Sweden’s Mattias Ekstrom won the car section of the 11th stage of the Dakar Rally on Thursday, while American Skyler Howes clinched a maiden victory in the motorbikes.
Ekstrom, in a Ford Raptor, clocked 2hr 47min 22sec to win the eighth special stage of his career on the Dakar and his third this year.
The Swede sits fourth in the overall standings headed by Qatar’s Nasser al-Attiyah, who has an 8:40 lead over Spaniard Nani Roma in second, with Frenchman Sebastien Loeb in third.
“We are so happy to finish today because today was not very easy and we didn’t know what pace to go at,” said the Qatari, a five-time winner of the Dakar, with just two more stage’s of this year’s edition to race.
“When we saw Sebastien coming we let him pass and just stayed behind him all the way. Tomorrow, we just need to do the same as today. If we lose two, three or four minutes, it’s no problem, we just need to finish this Dakar in first place.”
There was drama as South African Henk Lategan’s hopes of pressing Attiyah went up in smoke, mechanical problems allowing Roma and Loeb to steal a march for a podium finish.
The motorbike section was won by Howes, the Honda rider finishing 21sec ahead of French teammate Adrien Van Beveren as he became the ninth American rider to win a Dakar bike stage.
Luciano Benavides, on a KTM, remains atop the overall standings, but the next five riders are all within a minute of the Argentinian, with American Ricky Brabec, a two-time winner, in second.
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