Dakar 2021: Stage 1 and Stage 2 analysis.

PHOTO CREDIT: Red Bull Content Pool.

Written By: Franco Theron - NamWheels

Has Mini already won? 

Whilst the start of the rally saw a curb in top speed regulations, the X-raid Mini’s of Stephane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz seemed t play the same tactics as their Red Bull motorbike counterparts, during the prologue. 

While Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) took the lead on the prologue, the Mini’s quickly doused Toyota’s early celebratory mood. With the two mates almost in sync, the reigning champion (Sainz) took the lead, a mere 5 seconds ahead of Peterhansel. 

On today’s second stage, Peterhansel punched back, finishing just under 7 minutes ahead of Sainz. 

Yet, it was the Toyota of Al-Attiyah, who reigned supreme on the stage; taking 2:35 minutes out of Peterhansel’s overall lead and 9:17 from Sainz. 

All this means that the three favourites are now just less than 10 minutes away from one another, with Sainz trailing Peterhansel by 6:37 and Al-Attiyah trailing the leader by 9:14. 

While Mini started strongly, Toyota quickly punched back today. It will be anyone’s win. 

What about the other South-African Toyota Gazoo Racing Hiluxes? 

Henk Lategan, in his first-ever Dakar, seems to do well. The two-time SACCS champion is now in 16th position overall, trailing Peterhansel by 49 minutes. He is positioned just ahead of his more experienced, yet ever-cautious Dakar Legend teammate, Giniel De Villiers. The latter is now 18th, just over 52 minutes behind. Yet, as we know, De Villiers is never a quick starter; climbing up the leaderboard, stage by stage. 

Shameer Variawa did well on stage 1, finishing just ahead of Lategan in 12th. At the time of editing, Variawa does seem to struggle in the second stage, trailing the leaders by more than two hours. 

KTM stronger than ever? 

Having won 13 consecutive Dakar titles before Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda) bested the KTM trio in 2020, the KTM squad seems to be back at the 2021 edition with new ambition. The 2016 and 2019 winner, Toby Price, was quick to state the obvious; being that KTM held back on the prologue stage so as to not open the tracks on the first stage of the rally. 

It certainly proved to pay off as the initial Honda pace setters of Brabec and Joan Barreda Bort got lost, earning Price the lead of the rally. 

The second stage of the rally would, unfortunately, swing the favour back in the hands of the Honda’s as Barreda Bort seized the opportunity of a later start to retake the lead for the manufacturer. Brabec finished second and now sits just under 7 minutes behind. 

The KTM of Mattias Walkner came to a halt early in the stage, with the Austrian eventually losing almost two hours and a half. Sam Sunderland lost exactly 23 minutes today, while Price lost even more at 32 minutes. 

KTM might have won 13 consecutive titles, yet the last few years proved to be more of a daunting task in keeping up with appearances. With Yamaha and Husqvarna also being in the mix, will we again see a game of cat and mouse right up until the end? 

We certainly think so… 

The “Kalahari Ferrari” had us worried, but not for long 

Ross Branch (Monster Energy Yamaha) showed us his capabilities during the prologue; taking into account that this is only his third ever Dakar. The Botswanian then seemed to struggle during the first stage, losing valuable time and eventually finishing 12th. 

But, with the ever-present smile on his face, Branch raced ahead during the second stage, threatening the leaders of the stage. 

He would eventually finish today’s stage in fourth (at the time of typing this article), moving up to third overall as the leading Yamaha rider, 6:37 shy of the lead. 

With 10 stages remaining, anything can still happen. Yet, Branch has already showcased his performance in 2020. A stage victory might well be in reach, but can we expect even more? 

We might only be in the second stage of this years’ Dakar, but both the car and motorbike categories are already lighting up and our Southern-African competitors are doing us proud. 

Doran left frustrated after troublesome outing in Barcelona.

PHOTO CREDIT: GC Kompetition

Plagued with bad luck in the first half of the 2020 World Rallycross Championship, Liam Doran has had a slightly better outing at Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona. 

Whilst he claimed his best result of the season in Latvia, the British bomb had a better pace in Barcelona but was not able to capitalize on it through costly mistakes. 

On Saturday (round seven) he jumped the start in Q1 and so did Mattias Ekstrom both driver were handed the customary 2 lap joker penalty, but once the race got underway the Brit led through the first corner and opted to take the joker on lap one, and as the race progressed he was able to jump Ekstrom and had slightly better pace then his teammate and brought it home in second place (ninth overall).

He went on to claim another second-place finish in Q2 (P8 overall) but had a slightly more challenging Q3 finishing in 11th overall. 

Tenth overall after the three qualifying sessions, he progressed to the semi-finals, but it all went downhill from there as he lost front-wheel-drive and exited the race registering a DNF.

Speaking after round seven, Doran said: "All-day the car has been performing great off the start and feels really fun to drive. We made some changes ahead of the semi-finals to get some more traction and it worked a little too well, unfortunately. I then messed up the first corner by stalling and dropped to the back."

"Another small mistake ahead of the jump saw me hit the barrier and spat me out the jump the wrong way, which I just managed to save. It’s frustrating to make mistakes for sure, especially as we had a good start to the day, which then didn’t end quite as well but we go again tomorrow and try to build on today’s pace," he adds.

Back on track for round eight on Sunday morning, Doran posted the eighth fastest time in the morning warm-up and was all set for another day of action. 

Q1 saw Doran drop to P4 after contact in turn one and jokered straight away. He then began chasing down Mandie August and overtook her on the last time to finish in third. 

Lining up alongside Bennett, August, and Guillerme in the second qualifier, Doran’s race finished unexpectedly. Having led the pack for all 4 laps despite a misfiring engine from lap 1, he struggled to keep control into the last corner ahead of the chequered flag due to repeated misfires, resulting in him ending up in the wall and spinning around before crossing the line in second place. And, while the Brit was in 12 overall after Q2, the engine issues were too significant to get fixed ahead of Q3 leading to his early exit from the weekend's action. 

"It’s been a frustrating day for me in Barcelona," he said. "The car felt good and I felt in control until the engine issues reared their head and unfortunately there was no way to continue."

"Having made some mistakes yesterday that cost us to now have an early finish today is frustrating but there’s nothing to do about it really, it’s motorsport."

Written By - Junaid Samodien

"We’ve made many, many steps in the right direction" - Andreas Bakkerud.

PHOTO CREDIT: GC Kompetition.

The Monster Energy GCK RX Cartel has made steps in the right direction after a difficult start to the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship. 

The doubleheader in Sweden saw Andreas Bakkerud qualify for the final, and finish in the position he started - 6th, while his teammate Liam Doran had a weekend to forget after his Megane R.S. RX suffered from a number mechanical failures. 

Round 3 in Kouvola-Finland saw Doran claim an eight-place finish after Q1, but that is where his luck ended. The British Bomb retired from Q2 with prop shaft failure, while Q3 saw him retire from the session with a broken rim and broken rear upright due to contact at turn one. 

Andreas Bakkerud on the other hand had a much smoother Saturday with consistent top-ten finishes in the three qualifying heats and ranked seventh in the intermediate classification meaning he was through to the semi-finals, while his teammate was done for the day. 

Sunday (round 4) got off to a costly start after the FIA Stewards fined the team €5,000 for a breach of the COVID-19 supplementary regulations. 

However, in a statement issued to DirtFish.com, GCK explained the reason for the breach of COVID-19 regulations: "Some of our team members missed this morning’s temperature check at the entrance gate by mistake, having used a different gate that was open to enter the circuit."

"Having arrived from a different direction today, the team members entered through the first open gate leading to their team structure to start their working day.

"However, this gate was not manned and the guys therefore missed their morning temperature check. Upon realizing, they were asked to go and retake their tests, which of course everyone did promptly and successfully."

Round 4 of the championship got off to a wet start in Kouvola. A wet day that brought tons of action and an epic comeback from Liam Doran who fought his way from 17th to 14th overall. 

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World RX. 

In a bold call on a moist track, Doran bolted on a set of slicks and immediately went backwards off the line to finish the session 13th overall. The Brit drove a fantastic Q2, and while leading, his hopes went rolling away after a broken wheel bearing sent him sliding off the track. 

Speaking to Niel Cole, World RX paddock reporter directly after the race, Doran said: "I might as well stay at home and let someone else drive. I don't know how much longer I can do this."

Doran came out swinging in Q3 posting the fifth fastest time, but it wasn't enough to see the him progress to the semi-finals. He missed out on a spot in the semi-finals by 5 points. 

"Happy with that clean last run today," Doran said. "I think it showed that the car and I have the pace to perform, we just haven’t been able to put it fully together yet and perform as a pair. We changed the car’s set up throughout the day and you could definitely feel the difference in the last qualifier."

Meanwhile, Andreas Bakkerud claimed a ninth-place finish in round 3, and mounted a fightback on Sunday in the wet conditions.

Bakkerud claimed a second-place finish behind Mattias Ekstrom in Q1, which slotted him into fifth-place overall. Despite some challenges with traction at the start, Q2 saw Bakkerud put down a great run boldly overtaking Hansen on the last lap to finish in 3rd.

Q3 saw, Andreas finish in second just ahead of Timmy Hansen, which saw the Norweigan claiming a spot in the semi-final with a fifth-place finish overall. 

The Monster Energy GCK RX Cartel driver would line-up in the fastest semi-final with the likes of Mattias Ekstrom, Johan Kristoffersson, etc. And despite crossing the line in fourth-place, Juha Rytkonen was handed a five-second penalty, which promoted the Norwegian to the final. 

The final didn't quite go the way Bakkerud expected despite sneaking up the inside of Timur Timerzyanov and Timmy Hansen at turn one. Timur fought back into turn two pushing Andreas wide, with Timmy getting through. From there, he was unable to make any progress after his windscreen was filled with mud meaning he would race all the way to the checkered flag blind and would finish the final in sixth-place. 

"Overall, we’ve made many, many steps in the right direction - we didn’t have any big technical issues but the super tricky conditions impacted our overall performance," Bakkerud said. "We’re proud to have put the car into the final to fight against 5 top drivers and this is where I think we should play all the time."

"Considering the quickly changing conditions, I think we tactically played our cards right but had some small issues in the semi-finals and finals, which we need to analyse further and work on ahead of Riga. I have full confidence that we will be spraying champagne at the end of the day there."

Written By - Junaid Samodien