Lawrence Santolino he continues to push in search of the Top-10 in Dakar 2023. The Scherco driver finished in a creditable eighth position on the 274-kilometer stage of sands and dry lakes leading the first part of the marathon stage, arriving in a special bivouac in the middle of the ‘Empty Quarter’ (Empty Quarter, a sandy desert located in the southeast of Saudi Arabia) where the riders cannot find their mechanical assistance (during the marathon stage they are forbidden) and have to fix their bike with their hands or the help from other competitors before the demanding dune stage this Friday. The Guijuelo driver did not throw in the towel after stage 10, before the marathon stage, his team decided to change their engine for safety reasons to face two consecutive special stages without assistance without problems.
This caused him a 15-minute penalty, which removed him from the tenth position, but this did not stop him from fighting it due to the constant speed shown by the Salamanca rider. Lorenzo finished the 11th special in 8th position, 5’43” behind the winner of the day and 11th, 11, 59 minutes behind the overall leader, but 14’15 behind Mattias Walkner, a distance that, hard as it seems, he will try to close with 3 stages left to reach the end of the rally.
“Everything worked well, yesterday the team decided to change the engine for safety reasons and everything worked perfectly. He had a good starting position, with Howes and Price behind. Howes overtook me in the kilometer 60 and I rode with him for about 20 kilometers, more time watching him, but without direct reference”, said the pilot from Guijuelo.
“At the refueling, kilometer 150, Price was about 40 seconds behind. About kilometer 210 he overtook me, it was a fast zone, with interspersed bands of soft sand, not many cuts, but many holes and low speed. The truth is that I had fun, when it happened to me I was hooked on it. It got a little away from me on the ‘plateaux’, but since I had a reference to the entrance to the dunes, I pushed a little more and I was hooked, and that’s how I got to the end”, he added about his day in the dunes.
“In the last kilometers I passed at the front, I don’t know if the fuel price has run out or it’s strategy. Overall, a stage without delays, I felt comfortable and we are ready for tomorrow,” he concluded. of stage 12, the second part of the marathon stage, another day full of sand until reaching Shaybah.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
