Dakar review: shocking results in cars, Loprais lost the first place. How are the Czechs doing at the Dakar Rally?

The Dakar Rally has finished Friday’s, and therefore the sixth, stage, which was significantly unfavourable to the favourites. The Czech driver Aleš Loprais lost his lead in the truck standings, while in the car category three elite drivers are out of the game! How are the Czechs doing?

Friday’s stage of the Dakar Rally brought shocking results, not only in the truck category, where Aleš Loprais is competing, but also in the car category. Three elite drivers are already out of the game – Stéphane Peterhansel was even at the top of the standings after 212 kilometres, but then suffered an accident.

His co-driver Edouard Boulanger suffered a back injury and was subsequently taken to hospital. So it’s the end for Peterhansel, as well as his teammate Carlos Sainz, who also crashed.

Unlike the 57-year-old Frenchman, however, he was not injured. Sainz, however, had to wait several hours for assistance to arrive and tow him to the bivouac.

In addition, the Saudi Arabian home rider, Rajhi, was in a similar situation, arriving at the finish of stage six in 136th position, five hours, one minute and seventeen seconds behind, according to the official results.

Martin Prokop of the Czech Republic, who races in the colours of the Orlen Benzina Team, finished 13th in Friday’s stage with a 21-minute deficit. However, he moved up to eighth in the overall standings thanks to the poor results of his rivals.

Another stage win was scored by Nasser al-Attiyah, who also leads the Dakar Rally so far in the car category. Sébastien Loeb, who currently holds sixth place in the overall standings, finished second, 3½ minutes behind.

Trucks

The lead in the truck category was unfortunately lost by Ales Loprais. He finished the sixth stage in sixth position, 26 minutes and 40 seconds behind the winner, Mitchel van den Brink. Janus van Kasteren finished second in Friday’s leg, while Martin Macík came in third place with a two and a half minute deficit.

The father of the winner of the sixth stage took the lead in the truck standings, but Loprais is 37 seconds behind. Van Kasteren is still in third place, while Macík is currently in fourth position and has to make up for half an hour’s loss.

Motorcycles

Among the motorcyclists, Luciano Benavides took the stage win. The Argentinian rider finished in 3 hours, 14 minutes and 19 seconds. Skylar Howes, the current leader of the motorcycle category, finished just 56 seconds behind him.

Unfortunately, Martin Michek lost nine minutes and finished ninth in Friday’s stage. Michek also holds the same position in the overall motorcycle standings so far, as Slovakia’s Štefan Svitko (Slovnaft Rally Team) moved ahead.

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A post shared by Martin Michek 🇨🇿 (@martinmichek232)

Michek then took to his Instagram to once again greet Czech fans and give an update on the progress of Friday’s leg. He was caught in the rain before arriving at the bivouac, but fortunately only in the last five kilometres or so.

Third place in stage six went to Toby Price. As for Milan Engel, he finished this year’s Dakar in the fourth stage, which he did not finish. In the quad category, Zdeněk Tůma, who will also not continue in the Dakar, did not start.

“On Thursday evening, when I came back from the stage, we decided after I had another crash that we would finish the race. The quad got so bad in the crashes that we don’t even have the spare parts we need to replace. Even the frame is cracked,” Tůma explained to Czech Television.

“The Dakar is a huge race, it puts a huge strain on the physique and body. And every little scratch, injury slows it down. And I already have quite a lot of them, I couldn’t do it anymore,” he added.

Sources