From tears to success, even though that can’t overshadow disappointment. Kevin Benavides broke the engine yesterday and said goodbye to any option to successfully defend the ‘Touareg’ that he achieved in 2021 with Honda. However, he still had a bullet in his chamber, a last high-carat performance in his KTM Dakar debut. In fact, Kevin Benavides won the eleventh stage after beating Sam Sunderland by 4 seconds. Despite everything, the British is the main protagonist of the day as the new leader, since the GasGas pilot strokes the ‘Touareg’ with his fingers. Marcelo Medeiros triumph on quads.
Motorcycles
With no clear goal on the horizon Kevin Benavides has gone for all in the eleventh stage and has won the victory after completing the special in 3 hours, 30 minutes and 56 seconds. Enough time to overtake the new leader in the category, although GasGas will care little. Sam Sunderland has stormed the rally lead with a day to go and has his second Dakar within reach, first from GasGas. The British rider has 6 minutes and 52 seconds left with Chilean Pablo Quintanilla and 7 minutes and 15 seconds with Matthias Walkner. More than enough difference if no setback arises.
Sunderland’s performance today was masterful, beating Matthias Walkner in 4 minutes and 50 seconds. despite starting in more advanced positions than the best KTM rider. For its part, Pablo Quintanilla finished 7 minutes and 36 seconds behind the GasGas pilot, which leaves Honda with almost no options to continue the winning streak that began in 2020. Even worse things have gone for the other two contenders for the ‘Touareg’, since Adrien Van Beveren and Joan Barreda have wasted a lot of time opening the track. The French Yamaha player left 21 and a half minutes, while the Castellón player gave up 25 minutes.
Barring turn of events in the last stage, Sam Sunderland and GasGas will break the duopoly that KTM and Honda have maintained for long years in the Dakar motorcycle category, even if GasGas is a subsidiary brand of KTM. And it cannot be said that the Briton has the second Dakar in his hands because it is a race with great absences or losses, since the four official Honda riders are within the ‘top 10’, as well as two official Yamaha riders and two other KTM riders. Positions of honor in which Mason Klein has slipped as best ‘rookie’.
Quads
Marcelo Medeiros has achieved his third stage victory in this Dakar, second in a row. The Brazilian rider has completed the most complex special of the rally in 4 hours, 53 minutes and 29 seconds, record that has served him to overcome by just over five minutes the Polish Kamil Wisniewski. For his part, the Argentine Francisoc Moreno finished the day in third position after overcoming to the leader Alexandre Giroud for two minutes. Results that, however, do not change the order of the podium in the quadricycle category, perfectly defined in its first position except for an accident or mechanical breakdown by Giroud.
In the absence of the last day of the rally, Alexandre Giroud has a very comfortable advantage of 2 hours and 41 minutes over Francisco Moreno. Although the Argentine ‘rider’ has been gaining positions due to the losses of some of the favorites, such as Manuel Andujar or Pablo Copetti, his performance in his debut in the rally is to frame. Even if Kamil Wisniewski manages to snatch second place from Moreno, since he has been placed 3 minutes and 31 seconds behind the South American rider, he will not be able to put a single but to Moreno’s performance in a Dakar in which according to ASO data, Álex Feliu still leaves in classification, in eighth place, although with 140 hours of delay and 102 hours of penalty.