Re: 2019 WRC and Off Road Discussion Thread *Includes Dakar 2019 Jan 7th-18th*
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 05:27 am
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That was a bit plotless!Incorporating Farzad's F1 Gallery & F1Onboard.com
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That was a bit plotless!https://au.motorsport.com/dakar/news/st ... d/4322042/Dakar Rally 2019 leader Nasser Al-Attiyah extended his advantage over the chasing pack by topping the event's fourth stage, running from Arequipa to Tacna.
The Toyota driver was quickest over the 406-kilometre timed special, the longest of the rally thus far, split in two parts by a 55-kilometre neutralised zone.
The stage marked the first half of the rally's 'marathon' leg, so-called because external assistance is forbidden and technical support crews do not accompany the competitors to Tacna – instead waiting for their return to Arequipa the day after.
X-raid Mini buggy driver Stephane Peterhansel, who ran first on the road after topping Wednesday's test, was marginally quicker than Al-Attiyah at the opening waypoint.
But the Qatari led at every split afterwards, arriving at the finish two minutes faster than the 13-time Dakar champion, with a time of three hours, 38 minutes and 49 seconds.
Peterhansel, who lags nine minutes behind Al-Attiyah in the general classification, has taken over in second place from fellow X-raid driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi, who had a troubled run.
Fellow Mini 4x4 drivers Nani Roma and Jakub Przygonski have moved up to third and fourth respectively as a result, with Al Rajhi a close fifth, now trailing Al-Attiyah by 25 minutes.
PH Sport Peugeot privateer Sebastien Loeb was a close third behind Al-Attiyah and Peterhansel for most of the day before tumbling to fifth at the very end of the stage. He now needs to make up more than 50 minutes relative to the marathon leader.
Despite the late setback, Loeb has moved up to sixth overall, his gains coming at the expense of Bernhard ten Brinke – the Dutchman giving up over two hours for repairs to his Toyota – and Mini buggy driver Cyril Despres, who was relegated to seventh place after losing close to half an hour.
Kamaz's Andrey Karginov saw off LIAZ driver Martin Macik to top the stage in the truck class, as Eduard Nikolaev retained the overall lead.
With Iveco's Federico Villagra hitting trouble, Macik now stands as the only competitor within reach of Kamaz's closely-matched leading trio - Nikolaev, Karginov and Dmitry Sotnikov.
Pos Driver Nat Make Time/GapSebastien Loeb has taken a commanding victory in Stage 5 of the Dakar Rally but Nasser Al-Attiyah is now in an event stronger position in the general classification.
The privateer Peugeot driver beat Toyota Gazoo Racing’s main man by over 10 minutes in the second marathon stage which covered 519 competitive kilometres.
Al-Attiyah (Qatari), however, is now 24:42s clear at the top of the general classification as his nearest rival, Stephane Peterhansel (Mini, French), lost significant time towards the end of the day.
Nani Roma (Mini, Spanish) remains third but drifted to more than half an hour behind Al-Attiyah.
Despite his second stage victory of the campaign, Loeb (French) is exactly 40 minutes off the overall pace.
It is still Kamaz in front though... Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz, Russian) bounced back with a small stage win in Trucks to move his advantage overall to 11:54s.A spectator who strayed into an unauthorised area has suffered a broken femur after being hit by a truck competing in the Dakar Rally.
According to a statement from organisers of the event, the 60-year-old South African was watching from an ‘unsecured area’ around halfway into Stage 5 of the event, from Moquegua/Tacna to Arequipa.
He was struck by Russian Andrey Karginov of the leading Kamaz Master team and incurred a broken femur (upper leg bone).
Karginov had finished the day third in the general classification, having won Stages 3 and 4 of the event, but has been excluded for failing to stop and attend to the spectator.
Everso Biggyballies wrote: ↑5 years ago
I see in the trucks a spectator got hit by a truck, fortunately only breaking a leg....It is still Kamaz in front though... Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz, Russian) bounced back with a small stage win in Trucks to move his advantage overall to 11:54s.A spectator who strayed into an unauthorised area has suffered a broken femur after being hit by a truck competing in the Dakar Rally.
According to a statement from organisers of the event, the 60-year-old South African was watching from an ‘unsecured area’ around halfway into Stage 5 of the event, from Moquegua/Tacna to Arequipa.
He was struck by Russian Andrey Karginov of the leading Kamaz Master team and incurred a broken femur (upper leg bone).
Karginov had finished the day third in the general classification, having won Stages 3 and 4 of the event, but has been excluded for failing to stop and attend to the spectator.
Video of the incident on this link.... incident starts at 5.00 mins in.The #518 entry, driven by Andrey Karginov, has been excluded from the event for failing to stop and attend to the spectator, who was standing in an unauthorised area.
Team boss Vladimir Chagin disagreed with the decision, arguing that Karginov would not have even known that he had hit the spectator.
“There’s a lot spectators on the route, and in the most difficult parts there’s always particularly many of them, spread out in various groups,” observed Chagin.
“As he was driving up one of the ascents, there was a group of five spectators in the path of the truck. Four managed to clear off but one tripped in the sand and his leg was caught under the rear wheel of the truck.
“Andrey naturally didn’t see this – it was an ascent and all you can see through the windshield is the sky and the top of the mountain – so he only found out about the accident upon arriving to the bivouac.
“It was investigated by the commissioners and, much to our surprise, the organisers made the very harsh decision to disqualify the crew.
“We’re very surprised by the decision, but we can’t protest it here, only after the race has wrapped up.
“So we have to accept it and continue with three crews.”
https://www.speedcafe.com/2019/01/15/br ... n-stage-7/Cars
Stephane Peterhansel has cut into Nasser Al-Attiyah’s class lead but Sebastien Loeb was cruelled by electrical problems on Stage 7.
Peterhansel (French) and Nani Roma (Spanish) duelled throughout the stage before the X-Raid Mini buggy driver won out over the X-Raid Mini four-wheel-drive man by 4:33s.
They now hold second and third in the general classification, Peterhansel 29:16s behind Al-Attiyah having been over 40 minutes back at the end of the previous day.
‘Mr Dakar’ revealed that the stage was not all joy, however, and remains pessimistic about winning the Dakar for a 14th time this year.
“At the beginning, we jumped over a dune, which damaged the bonnet and left us with a bad case of whiplash,” reported Peterhansel.
“Navigating was tricky, but I think we did well because we gained time on everyone.
“We got a bit closer to Nasser, but it’ll be very hard to wrest the lead from him.
“Actually, we don’t deserve to be ahead of him because he’s doing really well and has made no mistakes so far.”
Al-Attiyah (Qatari) brought his factory Toyota Hilux home with the fourth-fastest stage time, behind Carlos Sainz Snr (Mini, Spanish), while Loeb was 11th on the day.
The Frenchman has slumped to fourth in the general classification, 54:12s from Al-Attiyah, after electrical problems in his PH-Sport Peugeot.
“The car ground to a halt after three kilometres. We managed to get it up and running, but after five kilometres it stopped again,” recounted Loeb.
“It started stopping at increasingly shorter intervals.
“We started looking for the root of the problem until we found the right socket. It was a total power failure.
“Apart from this, we didn’t make any mistakes and were quite fast.
“It’s quite demoralising, we’ll see what we can do and what we can fight for in the coming days.”
In a case of what might have been, Loeb gained around 10 minutes on Peterhansel and around 20 minutes on Al-Attiyah after the problem was fixed.
https://www.speedcafe.com/2019/01/15/br ... n-stage-7/Bikes
Honda’s Ricky Brabec has reclaimed the lead of the Dakar Rally with three stages to go as Sam Sunderland slashed his deficit to the lead.
Brabec held a narrow lead over Sunderland (KTM, British) early in the stage, a 323km special stage loop out and back from San Juan de Marcona, but eventually ended up third for the day by 6:30s.
The American’s lead in the general classification is 7:47s, with Adrien van Beveren (Yamaha, French) second and Toby Price (KTM) another 41 seconds behind in third.
“It wasn’t easy, I think I was riding too fast, riding faster than I should have,” said Brabec.
“But no close calls today, actually no close calls the entire rally, so that’s a plus and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for that until the end.
“I needed a good stage today to get me back on top, and tomorrow hopefully is a little bit easier navigation than today.
“I’m looking forward to the next three days, I think me and (Pablo) Quintanilla are going to fight back and forth until the last kilometre.”
Sunderland’s performance puts him fourth to Brabec by 9:58s, a second ahead of previous class leader Quintanilla (Husqvarna, Chilean).
“Today, apart from losing three or four minutes looking for a waypoint, the special went well,” said Sunderland, the 2017 champion.
“I wanted to push hard this morning and it paid off.”
Price was tracking well until he lost over 10 minutes between the fourth and fifth waypoints, while Quintanilla’s time loss blew out further around the same point.
Hopefully some physio will help him make it through the rest of the event without further complications from his neck.
"Not a perfect day," he said.
"At the beginning we jumped a dune, it was a big step. We landed on the front and destroyed the bonnet and a little bit our necks as well.
"I saw some stars in my eyes after the big impact."