MADRID, 13 One. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Argentine rider Kevin Benavides (KTM) has won the eleventh and penultimate stage of the 2022 Dakar Rally, contested with start and finish in Bisha over 346 kilometers of special, on a day in which Joan Barreda (Honda) said goodbye to the fight for a general that reinforces and strengthens the British Sam Sunderland (GasGas).
Benavides, who in the previous stage withdrew and returned to the race with a 15-hour penalty, removed the bad taste in his mouth with the stage victory, beating a Sam Sunderland in just 4 seconds who, despite not win the partial prize, he went happy to rest.
And it is that Sunderland, who scored 4:50 to Matthias Walkner (KTM) and almost 8 minutes to Pablo Quintanilla (Honda), reinforces his leadership in this penultimate stage, for many the most complicated of this Dakar Rally that he has to play except incident on the last day.
The Briton now has 6:52 margin in the provisional general over Chilean Pablo Quintanilla and 7:15 on Austrian Matthias Walkner, while the Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) lost all options this Thursday by giving up 21 minutes on the stage. .
The same thing happened to Joan Barreda, who arrived with 25 minutes lost at the finish line. Now, Van Beveren is fourth overall at 15:30 and Barreda fifth at 27:54.
The Spanish, like the French and also Toby Price or Luciano Benavides paid dearly to start in the first positions and have to open the track on a complicated day. Van Beveren, who started the general stage leader, said goodbye to his aspirations.