Race with a deadly exit – Newspaper Kommersant No. 4 (7449) dated 01/12/2023

The main rally-raid of the season “Dakar” entered the final stage. The race, held in Saudi Arabia, will end on January 15th. In the most prestigious class – SUVs – Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah is a couple of steps away from the second victory in a row. For motorcycle racers, the situation is extremely confusing – less than 15 minutes separate the first and fifth riders. Finally, in the truck standings, “orphaned” after the Dakar organizers banned the legendary KAMAZ-master team from participating in it, an unforeseen change of leader occurred. This was due to the tragedy – the death of one of the spectators, who fell under the truck of Alyosha Loprais. The Czech rider eventually considered it right to simply withdraw from the race.

Alesh Loprais is a well-known and authoritative racer. He has been performing in Dakar since 2006, but he never managed to rise above third place, and the most frequently repeated result was retirement – seven times the Czech did not manage to reach the finish line. This year, against the backdrop of the absence of the KAMAZ-master team at Dakar, which has 19 victories in the most prestigious rally-raid in the world (the Russian “stable” was suspended from the race due to the position taken by the International Automobile Federation after the start of events in Ukraine in relation to the Russians), Loprais had a real chance to still record the title of the champion in the asset. And until the ninth stage, the Czech pilot was doing well – he was in the lead in the overall standings. However, at the ninth stage, the Czech became the unwitting culprit in the death of a person. A certain 69-year-old Italian tried to get a beautiful shot and stood up so that he got into the dead zone of view. Loprais ended up hooking the Italian, didn’t notice anything and sped ahead in his Praga truck. “We learned about what happened after the finish,” Loprais said. “The judges showed us a recording that shows that we hit a man who was photographing us standing on a dune. He got injured. Soon he became ill, he was sent to the hospital, but on the way his heart failed. And it’s my fault, because I was driving.” Loprais was so shocked by what had happened that he chose to simply withdraw from the race, missing perhaps the only chance in his career to win the Dakar. As a result, the Dutchman Janus van Kasteren on Iveco became the leader of the overall standings. 22 minutes separate him from second-placed Martin van den Brink in the same car. Not the gap with which one could feel calm. Especially considering that the next two stages will be marathon, and their route is laid along Rub al-Khali, one of the largest sandy deserts in the world, where the height of the dunes reaches 250 meters.

In the most prestigious class – SUVs – the situation is more definite. Nasser al-Attiyah (Toyota) is very close to his fifth career and second consecutive Dakar victory. In the first half of the raid, the Qatari secured a solid lead over the nearest pursuer (according to the results of Wednesday, it exceeded 1 hour and 20 minutes) and now concentrated on maintaining it. It is not necessary for him to win the stages at any cost. Say, at the tenth stage, al-Attiyah was only the fourth. The first at the end of the day was the nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Lob (for the Frenchman, this is the third consecutive stage won). This, however, did not allow him to rise even to second place. He is third and behind Brazilian Lucas Moraes by 16 minutes. Note that the latter claims to be considered the discovery of this “Dakar”. After all, the Brazilian has never participated in the main rally-raid before, but he shows more than solid results.

But in the motorcycle class, the situation is extremely confusing. The leaders of the overall standings here change regularly, and it seems that the outcome of the battle for the title will remain uncertain until the last stage. Suffice it to say that the first and fifth numbers of the overall standings are separated by less than 15 minutes. And in the top 3 riders fit in two minutes with a ponytail. In the meantime, after ten stages, Kevin Benavidez on KTM is in the lead. It is noteworthy that the Argentinean did not win a single stage and even got into the top 3 only once, obviously relying on the principle “go quieter – you will continue”.

Alexander Petrov