Stage 8 Al Duwadimi – Riyadh
Stage for today contains 476km liaison and 346km special stage.
Stage info
Liaison > 476 km – Special > 346 km
Press release
Mitchel van den Brink for the fourth time on the podium
RIYADH – Mitchel van den Brink has claimed his fourth podium finish in the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally.
The youngest driver of Eurol Team De Rooy Iveco finished second behind Martin Macik.
Martin van den Brink high strung to the finish
Martin van den Brink had a slightly lesser day and had to settle for fifth place.
An engine problem was the basis for the backlog of 17m51s. Martin remains second in the standings. “It will really kick off coming Tuesday,” said the experienced driver from Harskamp.
‘Nice special with extreme dunes’
The equips of Eurol Team De Rooy Iveco have concluded the first week in Saudi Arabia satisfactorily. The eighth stage was the second part of the marathon stage. The 345-kilometer special was followed by a liaison of almost 400 kilometers to the Saudi capital Riyadh. The special was a mix of sand, dunes, gravel paths and stones. A varied special with a lot of potential risks.
“It was a super nice day,” said Mitchel just after the test. “There were extreme dunes with very high summits. We drove well and soon overtook both Loprais and my father.”
The young Harskamper and his co-pilots Moi Torrallardona and Jarno van de Pol had hardly any problems.
“A branch of a tree broke the right-side window and that was all. As navigator Moi is sitting on the right site in the cabin, it was less pleasant for him”
“Unfortunately, Macik just a little bit faster”
Mitchel only had to bow his head to the Czech Macik at the finish. “Too bad, we were in the lead for a large part of the stage. Macik was a little bit faster in the last section. On the fast trails with all those stones he is just very fast. All in all, it is a beautiful day for us,” said Mitchel before he started the long journey to the bivouac in Riyadh this afternoon. See results here.
The Eurol Team De Rooy Iveco team will enjoy the rest day being in fifth overall. The gap to leader Loprais is 1 hour 51 minutes and 51 seconds. The young driver must hope for a “bad day” for the Czech. In any case, it is not due to the constant performance of the trio in the Iveco Powerstar. Mitchel finished in the top five in every special except for the second stage (17th after four punctures). The stable performance opens the door to a possible podium finish in the second week.
Engine problem
That is certainly the goal for father Martin van den Brink next week. The 52-year-old Harskamper, being second overall, is the highest ranked pilot of Team De Rooy. “It will really kick-off coming Tuesday,” says Martin. “Today we lost some time, which is a pity, but we still have a chance.” The reason for that is clear. “We drove all day with an engine problem.
We tried everything by resetting the system regularly, but it didn’t help. In the beginning Mitchel flew past us in a riverbed. Whatever we did we couldn’t go any faster and saw him disappear in the far distance, just like that.”
“Glad we are here”
At the end of the special, the time lost for Martin, Erik Kofman and Richard Mouw was still limited. “We are happy having made it to the finish. At the neutralization zone, we discovered a very hot transfer case, probably because the four-wheel drive remained active, even when we drove on asphalt. The exhaust temperature was also quite high.” said Martin just after the special.
“It was again a good special. We didn’t do a lot of crazy things. They only stopped us on top of a dune and we had to drive around it. We were a bit disappointed about that. The last part of the stage we drove a bit high strung due to the technical problems. We were quite concerned and glad to be here. Let’s enjoy tomorrow’s rest day.”
That rest day in Riyadh starts for Eurol Team De Rooy Iveco knowing that Martin and his crew are the best-ranked team of Team De Rooy. The gap to leader Ales Loprais is 16m17s. Teammate Janus van Kasteren followed in third position (at 38.03). Martin Macik is fourth, 47 seconds behind Janus, and Mitchel will start Tuesday the final part of the 45th Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia being fifth overall.
The special on Tuesday is about 358 kilometers. However, the focus will be on Thursday and Friday next week. Then the marathon stage in the huge desert area, called Empty Quarter, is on the program.
Advance of Van Kasteren Jr. stopped
Stage 8 takes the participants from Al Duwadimi to Riyadh.
After a liaison of 95 kilometers, the participants awaited a special stage of 346 kilometers. As far as surfaces concerned, there was a bit of everything: stone, gravel paths, but also quite a few dunes.
That the Dakar rally is the toughest rally in the world has become clear once again today. After yesterday’s euphoria, Boss Machinery Team De Rooy Iveco now had to take two punctures. Within the first 70 kilometers, the men in the Iveco Powerstar ran out of spare tires.
Then Janus van Kasteren jr., Marcel Snijders and Darek Rodewald knew that another victory was not going to be possible this time. Janus: “A lot of stones in the beginning. We thought we had a deflating tire in the front to the right. We couldn’t keep the air pressure high enough, so at some point we decided to change this tire as the tire temperature rose from 90 to 100 degrees. Of course, it is easier to change a tire when the tire is still in one piece and not completely destroyed.
When we stopped, we saw that the front left tire was also completely empty. It turned out that we had a problem with the tire in- and deflating system. Twenty kilometers further the same story but now on the left rear. From then on, Darek used the system to inflate the tires continuously.
For the rest, I just went for it everywhere and all day long with exception of the area of rocks and stones. There I slowed down a bit. What can you do when you’re out of tires? We are only allowed to have two spare wheels and tires on board, so one more puncture and game over. Today was a bit of an off day.”
The men of Boss Machinery Team De Rooy Iveco kept the loss of time fairly constant during the rest of the special stage and crossed the finish line 19:26 minutes behind winner Martin Macik. In the daily standings we find the Iveco with starting number 502 in sixth place.
Janus, Marcel and Darek close an eventful first week of rally driving in third position in the general classification. The Czech classification leader has seen his lead increase to 38:03 minutes on Van Kasteren today. In second place is Team De Rooy pilot Martin Van den Brink at 16:17 minutes from the desired first place.
For now, a well-deserved day of rest awaits the pilot
and their crews but to quote Janus:
“More to come next week”.
Results
Stage is finished, results are in!
Stage timing
Stage Rank | Number | Driver | Rally stage time | Time gap to first |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 | 511 | Mitchel van den Brink | 4h05m27s | +59s |
4 | 506 | Martin van den Brink | 4h22m19s | +17m51 |
6 | 502 | Janus van Kasteren | 4h23m54s | +19m26s |
Overall rally competition Trucks
After rally stage 8
Overall Rank | Number | Driver | Rally overall time | Gap to first | Penalty |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 508 | A. Loprais | 36h30m58s | – | – |
2 | 506 | Martin van den Brink | 36h47m15s | +16m17s | – |
3 | 502 | Janus van Kasteren | 37h09m01s | +38m03s | +15m00s |
6 | 511 | Mitchel van den Brink | 28h22m49s | +1h51m51s | +1m00s |
X | 504 | Vick Versteijnen | dnf | dnf |
Videos
Video by Rallymaniacs
Video by Omroep Brabant
Video by A.S.O.
Photos
Photos from photographers Rallymaniacs, MMPhoto, Fotop and Ronald Loedeman 😎