Two days later, 19-year-old Saood Variawa – in simply his second Dakar – then snatched the report after a brilliant efficiency in stage three.
In truth, Variawa’s stage win was made much more spectacular given than lower than 24 hours prior, his automotive had arrived on the finish of the 48-hour chrono stage in items following a head-on-head crash with TGR team-mate and 2009 Dakar winner Giniel de Villiers.
“It was tough, we had our second yesterday the place we clearly had an unlucky incident with Giniel, however nonetheless it is a good comeback for us.
“The workforce did a great job to restore the automotive, which arrived on the end in items after the stage 2 they usually’ve labored amazingly nicely to get it mounted.”
Variawa, the son of Shameer, a former racer and present boss of Toyota’s South African division, belied his youth by finishing a composed drive within the 327km stage.
“We picked them off one-by-one and in the direction of the tip we chased down the Ford [of Ekström], caught the Ford and put him underneath strain, then he received a puncture. “Sadly, we hit an enormous rock and received a puncture however nonetheless it went nicely, so we needed to take it simple, however it’s nonetheless a stage win with round 30s with a puncture so I’m blissful.”
Lategan sick of the dunes…actually
Regardless of holding a 10-minute lead over Yazeed Al Rajhi on the relaxation day in Ha’il, the opening week hasn’t been all plain crusing for rally chief Henk Lategan. The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver needed to cease in the course of the dune part of the 48-hour chrono because of movement illness.
