2020 Dakar Stage 2 took place in Saudi Arabia earlier today. The stage consisted of a 26 km road section that preceded 367 km of racing. The 2020 Dakar Stage 2 was run between Al-Wajh and Neom. The race organisers’ plan to make navigational matters tough seemed to pay off as many crews were lost through the day. Several of the front runners dropped down the order as they tried to make sense of the road book.

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Hard-charger

All eyes were in Yazeed Al-Rajhi for most of the day. The local hero, driving a privately entered Toyota Hilux, set the timesheets alight. He seemed to be making a clean run to the finish, opening a gap to his pursuers with each passing kilometre. Al-Rajhi faltered just before the line and Giniel de Villers was waiting to pick up the pieces.

That means the 2009 Dakar champ has won his first stage victory on the Dakar in Saudi Arabia thanks to a faultless special, whereas most of his rivals struggled with complicated navigation. The South African took advantage of a mistake by long-time stage leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi in the last few kilometres to triumph, almost four minutes in front of Orlando Terranova. Another local, Al-Qassimi was third across the line. Defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah was fifth on 2020 Dakar Stage 2.

Terranova’s second place today and sixth position yesterday means that he takes over the lead of the event. The Argentinean managed to avoid any major mishaps and has taken a lead of almost 5 minutes over Carlos Sainz. Nasser Al-Attiyah is still in touch 6 minutes behind. Stage one leader Zala lies in 5th. De Villiers’ strong performance today means that he has climbed up from 14th to 6th, 12 minutes off the lead.

Click here for our Stage 1 report.

Formula One champ and Dakar rookie, Fernando Alonso ground to a halt after 160 km of the special. Reports from the event are that the Spaniard ripped a wheel off his Hilux for almost 20 minutes, he was in fourth place after 100 km of the special. At the time of writing he was still in the stage.

Other categories

Botswana rider Ross Branch (KTM) took the stage win in the two-wheel division. His win catapulted him to 6th in the overall standings, making his the highest placed privateer. Sam Sunderland, of the works KTM outfit, leads the category overall. Conrad Rautenbach of Zimbabwe won the T3 side-by-side stage today by 3 minutes.

Ross Branch, became the first native of Botswana to win on the rally. He said of his day: “Today was really good and I had a lot of fun on the bike. Starting fourteenth this morning helped a lot because there were some tracks that opened the road. I had a lot of fun and tried to ride my own race. I navigated well today which was really good for me and I think it helped a lot. Then I just took it easy, one by one, just trying to catch the guys. Yeah, I had a lot of fun and it was an awesome day. We only get one shot at this, so we have to make the most of it and I really enjoyed it. I love being here. The whole adventure’s amazing and I’ve made so many new friends here. It’s really cool and I love being a part of the Dakar. It’s a KTM, so the bike’s really good. It’s really good – everything’s good for tomorrow”.

  1. Terranova
  2. Sainz +4 min 43 sec
  3. Al-Attiyah+6 min 07 sec
  4. Serradoro 7 min 22 sec
  5. Zala +8 min 11 sec
  6. De Villiers +12 min  04 sec
  7. Al Qassimi +12 min 35 sec
  8. Peterhansel +13 min 17 sec
  9. Al-Rajhi +16 min 05 sec
  10. Ten Brinke +21 min 23 sec