Home » Moraes takes victory as the race heats up

Moraes takes victory as the race heats up

The seventh stage of the Dakar Rally was somewhat chaotic. The leading cars faced issues at kilometer 158 due to an error in the roadbook, resulting in a group of 10-15 vehicles traveling together. Lucas Moraes kept his composure, capitalized on the tracks left by the cars ahead, and secured yet another stage win for Toyota.

This marked Toyota’s seventh win in this year’s Dakar Rally. The Overdrive Racing and Gazoo Racing teams are enjoying a dominant performance, with six Toyotas finishing in the top ten during the seventh stage.

Behind Moraes, Mattias Ekström in the Ford Raptor took second place, finishing 7:41 behind. His teammate Mitchell Guthrie secured third, 9:28 back. Nasser Al-Attiyah came fourth in his Dacia Sandrider, and Seth Quintero rounded out the top five in the Hilux.

The roadbook error caused some chaos on the stage, with the leading group losing significant time. However, the organizers compensated for this, ensuring the 30-minute loss didn’t harm the title contenders.

In the overall standings, Henk Lategan’s lead narrowed. The South African now holds a slim 21-second advantage over Yazeed Al Rajhi. Ekström closed the gap to 10 minutes, and Al-Attiyah is 21 minutes behind. Guthrie remains in fifth, trailing by 40 minutes. With the remaining stages, the car category promises an exciting finish.

For the second consecutive day, Ronald van Loon was the fastest Dutch driver in his Red-Lined. He finished 31st, while Maik Willems claimed 34th. Dave Klaassen finished 37th after a tumultuous sixth stage, during which they lost over three hours helping a motorbike rider and endured a short night. Stefan Carmans came 38th, and Rik van den Brink 40th. Tim Coronel, who had to head straight from the previous stage to the start, was sent back and not allowed to start. He and his team will continue tomorrow in the Dakar Experience.

Challengers

It was another thrilling day in the Challenger category. Today, the battle was between debutant Corbin Leaverton and the previous day’s winner, Yasir Seaidan. Leaverton emerged victorious, finishing 24 seconds ahead of Seaidan. Pau Navarro took third, just over three minutes behind.

The overall top three followed close behind. Goncalo Guerreiro finished fourth, Nicolas Cavigliasso fifth, and Paul Spierings sixth. Cavigliasso remained the overall leader, 30 minutes ahead of Guerreiro and 42 minutes ahead of Spierings.

Puck Klaassen delivered another strong performance, finishing 15th and moving up to seventh in the overall standings. Lex Peters finished 21st, Gert-Jan van der Valk 25th, and Richard Aczel 28th. Marinus Streppel is still on the course.

SSVs

The SSV category was just as exciting, with a close battle between Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli and Brock Heger. Ferioli edged out Heger by 51 seconds, but Heger retained his overall lead. Francisco Lopez Contardo took the third-fastest time.

In the overall standings, Heger extended his lead, now sitting 1 hour and 35 minutes ahead of Xavier de Soultrait. Lopez Contardo remained in third, trailing by 1 hour and 56 minutes. De Soultrait faced power steering issues, which cost him valuable time.

Roger Grouwels finished 16th in the stage, maintaining his seventh position in the overall standings. Sander Derikx finished 21st.

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