Rally

Quintanilla built up a one-minute advantage in the early part of the 379km Shubaytah-Haradh test, but was chased down rapidly by KTM rider Matthias Walkner, who assumed a narrow one-second lead at the 324km way point. But the Chilean rider fought back in the final stretch to the finish line, taking the stage victory by just nine seconds from Walkner. That allowed him to heavily cut into the ...Keep reading View the full article

Favourable road position for the Haradh - Shubaytah stage meant Alonso was primed to contend for a maiden stage win, having finished second to the Century buggy of Mathieu Serradori two days prior. But his hopes were dashed just over a kilometre into the test when his Hilux was sent into a double rollover going over a dune and sustained damage that forced a subsequent stop. Alonso wound up ...Keep reading View the full article

The Ford Fiesta WRC was an immediate contender when the WRC’s new rules came into effect three years ago, with Sebastien Ogier scoring two drivers’ titles and M-Sport securing the manufacturers’ title in 2017. However, last season the team struggled after Ogier’s exit to Citroen, and failed to post a victory with Elfyn Evans and Teemu Suninen its main drivers. Team owner Malcolm ...Keep reading View the full article

The Haradh - Shubaytah test was due to feature 534 kilometres of timed competition in the Rub' Al Khali desert, but worsening weather conditions forced the organisers to end the competitive running early. Citing "strong wind gusts" and all safety resources being "already mobilised, the Dakar declared the results of the stage at the 223km mark in the car competition. However, the first half ...Keep reading View the full article

The route from Haradh to Shubaytah was going to be 534 kilometres, but the competitive part of the stage ended at 345km due to strong wind, and the rest of the stage was neutralised. As a result, Barreda was gifted the stage win, the Spaniard fastest at every waypoint of the day. Barreda became the seventh different stage winner in the bike class - the fourth for Honda. The Japanese brand ...Keep reading View the full article

The Spaniard hit a dune at an awkward angle 87 kilometres into the 534-kilometre test, pitching he and Marc Coma's Hilux into a roll. The car landed back on its wheels after two full revolutions, with initial fears that it would be too damaged to continue without a lengthy wait on outside assistance. However Motorsport.com understands that Alonso and Coma have since removed the car's ...Keep reading View the full article

Organiser ASO has sought to crack down on what it considers illegal navigation aids for this year’s event, and had cameras installed in the cockpits of the leading contenders in order to monitor any regulation breaches. The event stewards say that Vasilyev and Yevtyekhov were caught on camera using additional notes and then throwing them out of the car, and thus have fallen foul of article ...Keep reading View the full article

Al-Attiyah claimed a comfortable win – Toyota’s first – in last year’s edition, and the Hilux looked to have retained its edge over the Mini buggy in the lead-up to the 2020 race as it won Rally Morocco and two other Dakar rehearsal events in Saudi Arabia. Yet though Al-Attiyah enters the 10th stage just 24 seconds behind the Dakar-leading buggy of Carlos Sainz, he is yet to claim a ...Keep reading View the full article

Latvala was dropped by the works Toyota line-up for 2020 as the Japanese manufacturer opted to sign an all-new line-up of Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanpera. The Finn soon revealed plans to tackle a limited programme in a self-run Yaris WRC however, and is confirmed for Sweden and Finland at least. His Rally Sweden entry has been made under the 'Latvala Motorsport' ...Keep reading View the full article

The three frontrunners of the 2020 marathon benefitted from an advantageous position in the running order for the 476km Wadi ad-Dawasir - Haradh stage, following their respective low-key finishes on Monday. But whereas Peterhansel and Al-Attiyah took full advantage, clocking in first and second at nearly every waypoint, Sainz suffered a costly five-minute loss shortly after the 100-kilometre ...Keep reading View the full article

The 476km stage between Wadi ad-Dawasir and Haradh was a closely-contested affair as four riders were less than a minute apart 300 kilometres in. Quintanilla was already ahead at that point but he was under pressure from KTM's Price and the Hondas of Joan Barreda and Brabec. But it was the very last section of the stage where Quintanilla was able to pull away and he won the stage by 1m54s as ...Keep reading View the full article

Thanks to the DirtFish Rally School and BGMsport, cars from Colin and Jimmy McRae, Richard Burns, Stig Blomqvist and Roger (and Jim!) Clark all appeared as part of a rare opportunity to see some of the most period correct rally cars still viewable today. In our video, Rallies Editor David Evans takes you on a time-warp tour of the collection, one of the star attractions of the show at the NEC ...Keep reading View the full article

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A minute’s silence was observed, and the bike and quad competitors were excused from competition on Monday. As they remained in the bivouac, Laia Sanz and Toby Price give their thoughts and recollections of one of their own, who so sadly died doing what he loved. Speaking of his sorrow for the Portuguese and his family's loss, Price concluded: “They lost a good warrior, that’s for ...Keep reading View the full article

Alonso finished four minutes behind surprise stage winner Mathieu Serradori in the 477km timed special, as usual frontrunners Carlos Sainz, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Stephane Peterhansel had a more difficult time being the first three drivers in the running order - not aided by the lack of bike tracks to follow given the cancellation of their stage following the passing of Paulo Goncalves on ...Keep reading View the full article

Price was the first to attend Hero rider Goncalves’ after he fell off the bike on Sunday’s seventh stage between Riyadh and Wadi Al Dawasir and suffered a cardiac arrest. Dakar organiser ASO received an alert about Goncalves’ crash at 10:08am local time and a medical helicopter was soon dispatched, landing at the site eight minutes later at 10:16am. The Porutuguese rider was found to ...Keep reading View the full article

Serradori claimed a first-ever stage win for himself and his South African-built Century CR6 buggy in the 474km loop around Wadi ad-Dawasir. Though he was only one of several drivers with similar frontrunning pace in the early parts of the stage, Serradori was in a league of his own in the second half and finished four minutes faster than Alonso's Toyota. The two-time Formula 1 champion ...Keep reading View the full article

Goncalves joined Hero in the middle of 2019 after a long stint at Honda, which included finishing runner-up to Marc Coma in the 2015 Dakar. The Portuguese rider had scored three top 10 stage finishes when he suffered a cardiac arrest following a crash on the 546km Riyadh-Wadi Al Dawasir test. He was airlifted in a helicopter to Layla Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. Following ...Keep reading View the full article

The Korean manufacturer will once again field three works cars on every rally this year, with Toyota convert Tanak and Thierry Neuville contesting all rounds. Long-time Hyundai man Dani Sordo and nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb will share a third car, with the exact division of events between the two yet to be revealed. Hyundai claimed manufacturers' honours last year but ...Keep reading View the full article

Following a meeting with the two-wheeled competitors at the conclusion of today’s stage, organisers released the following statement… “The [death] of Paulo Gonçalves during today's stage 7 between Riyadh and Wadi Al-Dawasir has left the entire Dakar, especially the bikers, in shock. “Paulo, a beloved figure of the rally, was immensely respected by both veterans and less experienced ...Keep reading View the full article