Stage 10 was undoubtedly the most eventful of the 2020 Dakar.
After a number of crashes, the event was brought to a standstill around halfway through. According to our sources on the ground, the total of six evacuation helicopters are all occupied and the organisers can’t risk another accident happening.
Roman Starikovich did not even manage to complete 1 km of the special before crashing. Both driver and co-pilot, Bert Heskes, suffered back injuries and have been evacuated from the stage by the medical team.
Fernando Alonso had an eventful start to the special, also rolling his car a few kilometres into the race. He took off immediately after the incident, but later brought the car to a halt to assess the damage. According to our sources on the ground, he has no windscreen and a bent suspension.
Both Peterhansel and Al-Attiyah lost significant time to Sainz. Peterhansel is around 12 minutes behind Sainz, while Al-Attiyah is 17 minutes behind.
What makes it even trickier is the fact that today was part of a marathon stage. The teams will not have the luxury of their mechanics repairing their cars tonight. This puts Alonso at a huge disadvantage.
The standings after today’s eventful stage are as follows:
Carlos Sainz is in first place, followed by Przygonski. Giniel die Villiers is in a good position in third, around 4.30 behind Sainz. Ten Brike is in sixth, Terranova in eight and Peterhansel in 10th. Al-Attiyah is currently in 17th place.
In the overall standings, Sainz is more than 18 minutes ahead of Al-Attiyah in second and Peterhansel in third. It will be hard to make up that much time with not many stages left.
Giniel de Villiers is in sixth position, more than an hour behind Sainz. Ten Brinke is around 15 minutes behind him.
Following today’s crash, Alonso has moved back to 14th position.
