It was a long, complicated special stage, with a section of irregular dunes that were difficult to clear. Despite the dangers, Rafa\u0142 Sonik completed the stage without major adventures and retained the leading position, which he gained on Sunday in the wake of a surprising decision of the judges. <\/p>\n
A few hours after the first stage ended, the judges announced the official results, according to which Ignacio Casale received six hours of a penalty for accepting prohibited help during the special stage. The Chilean participant suffered from a failure of the oil tank, and as he wanted to continue to fight, he had to top it up. Unfortunately, that cost him the win. To make matters worse, his engine exploded before the beginning of the stage, and he couldn\u2019t start the stage at all… <\/p>\n
However, the defender of the World Cup title couldn\u2019t be sure of his win, because he, too, found himself in trouble. \u2018Late at night it turned out that my engine got damaged. There was a risk that I wouldn\u2019t reach the finish line at all. My mechanics \u2013 Jarek Zaj\u0105c and Ryszard Soko\u0142owski worked all night long and replaced the turret, the cylinder, and the piston. They also did some work on the shock absorbers. This only proves that nobody wins the race at the beginning and that anything can happen,\u2019 commented Sonik.<\/p>\n
The participants started the second day of the rally with a common start. Bikers and quad riders went off into the dunes in 15-person groups. The desert was once again filled with traps. The rainy and windy weather in the region changed the terrain beyond recognition. In these conditions, it was Kees Koolen who was the fastest quad rider, who was faster than Sonik by a only a minute and a half.
\nHowever, the Dutch rider failed to complete the yesterday\u2019s stage, so despite winning the stage, he is far behind the leader. <\/p>\n
\u2018We had sections today that allowed you to rest a little, but for the most part, we had to clear very variable and irregular dunes. There was no way to catch that even driving rhythm. I had one moment that made my hair stand on end, but apart from that, I had no major adventures. What I wanted was not to make mistakes and to keep my result at the finish line,\u2019 commented Rafa\u0142 Sonik at the finish line.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the organizers have arranged the longest special stage to take place, which has just under 300 km. The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge old-timers say that this \u2013 and the next \u2013 stage will be the ones to decide the winner. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was a long, complicated special stage, with a section of irregular dunes that were difficult to clear. Despite the dangers, Rafa\u0142 Sonik completed the stage without major adventures and retained the leading position, which he gained on Sunday in the wake of a surprising decision of the judges. A few hours after the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n