This Thursday, the Portuguese Ricardo Mas (Yamaha) won the 11th stage of the 45th edition of the Dakar all-terrain rally in the category of light vehicles (SSV), which led the caravan to the desert of Barrio Vacío, in Saudi Arabia.
The Portuguese rider finished the 275 timed kilometers with a time of 03:19.11 hours, leaving his teammate João Ferreira (Yamaha) in second position at 20 seconds and Chilean Ignacio Casale (Yamaha) at third at 22.
This was the second Portuguese victory in this edition of the race that takes place in Saudi Arabia, after João Ferreira won the eighth stage, also in the T3 category of prototypes -successors of the ‘buggy’-, in what was the first triumph of the pilot from Leiria in Dakar.
According to the provisional classification of the stage, Hélder Rodrigues (Can-Am) was in tenth place.
In motorcycles, the Argentine Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna) won for the third time -he had already won the sixth and ninth stages-, beating the Australians Daniel Sanders (GasGas) and Toby Price (KTM), second and third classified of the day, at 01:38 and 01:57, respectively.
With fourth place achieved today, the American Skyler Howes (Husqvarna) regained the lead, with a 28-second advantage over Price and 02.44 over the previous leader, the Argentine Kevin Benavides (KTM).
In cars, the Frenchman Sébastien Loeb (BRX) won for the fifth time in this edition, fourth in a row, crossing the finish line with a time of 02:56.14 hours, leaving the Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit (BRX) in 02:16 minutes. . The Swede Mathias Ëkstrom (Audi) was third, with 02.26 minutes.
The Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota), who was fifth fastest, kept the lead, with 1:21.04 hours ahead of the Brazilian Lucas Moraes (Toyota) and 1:30.41 hours over Loeb.
On Friday, the second part of the marathon stage will take place, in which the pilots do not have external assistance, between the Camp in the Desert of Quarto Vazio and Shaybah, with 185 timed kilometers.
Source: TSF
