SHUBAYTAH, Saudi Arabia — Stage 10 of the Dakar Rally in Shubaytah saw Carlos Sainz demonstrate his dominance and increase his lead over the competition.
Sainz scored a double whammy by winning the stage and especially taking advantage of the navigation mistakes made by Stéphane Peterhanse land Nasser Al-Attiyah, to regain breathing space in the general standings.
With a lead that now stands at 18 minutes, “El Matador” will be able to see his rivals coming.
Although Joan Barreda grabbed his first victory in this year’s rally on completion of a shortened stage in Shubaytah, the Spaniard must feel hopeless to thwart the supremacy of his teammate Ricky Brabec, who again increased his lead in the general standings in the motorcycle class.
The same attitude was adopted to date by Ignacio Casale before the Chilean’s navigational failure on stage 10, which cost him a considerable portion of his lead over Simon Vitse, leaving the spotlight to Polish rider Kamil Wiśniewski, who won the day in the quad class.
This is also the case for Casey Currie in the six-wheel-drive category, who moved further ahead in the general standings following the difficulties of Chaleco López, with the stage victory going to rookie and Dakar Experience competitor Mitchell Guthrie.
In the truck race, Anton Shibalov brought a halt to the series of wins by his Kamaz team-mate Andrey Karginov, without worrying the Russian who is heading for his second triumph on the Dakar.
Following the splendid stage victory achieved by Mathieu Serradori on Monday, another French amateur hogged the limelight on the way to Shubaytah thanks to the fine fourth place obtained by Pierre Lachaume.