″It is an enormous pride to take the name of Portugal further with this victory″
Victory in the eighth stage in the category of prototype light vehicles in the 45th edition of the Dakar rally leaves João Ferreira with “enormous pride”.
The Portuguese driver João Ferreira (Yamaha), who this Sunday won the eighth stage in the projected vehicle category in the 45th edition of the all-terrain Dakar rally, said he was “enormously proud”.
The 23-year-old Leiriense, who made his first participation in the race, was this Sunday the fastest to complete the 346 kilometers timed between Al Duwadimi and Riyadh among the T3 (SSV prototypes), after having already been second in the fourth stage and third in the seventh.
The driver from Leiria, national and European all-terrain champion, completed the run with a time of 4:11.36 hours, leaving second place, Chilean Francisco Lopez (Can-Am), 17 seconds behind. The American Mitchell Guthrie (Can-Am), leader of the overall category, was third, at 2.02 minutes.
“This stage was written well for us from the beginning, since, after the result obtained yesterday (Saturday), we ended up getting it from a little further ahead, we didn’t pick up dust and it was a 100% clean stage, where we imposed a strong pace”, began by explaining the 23-year-old rider, quoted by his press office.
João Ferreira also explained that “this was a tough stage, with a lot of rocks and sand at the end, very big dunes”.
“We overcame all the challenges and took part in our first Dakar victory. It is an enormous pride to take the name of Portugal further with this victory and now we are going to make the most of the rest day to prepare the second week of the race in the best possible way. The objective it doesn’t change, despite these good results. We want to be in the final of the race and continue to evolve daily”, said the driver from Leiria, who became the 10th Portuguese driver to win a stage of the Dakar.
João Ferreira joins Hélder Rodrigues (9), Carlos Sousa (6), Ruben Faria (4), Paulo Gonçalves (3), Duarte Guedes (1), Paulo Marques (1), Bernardo Vilar (1), Ricardo Leal dos Santos (1) and Joaquim Rodrigues Jr. (1), who have already won stages of this competition.
In the same category, Hélder Rodrigues (Can-Am) was seventh fastest this Sunday, 6.02 minutes behind his compatriot, with João Ré, who sails the late Saleh Alsaif (Can-Am), in 13th position and Ricardo Mas in 13th place. 14th.
João Ré is in sixth place, 3:47.44 hours behind the leader, the Belgian Guillaume de Mevius (Grally), who has an advantage of 3.19 minutes over the American Austin Jones (BFG).
Ricardo Mas is 17th, already 11:07.18 hours behind the leader. Hélder Rodrigues is 31st and João Ferreira 37th.
In T4 (SSV derived from the series), the Portuguese navigator Fausto Mota, who races with a Spanish license, was ninth, alongside the Brazilian pilot Cristiano Batista (Can-Am), 7.51 minutes behind the winner, the Argentinean Jeremias Ferioli (Can-Am). am). Pedro Bianchi Prata, sailed by the Brazilian Bruno Oliveira (Can-Am), was 15th, at 12.40 minutes.
Paulo Oliveira (Can-Am) was 38th.
Overall, Fausto Mota is sixth, 1:17.05 hours behind the leader, Lithuanian Rokas Baciuska (Can-Am), Bianchi Prata is eighth and Paulo Oliveira, who runs with a license from Mozambique, is 27th.
In cars, it was a penalty that made the difference, as the Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Audi), who was considered the first winner, suffered a five-minute penalty and dropped to third in the stage.
The victory thus went to the French Sébastien Loeb (BRX), with 2.11 minutes of advantage over the overall leader, the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota), with Sainz in third, 3.31 minutes away.
Al-Attiyah increased his advantage in command of the race, with 1:03.46 hours ahead of the South African Henk Lategan (Toyota), his teammate, and 1:20.22 hours over the Brazilian Lucas Moraes (Toyota).
Loeb moved up to fourth place, but already at 1:52.06 hours.
Monday is a rest day for the race, with the competition returning on Tuesday, with 358 kilometers timed between Riyadh and Haradh.