MADRID, Jan. 13 (SportsFinding) –
The Spanish driver Fernando Alonso (Toyota) has remained on the verge of his first victory in the Dakar Rally at the end of second behind the Frenchman Mathieu Serradori (Century) in the eighth stage, a special 477 kilometers timed with departure and arrival in Wadi Al Dawasir, while Carlos Sainz (Mini) remains leader.
In a day without competition in motorcycles and quads due to the death the previous day of the Portuguese driver Paulo Gonçalves, all the attention was focused on the category of cars, where Serradori gave the surprise with the first victory of his career in the Dakar.
The Frenchman, who in his first participation in cars last year had to leave in the fourth stage, marched eighth in the classification with a fourth place as the best result in one stage, numbers similar to those of Alonso, with which he starred in the hand at hand of the day.
The double Formula 1 champion was wasting time little by little until he reached the equator of the four-minute course of Serradori, a distance that remained stable until the end while the rest of the candidates lost more and more time, including the first three of the general Finally, Alonso, thirteenth in the general, came second to finish at 4:04 of the winner and the Argentine Orlando Terranova (Mini) completed the podium of the day.
As for the candidates for the title, Carlos Sainz again had the disadvantage of having to open a track and was immediately captured by Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota) and Stéphane Peterhansel (Mini), although he managed to minimize damage at a stage that could having thrown a much more burdensome result.
After several days distributing the first positions, the three arrived far from the head and the first was Peterhansel in ninth position 13 minutes from Serradori. Behind, Al-Attiyah finished eleventh to almost 16 minutes and Sainz, fifteenth to more than 19.
Despite reaping its worst result with difference in this Dakar, the Madrid did not lose track of his rivals, which he controlled at all times, and only lost 3:20 in goal with the Qatari, which is now at 6: 40 of the leadership, while Peterhansel is still third at 13:09.
In the absence of four stages to conclude the Dakar, this Tuesday will be played the ninth, a special 410km timed between Wadi Al Dawasir and Haradh. “The Dakar prepares its entry into the Empty Quarter – the Rub al-Jali- Desert with this long journey. To achieve this, precision piloting will be required, this time on mostly hard and broken soils that will be able to test the reckless” , warn the test on its official website.