Macík achieved an excellent result at Dakar! How are the Czechs doing after the ninth stage?

The Dakar Rally continues with the ninth stage. Martin Macík showed an absolutely great ride in the trucks, who took third place and split the dominant Russians! Martin Prokop, on the other hand, was not at all satisfied with his result. How did the Czechs do in Tuesday’s stages?

The native of Benešov came in for an amazing third place in the trucks. Macík was in second place for most of the ninth stage, but at the end he was beaten by the leader of the standings, Russian Dmitrij Sotnikov, by just three seconds.

The thirty-two-year-old Czech rider was, however, a bit angry after the finish, specifically at Ignacio Casale.

“It’s a pity, we could have had a win, but unfortunately Ignacio didn’t want to let us go. We don’t know why, he didn’t want anything at all. From the seventieth kilometer we were behind him, we caught up with him, but we couldn’t overtake him. We are upset, but third place is great,” said Macík after the finish, quoted by Sport.cz.

Ales Loprais finished sixth in Tuesday’s stage, six minutes and four seconds behind the winner Eduard Nikolaev. In the standings, the order of the top five riders remains unchanged – Sotnikov is still the leader, followed by Nikolaev and Anton Shibalov, while Loprais is still in fourth place. Macík is also still ninth.

The ninth stage in motorcycles was dominated by José Ignacio Cornejo, who defends the colours of the Monster Energy Honda team. Martin Michek finished fifteenth and we have to admit that he didn’t put in a bad performance at all. Thanks to this position, he moved up to number 19 in the standings.

Another Czech rider, Jan Brabec, has to settle for twenty-fourth place, while he is 22nd overall.

The car category was dominated by the Toyota Gazoo Racing team in the ninth stage. Giniel de Villiers took the victory, with Henk Lategan finishing second and Nasser al-Attiyah third. Monday’s winner, Mattias Ekström, has to settle for fourth place. Frenchman Sébastien Loeb rounds out the top five.

Eleven minutes and 27 seconds behind de Villiers was Prokop, who only saw the finish line in twenty-second place. He was of course very upset after the finish and not very proud of his performance. In an interview afterwards he said that the engine of his car was very weak and his rivals were going 15 to 20 kilometres per hour faster. So there was some frustration on his part.

In any case, he is still eighth in the standings. Zdeněk Tůma, a quadricyclist, takes seventh place from Tuesday’s stage, but he is fifth overall. In the light prototype category, Josef Macháček is still in seventh place.

Sources:: Rallye Dakar, Sport.cz