As the Dakar 2020 mourns the passing of Paulo Goncalves in Stage 7, the competition took a back seat. But Carlos Sainz managed to bag his third stage win in the second-longest Special Stage. The Dakar veteran raced across the 741 kilometres in just 04h16m11s, thereby achieving an average speed of around 130kmph through the treacherous dunes of Saudi Arabia.
Despite starting the Stage with his previous Stage win, Stephan Peterhansel was third quickest in reaching Wadi Al-Dawasir. He is was just 2m53s adrift Sainz and is now sitting comfortably at third position in the overall standing.
Meanwhile, Nasser Al-Attiya’s Toyota Gazoo was no match to the Mini buggies on the massive dunes but the Qatari remained focused and finished second for the third time out of seven stages. He is now exactly 10 minutes behind Sainz in the general leaderboard.
Al-Attiyah’s Toyota teammate Bernhard Ten Brinke came in at P4, his best position this year. The Dutch rally driver was just five seconds off the pace behind Peterhansel. Trailing by more than seven minutes in Stage 7 was local Yazeed Al Rajhi closely followed by Fernando Alonso. A sixth-place finish has helped the former Formula 1 and Le Man champion to bag the 15th position in the overall standing.
