Second stage and second victory for MKR Renault at the Morocco Desert Challenge. This time Dutchman Martin van den Brink was happy with gold, as he totally owned the second and longest stage of 10th edition of Morocco Desert Challenge and moved into overall lead. His advantage over second Voerman was five minutes and over twenty minutes on third Loprais.
"Martin enjoyed this stage a lot, he went without any problems," said Daniel Kozlovský, technician of MKR. "In the middle of the special section, after some two hundred kilometers, the organizers prepared a shorter siesta, where Martin managed to change his tire and then could hurry on. According to the state of the cockpit, it was a hard stony stage and Janus learned this the hard way."
Winner of the first stage and Martin van den Brink’s team-mate from Mammoet Rally Sport team, Janus van Kasteren, probably took all the bad luck in the second stage. He had astonishing six flat tires and due to the troubles with axles, he had to detach 4x4 drive a made the finish line only using rear axle. In the end, he had lost five hours.
Martin van den Brink moved into the overall lead, Gert Huzink in the Riwald Dakar Renault is fourth and unlucky Janus van Kasteren is twenty-fourth.
Overall Standings TRUCKS Top 10 after SS02
01) Van den Brink / Van den Brink / De Graaf I Renault I 07:08:14 I 00:00:00
02) Voerman / Stubbs / Kupper I MAN I 07:14:46 I 00:06:32
03) Loprais / Janda / Alcayna I Tatra I 07:28:16 I 00:20:02
04) Huzink / Antonius / Buursen I Renault I 08:08:08 I 00:59:54
05) Jacinto / Marques / Cochinho I MAN I 08:53:18 I 01:45:04
06) Bouwens / Berghmans / Boerboom I Iveco I 09:00:19 I 01:52:05
07) Verheyden / Keysers / Schildermans I DAF I 09:00:49 I 01:52:35
08) Versluis / Pronk / Klein I MAN I 09:02:40 I 01:54:26
09) Schoones / Van der Donk / Schoones I DAF I 09:25:20 I 02:17:06
10) Timmermans / Vervoort / Roothans I DAF I 09:35:17 I 02:27:03
Photos: Mammoet
MOROCCO DESERT CHALLENGE
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