Dakar Rally: Stage 2 victory for De Villiers, overall lead for Terranova

Giniel De Villiers and his navigator Alex Haro Bravo are the winners of Stage 2 (Al Wajh – Neom) at the 2020 Dakar Rally. The pair in the #304 Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux set the fastest time on the 367km-long stage, about four minutes faster than Orlando Terranova and Bernardo Graue in the #311 Mini JCW Rally.

The Argentineans Terranova/Graue are new overall leaders after two stages, having an advantage of 4min43sec ahead of Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz in the #305 Mini JCW Buggy. Sainz was sixth fastest on Stage 2. Defending winners Nasser Al-Attiyah/Matthieu Baumel finished fifth at Stage 2 in the #300 Toyota Hilux and progressed to third place overall after two days.

Giniel De Villiers in the #304 Toyota Hilux

Vaidotas Žala, the surprise winner of the first stage yesterday, lost more than nineteen minutes today compared to De Villiers and now, Žala is fifth overall while De Villiers is sixth overall.

Former Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso experienced big troubles during Stage 2, including a broken wheel, so he had to wait for assistance and lost more than two and a half hours. ‘Mister Dakar’ Stephane Peterhansel lost more than twenty-two minutes on the second stage to drop to eighth place overall, 13min17sec behind Terranova.

Orlando Terranova in the #311 Mini JCW Rally

Among the bikers, the fastest rider in Stage 2 was Ross Branch from Botswana, who is driving the #18 KTM for BAS Dakar KTM Racing Team.

Red Bull KTM Factory Team’s Sam Sunderland was the second-fastest and he takes the lead in the overall classification, with an advantage of 1min18sec ahead of Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna).

Sam Sunderland

Photos: Flavien Duhamel/Red Bull Content Pool, X-Raid