– Crews spend the night in the desert
– Bad luck for Holowczyc and Zala
Today is a special day for the participants of the Dakar 2024. The sixth stage pauses overnight and will continue tomorrow morning. The competitors will have to spend the night in the desert without their team. As the crews come to a halt at different points, a comprehensible result will only be possible tomorrow after the finish
The hunt for a top position is over for Vaidotas Zala and Paulo Fiuza. Several hard impacts damaged the vehicle to such an extent that they had to abandon the stage and return to the team. Krzysztof Holowczyc and Lukasz Kurzeja were also plagued by bad luck. They collided with a side-by-side in a hole in the dunes. They were only able to continue their journey after several hours. The Polish duo are still competing in the stage.
Ignacio Casale and Alvaro Leon will spend the night at point C with the X-raid 1000R Turbo side-by-side. His team-mates Pál Lónyai / Filippo Ippolito have arrived at ‘Break Point A’ and will start the second part of the stage from there tomorrow. Annett Quandt and Annie Seel spend the night at ‘Break Point B’.
The sixth leg of the 48h chrono stage will last two days. The participants have to spend the night in the desert – without a team and without amenities. Where exactly they have to pitch their tents will be decided during the stage. The organisation has set up several ‘break zones’. Depending on where a participant is at a certain time, one of these zones must be approached. For example, the first ‘break zone’ must be approached from 15:30 local time, the second at 16:30.
The participant must drive to the next ‘break zone’ when the corresponding stop time is reached. If they fail to do so and continue, they will receive a time penalty of five hours. If a participant stops in a ‘break zone’ before the time has expired, the remaining time will be added to their journey time.