Fabrizio Meoni’s bid for victory in the Dakar Rally took a shot to the gut today as he lost over 22 minutes repairing his Gauloises KTM after a crash. Meoni’s misfortune added to overall leader Richard Sainct’s lead, the Frenchman winning today’s stage by 18 seconds over Cyril Despres on the run from Dakhla to Luoxor in Egypt.
Spaniard Marc Coma ended up third today with Sweden’s Per-Gunnar Lundmark fourth.
Sainct now lead Despres by 11 minutes and 20 seconds in the overall standings with Meoni now over 39 minutes behind.
