Disaster for Loprais: Attack on the box fails, Dakar Rally is over for him! Prokop also in trouble

The tenth stage of the Dakar Rally was truly merciless for Ales Loprais and Martin Prokop – one of them would not even reach the finish without the help of the service team, for the other the race is completely over. So how is the Czech team doing at the Dakar at the moment?

“We drove as hard as we could, but today our luck deserted us a bit. On the middle dune, where we jumped, the servo (steering) didn’t last. It’s a crucial part for us, which unfortunately we don’t have with us. So Lady cannot turn in the desert,” said Loprais after the finish, who was quoted by Sport.cz.

“We were hoping for a crate, but it didn’t work out. But that’s part of Dakar. I wanted to do it for Kája, who was looking after us. And I would like to thank everyone who cheered us on,” he concluded.

Because of the technical problems, Loprais is out of the Dakar Rally. However, he was in a solid fourth place throughout the whole rally and wanted to attack at least for bronze. However, he would not be able to do that.

Dmitry Sotnikov, who also remains at the top of the truck category, takes the victory in the tenth edition. He was joined in second and third place by other Russians, namely Eduard Nikolaev and Andrey Karginov.

Martin Macík finished sixth with the Big Shock Racing team, but he still holds eighth place in the standings.

Prokop, a native of Jihlava, was in big trouble with his car. Due to technical problems he was stuck near the 213th kilometer and the service team had to come to his aid. Thanks to that, he managed to get his car moving, but he finished the tenth stage with a big loss of almost five hours.

In the overall standings, he fell even behind Miroslav Zapletal, who currently holds the twenty-fourth position. Prokop is now only twenty-sixth. Another stage win was in any case scored by Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel.

However, Nasser al-Attiyah continues to lead the overall standings ahead of Sébastien Loeb. He has a 33-minute lead over the nine-time WRC champion.

In the motorcycles, Martin Michek finished tenth, seven minutes and 28 seconds behind stage 10 winner Toby Price. His compatriots, Jan Brabec and Milan Engel, finished in twenty-eighth and thirty-two places respectively in the tenth stage.

A solid result was recorded by quad rider Zdeněk Tůma, who finished fifth and thanks to the withdrawal of another rival he moves to position number 4 in the overall standings! However, he will probably not catch up with the top three – he is almost five hours behind Kamil Wisniewski, who is third.

Sources:: Dakar Rally, Sport.cz, Twitter