Saud Variawa, a South African debutant from the Toyota works team, is only 18 years old and one of the youngest participants in the Dakar in the history of these rally raids.
According to the results of the first six days of the competition, Saud and his more experienced partner, the Frenchman Francois Sazale, occupied 21st place in the general classification, and during yesterday’s 48-hour stage they showed the 24th fastest time, but the The result could have been clearly better if the problem with the gearbox had not existed. However, this wasn’t the only thing holding the young South African back.
“The stage was incredibly difficult! – Saud commented. – The route through the Rub al-Khali desert was absolutely insane. But everything was ten times worse because I was motion sick from the very beginning of the stage. I even had to stop a few times and didn’t feel well all day. In the bivouac the doctors gave me some medicine, after which I felt better and we were able to show a decent pace. We overtook a lot of the guys in front of us, passed them and ultimately finished the first half of the race.
Every day the crew of the Toyota Hilux with tail number 226 is gaining new experience, getting better and better, and today’s rest day together with the team will also be dedicated to analyzing the results of the first half of the rally raid.
On the one hand, it is necessary to rest after an extremely tiring week, on the other hand, the teams must get their equipment in order and prepare to continue the battle in the decisive phase of the Dakar.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing team admits that the results of its five teams are not entirely clear, but nevertheless the Brazilian Lucas Moraes and his Spanish navigator Armand Mauleon won the third stage of the rally raid and took fourth place after six days in the general classification.
So far, this is the best result for representatives of the factory team of the Japanese concern, and it should also be noted that this is the first victory in the stage achieved on the new Toyota GR DKR Hilux EVO racing SUV. Unfortunately, the overall results were negatively affected by numerous punctures, which led to lost time, a minor accident that Moraes’ crew could not avoid, and engine problems in the car of American Seth Quintero.
His SUV hit one of numerous large rocks, the engine was seriously damaged and lost time eliminated crew No. 216 from the race for victory. Now Quintero occupies a very distant 105th place in the overall standings, but continues to fight in the hope of gaining some points in certain stages, which will count towards the World Cross-Country Rally Championship.
The seventh stage of the Dakar starts on Sunday, the route runs from Riyadh to Al-Duwadimi and is 873 km long, including 483 km of fast special stages.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
