The second stage of the Dakar Rally is once again very dusty. Tim and Tom Coronel drive in it all day. This makes overtaking difficult, but the brothers manage to crawl forward one position at a time. Tomorrow the marathon stage begins, and Tim and Tom are ready for it.
Tim and Tom are still bothered by the result in the prologue. “It was another dusty one, we had to chase people a lot on those very fast trails. We did then have a little more speed than the people in front of us and when the wind is in the right direction you get closer. But then you go around the corner and you have the wind in front again and you ride in the dust, and you have to get off the throttle. But we keep overtaking people and moving up spot by spot,” Tom says.
In terms of navigation, it went almost flawlessly according to Tom. “It was pretty easy. At one waypoint we had to turn around for a while. A group of bikers went to the left, we followed, but it wasn’t right, so we immediately turned. That’s how we caught up with that whole club of motorcycles, so that went super.”
Tim agrees that they are still suffering a bit from the prologue. “Of course, we knew after the day before yesterday that we would have a few though days. But it was a beautiful day, with very nice dunes and then a bit more technical. That’s where we had to wake up and we were right there. Also, nice scenery and some jumps. The car is going very well, no problems. So, I can’t say other than that we are starting to get into it nicely and are starting to enjoy it.”
After two long days comes a third, the rally goes from Al Duwadimi to Al Salamiya over a stage of 438 kilometers. It is the first part of the marathon stage, this one promising an interesting mix of surfaces. Passages with stones, but also with sand and dunes. After the finish, the teams are allowed 2 hours to work on the cars and then the Century CR6 goes into the parc fermé.
