CRUSHING BLOWS: DOCHERTY AND VENTURA SUFFER A DEBACLE
Michael Docherty and Martim Ventura had been dominating the Rally2 class since the race got under way, leaving their opponents fighting for scraps. The Portuguese rider had claimed stage 2, with the other specials going to the South African. The two men stood just over three minutes apart in the overall, with a gulf of more than 25 minutes between Docherty and the third-placed rider. Today, Docherty had just blasted through km 126 with the fastest time in the entire motorbike field (as he had already done twice last season) when the foam of his rear tyre came off and the wheel broke, knocking him out of the rally for two days. Meanwhile, Ventura damaged his secondary transmission and limped across the finish line more than 2 h 15 behind Neels Theric, the stage winner in this class. This spells the end of their dreams to succeed Edgar Canet, at a time when Docherty was taking the fight to the RallyGP elite day in, day out and Ventura was hoping to get his hands on the Rally2 title or, at least, top rookie status. The Portuguese rider will find solace in the fact that the new leader is his Monster Energy Honda teammate HRC Preston Campbell, who is now in the pole position to take the Rally2 trophy and top rookie honours.
