During the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally, the dunes turned out to be quite high after all. Here and there it was difficult to reach the top for Tim and Tom Coronel. Together they made no mistakes and relied blindly on each other which meant that speed, even in the dust, was high. They were happy with another trouble-free stage.
Tim was even surprised by dunes in this stage. “I thought we had left the real dunes behind us by now, but even today we really had to try our best at times to get over them. After one more try and with a different tire pressure we managed. We also had a lot of dust again, especially behind the trucks. In terms of navigation it went well again, on the plateaus the speed was high and we were always just right. So I was happy with it.”
The dunes were also surprising for Tom. “I think we lost too much time there, but that was mainly due to the lack of traction. I still don’t quite understand why we couldn’t find it, because then you just don’t make it to the top and you have to do it again. In the dust of those trucks you only notice how important navigation was today, because we kept up the speed when we saw almost nothing. That was fun.”
During the final days, reaching the finishes is the most important thing for the brothers. “Above all, we have to stay out of trouble and finish every day. That’s the most important thing, we had zero problems again today, the car was good again, no navigation or driver errors. In this way we will naturally crawl into the top twenty.”
The ninth stage will be a very fast one from Ha’il to Al Ula. In the 436-kilometer stage, speed is high, navigation is important and the tracks are more tangible than visible. Confidence in the car must be present to achieve a good result.
