Marko Hanželic
Record holder among overall winners Stephane peterhansel won the second stage of the 2024 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. That was her 50th stage victory French in his long career in motoring. Peterhansel thus equalized the result Aria Vatanen, who so far held the record of 50 stage wins.
Peterhansel thus has the opportunity to become in the next two weeks absolute record holder in this statistic. If we add up his stage wins in the motorcycle and car categories, s 83 wins already an absolute record holder.
Peterhansel's teammate in the Audi team Carlos Sainz took the overall lead on Sunday. Also German co-drivers Dennis Zenz (with Seth Quinter in Toyota) and Timo Gottschalk (with To Yazeed Al-Rajhi in Toyota with an advantage) were in the forefront with third and fifth place in the daily results.
Second stage of Al-Henakijah to Ad-Dawadimi was very varied, as it was 655 kilometers long. Rally leader David castera in his information meeting, he mentioned the difficult navigation as the first point. Nevertheless, the pace was quite fast on this stage.
After only 20 kilometers they lined up for the next thirty kilometers dune belts. After defeating them, it was necessary to find a way through canyons. There were many crossroads along the way. Towards the end, there were long plateaus, sandy soil and big canyons again.
After a sensational opening win, he had to Guillaume de Mevius (Overdrive-Toyota) to open the stage. He is the fifth Belgian to win a stage. His father Gregoire won three stage victories in his career.
After being the defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah lost a lot of time the day before due to two punctured wheels, the new driver of the Prodrive team still did not go according to plan. Although he started in 22nd place, Al-Attiyah had already lost about eight minutes by the 167th kilometer.
To his teammate Sebastien Loeb went better as he was in actual contention for the day's victory at the 137th kilometer of the intermediate finish. However, other drivers also stood out with fast times at the top of the classification.
peterhansel he started from 24th place and took advantage of his good starting position. Quintero, who started from 20th place, fared even better. After 176 kilometers, the young driver was leading the intermediate classification just ahead of the veteran.
All "Monsieur Dakar" he showed his quality. After 226 kilometers he had peterhansel just half a second ahead of Quinter in the virtual standings. Loeb was also within reach of the day's victory. The same was true of the local hero Al-Rajhi.
This image was solidified by the end. It is up to the 274th kilometer peterhansel extended his lead over Quintero to about one minute. Quintero was also under pressure Loeb. In the end, however, experience prevailed in this long speed test.
peterhansel won the stage half a minute before loebom. Quintero, who is a newcomer to the top class, found himself back in the spotlight with third place. Al Attiyah he came close to the fastest in the second half of the stage and finished the day in fourth place.
