Strategy comes into play at the Dakar Rally

Strategy has come into play on the Dakar Rally. And, as often happens, some have done better than others. With Jordi Viladoms as team director at KTM and five-time race winner Marc Coma as advisor, the Austrian team has opted to forego this Wednesday's stage to seek a long-delayed starting position this Thursday. This is how Mathias Walkner, for example, leader of the general classification until the day before, gave up 15 minutes at the end of qualifying (and eight in the general classification, he is now fourth). This is how he will start this Thursday from 26th position to be able to come back at full speed on a day that is expected to be key to the final victory.

To some, Walkner's seemed like a masterful move. He had controlled timed for the first 200 kilometers or more, but at the last two crossing points, he lost some positions. And he seemed to do it consciously. He did not change his intended course, nor did he make any navigational errors. He simply let himself be overtaken by some of his rivals. He did it again in the last stage, around kilometer 300. And what apparently seemed like a bad result two days before the end of the Rally, was celebrated by his people. Starting so late this Thursday is considered a great option to try to cut minutes on a route already marked by the ruts of the riders who will precede you.

The penultimate stage looks tough, difficult to navigate, and with many dunes of all possible types and shapes in a 345-kilometer loop around Bisha.

Walkner's play was also seconded by Sam Sunderland (GasGas), who finished 17th after giving up 11 minutes;

He is now third overall, less than six minutes behind the leader, an Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha) who did not speculate in the least, fourth this Wednesday, three minutes behind the winner Toby Price (KTM).

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Joan Barreda's frustrated comeback: after a penalty he is two days and eight minutes away from fighting for his first Dakar Rally

“Hopefully it will be super, super difficult, more than what they had told us, because we are counting on it, but we have seen that, sometimes, they tell you that it is very complicated and then it is not so much. We hope it will be complicated and that there will be big differences, it would be good for us, because we left behind. The important thing is that two days from the end we are there, with two drivers with options to win the race and we depend on them having to do big stages, ”explained Jordi Viladoms, KTM team sporting director, in statements to digital Motorsport.

The Honda team also played strategy, but it didn't work out so well. It is not clear who decided how to do it, but it seems clear that the two riders best placed in the general classification to finish on the final podium of the Dakar, also wanted to bet their cards for the penultimate stage. These are Pablo Quintanilla and the Spanish Joan Barreda, second and fifth overall, five and a little under nine minutes respectively, after being penalized with one and two minutes for exceeding speed on a connecting section. The penalty seemed sought.

Barreda had reached the finish line in Bisha with the third fastest time, putting him somewhat closer to the lead, but at the same time putting him in a delicate starting position the following day. Nobody wants to take responsibility for opening the track on the most feared stage of this Dakar. It happened, however, that the speeding was not committed in full timed, but in a link, so the stewards rectified and decided that the sanction would only affect their times in the general, but not those of the stage. And, therefore, not the starting order either.

Everything had turned against them.

Now, Barreda, for example, will have to start from the third square.

And take the risk of making decisions, together with Price and Luciano Benavides, who will go out immediately before him, on the route to take.

If the day goes well, he could secure, for the first time, a final podium in the Dakar, or even win the race.

But it seems difficult.

There is a curiosity that the 38-year-old from Castellón has already competed this entire edition on the attack, pressured by a complex comeback after losing 38 minutes on the first day by making a navigation error.

The last week, in addition, the Spaniard has run with a fracture in the left clavicle.

It was never easy to win a Dakar.

The latter, however, looks like a Russian roulette.

"Whoever wants to win the Dakar has to prove it now," Viladoms says.

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