Dakar Review: a nightmare for Sainz, Czech crews lead the truck category! How are our riders doing after the third stage?

The third stage of this year’s Dakar Rally again brought many great experiences, but also many heart attack moments. And not only from the Czech point of view. Carlos Sainz, for example, experienced a complete tragedy, but Aleš Loprais and Jaroslav Valtr, who lead the truck category, are experiencing great success. How are the Czechs after the third day?

The third leg of this year’s Dakar was significantly affected by the weather. Tuesday’s stage was supposed to promise mainly desert driving, but after the rain flood the participants drove about 70 to 80 kilometres less than the originally planned 447 kilometres.

However, the main reason for the shortening of the route was that heavy rain and, according to the organisers, very thick clouds were moving towards the route from the finish of the third stage. And as you can see in the attached twitter post below, for some crews such a course simply became unrealistic to complete successfully.

Cars – disaster for Sainz, Prokop seventeenth

Spain’s Sainz, for example, has his own story to tell, although he didn’t live his nightmare because of the weather. The two-time WRC champion went into Tuesday’s 467-kilometre special as the leader of the car category with a lead of two minutes and 12 seconds over second-placed Nasser al-Attiyah.

However, he had to stop after 213 kilometres due to problems with his left rear tyre, with the technical fault costing him 30 minutes of time. He then managed to get his car moving again, only to have navigation problems cost him another 20 minutes later in the stage.

As a result, he finished the third stage in thirty-ninth place and Qatar’s Al-Attiyah took over the lead in this year’s Dakar.

The car category was won by Frenchman Chicherit, but he moved up to ninth place in the overall standings. Martin Prokop dropped to tenth in the standings after his seventeenth place on Tuesday.

“The stage was very fast. We kept the throttle and the rhythm going, but unfortunately it turned out what we expected, that we didn’t have enough power. When the fast track, the soft sand after the rain and the altitude come together, because we are at 1,000 metres, our atmospheric engine doesn’t pull. We’ll be at this altitude for days. That’s the struggle, but we keep going,” said Prokop, whose words were quoted by Sport.cz.

“Trucks – an amazing Czech pilgrimage

Aleš Loprais and Jaroslav Valtr have been doing a great job so far at this year’s Dakar Rally. The former is currently leading the truck category, with Valtr right behind Loprais in second place.

Martin Macík also did well on Tuesday’s stage, even coming second after 288 kilometres. At the 378th kilometre, his crew was even the fastest among the trucks and won the stage based on the official Dakar Rally results. He is fifth in the standings.

Motorcycles – Sanders wins, Michek eighteenth

Daniel Sanders was the winner of Tuesday’s stage among motorcyclists, with Kevin Benavides setting the second fastest time and Skylar Howes third. Sanders took over the overall lead with his first place and third stage time, four minutes and four seconds ahead of second-placed Mason Klein.

However, the bad news came from the doctors when one of the favourites, Ricky Brabec, injured his neck in a crash and was taken to hospital for a detailed examination. Czech Martin Michek was 18th in Tuesday’s stage and moved up to number 17 in the overall standings.

However, he is 48 minutes and 19 seconds behind leader Sanders. Afterwards, Michek greeted Czech fans on Instagram and described his progress during the stage.

View post on Instagram

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

Sources:: Dakar Rally, Martin Michek – Instagram, Sport.cz