Dakar 2017: Stage 11. Honda one and two on the stage. KTM lead overall

Focus

This was the last opportunity for the competitors to make the difference before a final sprint on Saturday. The start of the special was marked by the last dunes in the region of San Juan while the end of the stage near Córdoba gave pride of place to quick tracks perfectly suited to former rally drivers. Today was a last session of all out attack and a last opportunity to grab a place on the final podium…

The essentials

With a one-hour time penalty in the first week, the official Honda riders most likely bitterly regret their infringement of the rules and have been at the forefront during the race’s second week. Ricky Brabec, Michael Metge, and Paulo Gonçalves well and truly hogged the limelight, but it was again Joan Barreda who triumphed in Rio Cuarto to get his third consecutive special stage victory.

Crushing blow of the day

Having occupied sixth place for a long time on the rally, Xavier de Soultrait has experienced a terrible end to the Dakar. After getting lost yesterday and losing almost one hour, the Frenchman, who had ambitions of winning at the start of the rally, was beset by engine problems on his Yamaha throughout the second part of the day, losing several hours. This evening, he will have dropped to below 20th place in the general standings.

“Hey team just heard from Matt, he is sitting 44th overall at the moment!! ???????? Here is a little update from stage 11.

The Dakar organisers sure have an evil streak! The first 70km of today’s stage was like riding at WA AJS MX track after a state round! The woops were relentless not all that fun on a 190kg bike.
We had a 300km liaison to the second special which was WRC style track fast with big consequences if you messed up.
The good news is I got through unscathed to finish in 43rd which puts me in 44th outright leading into the last day tomorrow.
Big hats off to fellow Aussie Todd Smith who had a very Nasty crash yesterday and battled through injuries to finish today and stay in the top 20 holding 19th outright!!!”