Motorsport
Michek has another great result, Loprais still leads! Carlos Sainz has suffered a heavy crash. How are the Czechs doing at the Dakar Rally?
The Dakar Rally has already completed its ninth stage, which, as usual, has brought a lot. Carlos Sainz suffered a heavy crash, while Sébastien Loeb dominated the car category on Tuesday. The truck category is still led by Ales Loprais, with a very solid result by Martin Michek! How are the Czech drivers doing at the Dakar Rally?
The Dakar Rally has already completed its ninth stage, which, as usual, has brought a lot. Carlos Sainz suffered a heavy crash, while Sébastien Loeb dominated the car category on Tuesday. The truck category is still led by Ales Loprais, with a very solid result by Martin Michek! How are the Czech drivers doing at the Dakar Rally?
Sébastien Loeb dominated Tuesday’s action with a time of 3 hours, 7 minutes and 24 seconds. Lithuania’s Vaidotas Zala finished second, just 57 seconds behind the nine-time WRC champion.
After the Frenchman’s two-minute penalty was deducted, of course. Loeb and Zala were then joined on the podium by Guerlain Chicherit, who lost two minutes and eight seconds to first place.
This was Loeb’s third stage win of the year and his 19th career Dakar Rally victory overall. Mattias Ekstrom brought Audi the consolation of fourth place in Tuesday’s special, five minutes and 11 seconds behind winner Loeb.
On the other hand, Sainz, one of the two remaining Audi drivers after the withdrawal of Stéphane Peterhansel in the opening week, suffered a serious crash after just six kilometres of this special when his car overturned while climbing a dune.
Czech Martin Prokop finished Tuesday’s stage in 14th place, 17 and a half minutes behind winner Loeb. The car category is still dominated by Qatar’s Nasser al-Attiyah, with a time of 34 hours, 19 minutes and 20 seconds, according to the official results.
Lucas Moraes is currently second with a loss of one hour and almost 22 minutes. Frenchman Loeb, whose current deficit is one hour and 43 minutes, climbed to third place after Tuesday’s stage.
Loprais still leads the truck standings!
Czech rider Ales Loprais still leads the truck competition, although Tuesday’s stage was won by Dutchman Janus van Kasteren with a time of 3 hours, 40 minutes and 52 seconds. Pascal de Baar came in second place with a deficit of three minutes and six seconds.
The fastest Czech in the ninth stage was Jaroslav Valtr, who placed third in the standings. Loprais finished the ninth stage in fourth position, having lost eleven minutes.
At the end of Tuesday’s action, however, five Czechs were in the top ten – Valtr third, Loprais fourth, Tomas Vrátný sixth, Martin Šoltys seventh and Martin Macík tenth. It should be added how erratic Tuesday’s action was as evidenced by the following video.
But as we wrote above, despite the fourth place Loprais still leads the trucks, with almost 27 minutes lead on Van Kasteren. Taking third, Martin van den Brink is already just over 46 minutes behind. Fourth and fifth place are currently held by two Czech drivers.
Macík, in the colours of the MM Technology team, is already 1 hour and 17 minutes behind the first Loprais, and fifth-placed Valtr is over 2 and a half hours behind.
Motorcycle categories
Luciano Benavides won among the bikers, with Toby Price losing one minute to his winning time of 3H 18′ 44′. Skylar Howes came in third place with a deficit of less than three minutes. A very good result was achieved by Martin Michek.
The Czech biker set the seventh fastest time and after his recent lifetime best at the Dakar Rally is moving up the rankings. Michek is now twelfth, but Howes still leads the motorcycle standings.
Below you can see his traditional greeting to the Czech fans and his assessment of the ninth stage.
Michek had a major health problem before Monday’s rest day, which he suffered in Sunday’s stage. It was then that he broke his right foot and had to forcefully put on his racing shoes for the rest of the Dakar Rally.
However, it seems that despite his health problems, the Czech motorcycle racer is able to achieve great results. Let’s wish not only him, but also our other legionnaires a lot of success in the next stages.
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