Yahoo Autos Moraes claims first Dakar stage win as Al Rajhi takes overall lead
Lucas Moraes surged to victory in Monday’s high-speed third stage of the Dakar Rally, the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver bringing his Hilux home 9s clear of the Audi RS Q e-tron of Mattias Ekström. The Brazilian, who placed third in last year’s Dakar, outran the Swede over the 438km/272-mile run from Al Duwadimi to Al Salamiya for his first career stage win.
“It was an unbelievable stage, but I have to give it up to Armand [Monleon, co-driver], because the navigation was very tricky and he was on point on everything,” said Moraes. “We had a good pace and didn’t have any punctures. We even stopped to help Seth [Quintero] — we gave our spare wheel to him so he could finish as well. It was a perfect day.”
Yazeed Al Rajhi completed the day’s podium, 1m09s behind the winner in his Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux, and moved into the overall lead, 29s ahead of Audi’s Carlos Sainz, who was sixth today with his Audi. Ekström holds third, 8m26s behind, with Moraes fourth and 9m17s in arrears. Reigning Dakar champion Nasser Al Attiyah climbed back into contention with his Prodrive Hunter after placing fourth on today’s stage, having shown pace-setting pace in the day’s early running. The Qatari is now fifth overall and 10m49s back.
Al Attiyah’s Prodrive teammate Sebastién Loeb, on the other hand, had another frustrating day, finishing 23rd after suffering three punctured tires, and dropped to ninth overall. As Moraes noted, punctures also victimized his factory Toyota teammate Seth Quintero, the American finishing 17th.
In the motorcycle category it was a day of speed…too much in some cases as Pablo Quintanilla, initially announced as the stage winner ahead of Joan Barreda and Kevin Benavides, found himself hit with speeding penalties on the special. The Chilean, along with Barreda, Ricky Brabec and Ross Branch were among a number of riders hit with penalties and Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Kevin Benavides was named the winner. Brabec actually gained places from all the penalties despite getting one himself — the American moved up from fourth to second, 1m11s behind the winner, to tighten up the overall race lead held by Hero Motorsports’ Branch, who wound up fourth. Monster Energy Honda riders Nacho Cornejo and Brabec hold second and third overall, 3m11s and 5m08s back respectively.
