- The caravan of participants of the 2018 Sertões Rally travelled yesterday from the city of Luís Eduardo Magalhães to Barra, both in Bahia’s state to race the first half of the marathon stage that will end only today. Yesterday’s leg had 355 demanding quilometers , across a challenging terrain that made some casualties among the caravan including some favourites.
In the motorbikes one of the main contenders was forced out: Jean Azevedo, the very experienced and always candidate to the overall winner retired from the race after a mechanical failure on is Honda, letting the way open to Tunico Maciel score the third out of four possible stage victories until the moment. Maciel took 4h19m04s to cross the finish line, 2m30s faster than Gregório Caselani in second and 9m20s faster than Elias Folly in third.Overall, Tunico Maciel solidified his lead, 33m24s in front of the Ricardo Martins who is now the second overall after the retirement of Jean Azevedo who was seeking his 8th triumph on this race. Almost in another time zone shows up the third classified, Gregório Caselani 52m22s behind the leader.
In the cars the Ford is taking care of the events in the front of the race, putting 4 cars in the in front of all of the rest. The stage winner was Cristian Baumgart ( 3h55min08s), only 21 seconds ahead of the young South African Gareth Woolridge. In third, Marcos Baumgart (Cristian’s brother) finished in third, losing 2m32s. Sylvio Barros was the fourth Ford Ranger driver and fourth on the stage. The first “non-Ford” team was Lucas Moraes in Sherpa 4×4.
Overall, the “Fords” are taking care of the podium with Cristian Baumgart in front (11h41min29s), 13m17s ahead of Sylvio de Barros in second. Third is Marcos Baumgart.
In the SxS (SSV/UTV) category, Enrico Amarante was the fastest on this 4th stage, grabbing his second stage victory in 2018 Sertões. Nevertheless, the victory has hard to conquer, as Denisio Nascimento put up a good fight, finishin only 11 second behind. Gabriel Varela finished third, 1m25s behind the leader. All the top 3 teams are using Can-Am Maverick X3 SSV’s.
Overall is still Reinaldo Varela who is in front, even if yesterday he only finished 7th. Enrico Amarante is actually the second and Denísio Nascimento the third.
In the Quads, George Ximenes was the stage winner, with an expressive advantage of 19m42s over the second finisher Giovanni Filho. Third was Wescley Dutra, more than 25m away from the winner.
In the overall classification, Ximenes looks safe from any danger and only needs to worry about himself or any possible mechanical failures, due to the 1h24m0s he has of advantage over Wescley Dutra in second place. Giovanni Filho is third in the moment.
Today the rally heads to São Raimundo, crossing the border in to Piauí Stage. The 446 kilometer long leg, will feature 401 km special stage, demanding extra care to all the teams if they plan to reach the end not only of the stage but also of the Rally. To reach São Raimundo city will be a great relief for most of the teams, since it also means that finally the mechanics will be able to work on the vehicles after the marathon stage.
To view the classification, please visit this link: www.sertoes.com
Rally-Raid Network translation and adaptation from Vipcomm’s official press release
Photos:Vinicius Branca and Vitor Euleuterio from Fotop/Vipcomm