Plot twist. Loeb’s ambitions end up in the crevasse of an oued. Al Rajhi wins the stage and Al Attiyah takes the lead. The Motorcycle Race on the edge of the duel between Sanders and the surprise Shareina. Finally dunes. The Longest Special
April 27, 2023
Puerto Penasco, Mexico, April 27. Sonora Rally 2023. It’s there third stage and go to twists. Long day, the Longest special of the RallyLimited but difficult Road Book, treacherous tracks. 350 kilometres against the clock, another 116 transfer to return to Boulderthat is where the caravan of the Sonora Rally 2023. The cover of the third day of competition (beyond the irrelevant Prologue) is of Hunter Prodrive by Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquininexorably stuck in a crevasse.
Provisional leader and first starter on the third stage, Loeb had the double, thankless task of opening the track and, if possible, keeping the opponents in pursuit at a distance. A big job, considering that the fighters behind him were the Toyota Hiluxes of Al Attiyh and Al Rajhi. Immediately high pace, and almost immediately the “drama”. Loeb is “betrayed” by an “s” of the bumpy track and ends up in one of those fissures in the ground that cannot be seen on the horizon. Probably too vehement, perhaps the “danger signal” of the road book was weak, the fact is that the car is stuck, Lurquin complains of severe pain in the right shoulder and needs to be evacuated (small fracture) e the Crew must surrender thereat km 12 of the Special.
The rooms move on long distance duel between Al Attiyah and Al Rajhi, Hilux itself, Gazoo Racing team for the Prince of Qatar, Overdrive for the… Saudi Prince. Stuff from a Thousand and One Nights, an already long history of sporting rivalry, the balance of results that rewards the Dakar multiple winner is rather one-way.
With the Al Rajhi stage win comes back into play, but in the meantime it is Al-Atiyah who, third behind even Halpern, Mini X raid, takes over the reins of the race switching to command. Day free from hitches and… dust for Eugenio Amos and Paolo Ceci, which go up the ranking by 5 positions at a time. Today the Italian crew of the Toyota Overdrive is 13th overall. The experience of Rebecca Busiwith difficulty but at the finish line of the longest day.
Excellent demonstration of strength and… formula in the motorcycle race. Daniel Sanders wins againGasGas, and… the formula works trailblazer bonus introduced and inaugurated by Rally-Raid World Championship. It works like this: the first three at the start, i.e. the podium of the previous stage, they recover a lot per kilometre in terms of time as a function of the time spent opening the runway.
That is how Sandersafter having pushed very hard and opened for a good part of the very long Special, it showed “return” almost 7 minutes, was thus able to repeat the success of the previous day and stretch to the lead of the overall Rally. The Australian’s main opponent, and apparently only opponent, is the young Spaniard Tosha ShareinaMoreHonda, once again second and also second in the standings.
Third stage is Ricky BrabecHonda, but third with two stages to go is the “discreet” and consistent Argentinean rider Luciano BenavidesHusqvarna, however 15 minutes late. Interesting match for Paolo Lucci, KTM. He’s not as fast as he expected, but he shares the same fate as his teammates from the BAS Racing Team. The Rally proves to be poorly navigated and dangerous, so that the rhythm does not come and the classification does not advance. To be honest, I find it to be a very intelligent attitude: fewer risks and greater control over the classification of the World Rally2, with Dumontier still the winner today. The ride of the eccentric Modenese pilot continues safely (with some “flights”, actually). Massimo Camurri, who participates for pleasure in the most unusual adventures of the planet Rally without caring about the result. Today, however, Camurri finds himself leader of Rally3.
Paul Lucci. “Let’s try to summarize these two days. Yesterday they cut the special so we had half of it. About one hundred and sixty kilometers. Nothing new, little navigation and obligatory tracks to “avoid” the cacti. Slow special with stones and dangers. It is no coincidence that two were injured, Sunderland and Howes. Look, a bad Special. Today the longest special, 350 kilometres, is tough. Sand, sand sailing tracks, some dunes, cut waders. Beautiful special. Too bad there is no navigation, a real shame, so the Rally is missing something important. For half of the Special I was unable to go as fast as I wanted, in the second part I increased my pace and was able to be happy. It is necessary to maintain very high concentration, the Sonora turns out to be a treacherous Rally.”
Paolo Ceci, Eugenio Amos, Toyota Hilux Overdrive. “Third stage. Finally a good day for us today. We didn’t have any problems with the dust so we had fun too. The bad luck of the first day doesn’t count, we’re here to try to add up kilometers on kilometers, we have to get carried away more and more, especially Eugenio at the wheel who, moreover, proves to be very good as always. However, we can be satisfied with today’s result. The Machine is very fast, but it is certainly more difficult than a Can-Am to drive in the slower stretches. So we’re at “school”, it’s the first time we’ve raced with a T1 of this type and we have to learn how to manage the race and the car. Satisfied, however.”
© Immagini Red Bull Content Pool, W2R Championship – DPPI – Toyota – BRX – Sonora Rally – Rally Zone
