of Dakar number 44: the Kamaz Master team has reconstituted the poker at the top of the general classification reserved for trucks in Stage 10 that brought the bison caravan of the road from Wadi in Dawasir in Bisha after a special stage of 375 kilometers.

Dmitry Sotnikov celebrates his fourth victory in this edition and keeps Eduard Nikolaev at a minimum distance, placed both in the special (almost a minute and a half) and in the absolute where the gap remains minimal, just over ten minutes. In the “game” of alternations, the winner of the last edition of the Arab raid has returned to stand out, replying to the statement made by the Tsar yesterday, but the news of the day is that Andrey Karginov, third in the stage at 1’39 “, joins the teammates and moves to fourth place overall, because Ales Loprais has disappeared from the scene.

The Czech saw the dream of being the “first of the others” vanish already at the beginning of today’s special: at kilometer 3 his Praga V4S DKR stopped and Ales immediately asked for assistance, informing the management race that the crew was fine. Gert Huzink’s Renault C460 Hybrid also stopped and he must have tried to help. The fact is that Loprais had to raise the white flag when he could have matched his best result in the Dakar with fourth place in 2015.

The Russian army, therefore, defeats all forms of resistance by demolishing any opponent who could remain within range. With the departure of Loprais the role of first pursuer is again taken by Janus Van Kasteren but with a sidereal gap of over two and a half hours!

The Dutchman is followed by two teammates of the Petronas De Rooy team, Van den Brink and Verstaijnen, while in the “derby” Iveco Powerstar, the Czech Martin Macik with the Big Shock Racing vehicle is only eighth.

The Lithuanian Paskevicius enters the ten with the Tatra Jamal immediately behind De Groot’s Iveco Magirus.

The general classification
Stage 10 (Wadi ad Dawasir – Bisha)
special: 375 km; transfer: 384 km; total: 759 km