DACIA SANDRIDERS TAKE CHARGE IN CARS, SANDERS EXTENDS LEAD IN BIKES AFTER STAGE 3

Riders and crews endured a freezing night and icy morning at their remote bushveld bivouac yesterday, before starting Stage 3 – the second part of the tough marathon stage of the South African Safari Rally, brought to you by Toyota Gazoo Racing.

With the marathon stage bivouac located at more than 1000 m of elevation and South Africa at the start of its winter season, the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) bikers and car crews awoke to frost-covered vehicles. The uncomfortably cold night in tents was followed by Stage 3’s demanding 272km selective section.

Sanders and KTM in control

Overnight fatigue and demanding terrain didn’t influence current W2RC leader, Daniel Sanders. The Australian KTM rider took his 18th overall RallyGP stage win, besting the W2RC motorcycle win record held by rival, Adrienvan Beveren. “It was a freezing morning. My bike was covered in frost, and so was the terrain. There were so many animals out there today, I think I saw every animal but a lion,” Sanders said.

Second on Stage 3 was Sanders’s Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team-mate Luciano Benavides, 1’37” adrift.

Despite the lack of any technical service support during the marathon stage’s overnight bivouac, Ross Branch balanced speed and mechanical intuition to finish Stage 3 in third, 2’39” behind Sanders.

Demanding savannah bushveld terrain is all Botswana’s Branch knew when developing his W2RC title-winning calibre off-road motorcycle racing skills as a teenager. The Hero Motosports rider lost more than an hour on Stage 2 after colliding with a bird, which damaged his bike’s oil cooler. “I added some extra oil to the bike at the marathon stage overnight bivouac, but had to stop every control point to check the bike’s oil level. But Stage 3 was like riding in my backyard today, very similar to the bush I ride back home in Botswana,” he said.

The RallyGP overall rankings have South African Safari Rally favourite Sanders leading his KTM team-mate Benavides by 2’48”. There’s a much bigger gap to third place in the overall standings, where American Monster Energy Honda HRC rider Ricky Brabec is 8’19” adrift of the lead KTM.

In the Rally2 class, Spain’s Edgar Canet won his third stage in as many days, making it a 1-2-3 for KTM in wins. South Africa’s Michael Docherty finished 3’36” back, with Chilean Ruy Barbosa (XRaids Experience KTM), third, trailing Canet by 6’02”.

Canet controls the Rally2 overall, leading by 18’16”. “I had a really good rhythm and feel with the bike and the navigation on Stage 3,” Canet said.

After having time reinstated after an electronic issue with his navigational Stage on stage 3, Austria’s Tobias Ebster is second in the overall standings for Hero Motosports, ahead of South Africa’s Docherty (BAS World KTM), who trails Canet by 21’08”.

Gaëtan Martinez took the quad win for CFMoto, from his team-mate Antanas Kanopkinas, with South Africa’s Carien Teessen on her Yamaha, in third. That same order is the overall ranking for the quad class, too, with Martinez taking a comfortable 24’11” lead into Stage 4.

Challengers and SSVs

BBR Motorsport remains unchallenged in the Challenger car class, with the Argentine crew of David Zille and Sebastian Cesana taking the win, ahead of fellow Argentines Nicolás Cavigliasso and Valentina Pertegarini. Third place was Poland’s Adam Kus and Ukrainian navigator Dmitry Tsyro, in their Akpol Recykling Team entry.

The same crews rank for the Challenger car class overall, with Zille/Cesana leading by 2’56” from Cavigliasso/Pertegarini, with Kus/Tsyro12’12” back.

It was another Portuguese 1-2 in the side-by-side (SSV) class on stage. Francosport’s Mário Franco and Joao Miranda took Stage 3 honours and now have an overall lead of 10’33”. The Old Friends Rally crew of José Nogueira and Arcélio Couto finished second, with the South Racing CanAm team of Richard Aczel and Wouter Rosegaar third. The South Racing CanAm team is second in the SSV overall, with NMP’s Enrico Gaspari and Fausto Mota third, 31’41” behind Francosport’s Mário Franco and Joao Miranda.

Al Attiyah conquers on a tough stage for the South Africans

In the W2RC Ultimate car category, Stage 3 reinforced the reputation of Qatar’s reigning W2RC champion and current points leader NasserAl Attiyah who won the stage, despite a 2-minute time penalty. The Qatari and his French navigator Edouard Boulanger proved that their relentless race pace is almost unrivalled.

The Dacia Sandriders driver became comfier with the North West savannah bushveld with each passing phase of Stage 3’s demanding 272 km selective section. “It’s not an easy stage, with lots of navigation, and opening stages here is very difficult. For me, now, I will try to help the team to get both cars in a good position.” Despite winning Stage 3, Al Attiyah and Boulanger remain outside the top 10 overall, in 12th position with Stages 4 and 5 to go.”

Second overall was four-time Dakar winner and two-time WRC driver’s champion, Spain’s Carlos Sainz, his Ford M-Sport Raptor along with navigator Lucas Cruz. “It was so cold last night, with frost on the tents. But the car is good, with us learning and making adjustments all the time,” he said.

Stage 3’s racing was remarkably close, with only 5 seconds between Al Attiyah and Sainz. Third on the Sun City-bound section of the South African Safari Rally’s marathon stage was the French crew of Mathieu Serradori and Loïc Minaudier in their Century Racing SRT, 29 seconds behind the leaders.

WRC legend leads the overall standings

Despite finishing 51st in the prologue, French all-time WRC legend, Sébastien Loeb, is now the overall car category leader after finishing fourth on Stage 3 in the Dacia Sandrider.

With Belgian navigator, Fabian Lurquin, expertly guiding the nine-time WRC driver’s world champion, Loeb is confidently positioned for a push on Stages 4 and 5, to take the overall win. “Everybody struggled in Stage 3, and we are surprised to be leading with two long days to go. Navigation is still very tricky, but the Dacia was perfect all three days, and we feel very good in the car,” Loeb said.

Drivetrain issues bog Lategan down

Stage 3 was a brutal day for South African crews as well as the Toyota crews, which had featured so strongly in the first and second stages of the South African Safari Rally. The highest-placed South Africans and best-ranked Hilux were Stage 1 winners, Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings, who finished fifth in their Toyota Gazoo Racing entry.

Lategan was charging through Stage 3 until a drivetrain issue curtailed the crew’s ambitions: “We overtook Carlos Sainz and Nani Roma, and started seeing Sébastien dust, but then we broke a driveshaft. So we lost a lot of time in the soft sand on the last 90 km, only having three-wheel drive.”

The overall standings remain very close. Sainz/Cruz are only 23 seconds behind Loeb/Lurquin, with Lategan/Cummings in third, 30 seconds behind the overall leaders and highest placed of the South African crews and Hilux entries.

Stage 4 will be a 224km selective section, with more mountainous and rocky terrain sections than any of the previous three South African Safari Rally stages. With the selective section skirting the border with neighbouring Botswana, even the slightest navigational or mechanical issue in the more mountainous bushveld section could prove very consequential if riders and crews go badly off-piste in the rockier sections.

Tyre vulnerabilities to terrain have surprisingly not been influential during the South African Safari Rally thus far, but that could change during today’s penultimate Stage 4 where the rocky, narrowing route could significantly shake up the standings going into tomorrow’s short final stage.

• All results provisional

Issued on behalf of the South African Safari Rally

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