Both trucks from Židovice in the 3rd stage finished just behind the top ten

5.1.2021

both Renaults from Židovice finished today just outside elite ten. Martin van den Brink arrived 11th in the 3rd Dakar stage, followed by Pascal de Baar.

To make the life easier for the technicians, the entire 3^rd was like a six hundred and thirty kilometer long loop, which began and finished in a bivouac in Wadi Ad-Dawasir. So for two days the support stays in the same place. This time the timed special section was slightly over four hundred kilometers. However, the sand and dunes proved to be very tricky. "There are no dunes as high as in Peru, for example, but there are pits with very soft sand, and if you drive into them, you have no chance to get out of them. Thanks to that, there was a lot of cars stuck on the course," said Daniel Kozlovský, on-board technician of the Mammoet Rallysport truck with number 506. "Although the stage was mostly on sand, we also drove through canyons and over hard rocks, long sections demanded a lot of engine power, but we tackled the stage without any problems," added Kozlovský.

Belarus Viazovich took the win in this stage. He took three and three-quarters of an hour to do so. The eleventh Dutchman van den Brink was twenty minutes behind him, and a few moments later he was followed by his compatriot Pascal de Baar. Pascal jumped several times from the dunes and had a noticeably wrinkled the front of his special truck and damaged rear suspension. These facts only confirmed the words about the difficulty of the stage. Although the third of the trucks designed by the MKR Technology team suffered engine failure in the previous stage and Gert Huzink had to leave the race prematurely, there seem to be better times ahead. "We would like to prepare Gert for the so-called little Dakar, so that he can jump into the second half of the competition. We have found the cause of the failure and I dare say that it is within our reach to fix it even in these difficult conditions," Mario Kress, chief designer and head of the MKR Technology team outlined the intention to make the fans happy.

There were no significant changes in the overall ranking. The competition is still led by Russian Sotnikov, Martin van den Brink improved by one place when he jumped to eighth position, Pascal de Baar is currently thirteenth.

On the fourth race day, the crews will have to master the longest stage this year. In total, they have to travel eight hundred and thirteen kilometers on the way from Wadi Ad-Dawasir to Riyadh. Wednesday's special section is almost three hundred and forty kilometers.