RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Daniel Sanders was on a roll on the first big sandy stage leading to Riyadh just before the rest day.
Starting from Hail in third position, the defending champion swiftly caught Nacho Cornejo and then his teammate Luciano Benivades on his way to finishing the special stage alone and gobbling up a considerable chunk of the bonuses on offer to the opener (2’40’’), providing him with sufficient time to pull away in the overall rankings.
However, the Australian, probably got carried away by his enthusiasm and neglected to respect a speed limit, which was a mistake that will cost him a six-minute penalty.
Although he was beaten on the tracks, Ricky Brabec will reap the rewards of his consistency at the highest level, both on the day and since the start in Yanbu.
The American secured his 12th stage win on the Dakar and confirmed his status as Daniel Sanders’ biggest rival. The Monster Energy Honda HRC rider is aware of how far he still has to go to win a third title, as he is still 45 seconds behind the Australian leader, but remains the only Rally GP rider to have made no mistakes so far
The day before, it was Tosha Schareina’s turn to be penalized for a mistake. The Spaniard was unable to fully redeem himself, even though his starting position (as 5th rider to begin) gave him an opportunity to make up for it. In the end, the worst was avoided as Sanders was caught out by the speed cameras, but his initial battle plan did not include spending the rest day at the foot of the podium, 11’56’’ behind his major rival, though he is less than a minute behind Luciano Benavides in third place.
The Rally 2 class witnessed the return of Mike Docherty, after breaking his front wheel on stage four. The Emirati resident, who is a sand specialist, showed off his skills by beating all his rivals in the class and also taking overall 4th place in the stage rankings.
The South African, who was heavily penalized two days ago (62 hours 30 minutes), no longer has any hope of triumph in the Rally 2 overall rankings, but is still determined to put on a show.
