Indian rider Harith Noah on Monday became the first Indian ever to win a stage at the iconic Dakar Rally. The Germany-born Kerala rider, who rides for Sherco TVS Rally Factory squad, won Stage 8 in the Rally 2 class. In Stage 7, Harith finished 16th overall despite suffering from a cold. But on Monday, he posted the best in-class time at the first checkpoint itself.
Harith sits at 13th in the overall standings after Stage 8 and third in Rally 2 class.
“P11 (overall standing) Stage 8, 458km. Felt good on the bike and my sickness is getting better too. I guess everything feels good when you do good. Focused on navigation and pushed when comfortable, lost some time trying to find the way in the second part. Tomorrow is another day and the Dakar is far from over,” Noah posted on social media.
Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive) claimed his fourth victory of this year’s Dakar Rally on Tuesday, taking the honours on stage nine in Saudi Arabia, while Adrien Van Beveren (Honda) made it a French double by winning on the bikes.
Neither, however, has control of the overall standings with Carlos Sainz (Audi) leading the cars and Ricky Brabec (Honda) the bikes. Stage nine included 400km of special stage, which featured dunes, complicated navigation and rocky, sandy tracks as the competitors made their way between Hail and Al-Ula.
Nine-time world rally champion Loeb clocked up his 27th stage victory on the Dakar, clawing back 4 minutes 14 seconds from Sainz.
But he remains provisionally 20min 33sec behind the 61-year-old Spaniard with time running out before Friday’s final stage finish in Yanbu, on the shores of the Red Sea. “It was a good day for us, a long stage,” said Loeb. “We had two punctures in the middle of the stage so at the end I had to be a bit careful and not have a third one.
“The gap is still big, but we still have three stages to go. So, we’ll see and we’ll continue to push for the next three days.”
Sainz, already a two-time winner of the Dakar, also had a tough time behind the wheel but found good support from his Audi teammates Mattias Ekstrom and Stephane Peterhansel.
“I waited for Carlos for six minutes at the start to escort him throughout the special, always 30 seconds behind just in case,” said 14-time Dakar winner Peterhansel.
“You could see that he was hesitating a few times, which isn’t too bad a thing when navigating, but it still wasn’t an easy stage. Carlos is in a good position. But Sebastien is capable of recovering 10 minutes a day, or even more if he goes to the limit.”
Another Frenchman Mathieu Serradori (Century) took a fine third place, 4min 43sec behind Loeb.
With AFP inputs
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