After a hectic first day of the so-called Marathon Stage the Toyota team was ready to attack all comers today.
Giniel and Al-Rajhi mixed it from the first section with early leader Al-Attiyah, The Quatari led up to the 4th waypoint when Giniel took over the lead and drove like a true champion.
Giniel actually led Al-Atiyah by more than 3minutes and a stage win was in sight. Then, being the suspicious being I am, something very strange happened.
I am not sure whose helicopter it was, but a helicopter disturbed the dust right ahead of de Villiers blocking the route and in the dust he hit a rock causing a puncture. All the good work he did for the day was blown out the window and they lost minutes again while they had to change a wheel.
The Toyota team management will sure as hell or at least hopefully have a few things to say to the organisers regarding this incident and who knows (although I doubt it) they may decide to compensate de Villiers with a time bonus.
It is strange to me that this happened so close to the end of the stage which Giniel had in the bag and where he actually made up some substantial time on Al-Attiyah.
Having said this – although the stage-end is to sea-level than the start was – it is good to know that the Toyotas have the speed and apparently the power to keep up with the turbo Minis.
To confirm this, Yazeed Alrajhi in the sister Toyota went ahead and won his first stage on his first outing of the Dakar.
He will therefore be able to at least show the road to Giniel when they race again on Tuesday – as tomorrow the teams will enjoy a well-deserved rest day.
Leeroy had a better day and he is back in 17th position overall after he had to overtake many slower competitors on both days – starting both times in about 40th spot.
There is still a long way to go and who knows Leeroy may still be able to finish in a respectable positon.
AlRajhi on the other hand is actually closing in on de Villiers and is now “only” 13 minutes behind him. Giniel only lost a few second to AL-Attiyah today and is still the only competitor with a chance to catch the Quatari.
Holowczyc in a Mini is 4th, Ten Brinke in a Toyota in 5th, van Loon Mini 6th, Lavieille Toyota 7th while Peterhansel is in 8th position. Sousa in the Mitsubishi is in 9th and Chabot in the SMG completes the Top 10.
I need to end this on a bit of a negative – I have this funny feeling that we are only going to see the real Mini performance from Tuesday onwards. The fact that the teams started five at a time this morning, and that the Minis did not even try to out-drag the Toyotas, allowing them to get away. may just be confirmation of my theory.
No matter what, let us hold thumbs for the South African and hope they will all make it to the end in good time.