D-2: the outsiders in the starting-blocks

January 5 ^th 2018 - 00:55

The second day of scrutineering was marked by the start of a knock-out race in the bike category, with a no-show by Paulo Gonçalves, replaced by young Chilean biker Juan-Ignacio Cornejo in the Monster Energy Honda Team, which nonetheless still has what it takes to put KTM under serious pressure. In the car race, Nasser Al Attiyah and Giniel de Villiers for Toyota showed themselves to be far from cowed by the prospect of the Peugeot armada, expected along with Team X-Raid at the scrutineering site for the last pre-start operations.

The cameras have been zooming in on the Las Palmas air base for several reasons over the last few days. The Peruvian television channels have been captivated by the construction of an imposing stage that will play host to Pope Francis in two weeks’ time for a gigantic celebration of mass. At present, however, the riders, drivers and crews of the Dakar are monopolising the interest of the journalists present at scrutineering. They will not have failed to notice that the race before the race is well underway, as they observed when Team Honda arrived without one of its team leaders, Paulo Gonçalves, who injured his shoulder in training and has not recovered sufficiently to start the rally. The Portuguese rider, 2^nd in 2015, has been replaced by young Chilean biker Juan-Ignacio Cornejo, aged 23 years. The Japanese team has suffered a blow just before the start for the second consecutive edition, following on from the loss of Kevin Benavides in similar conditions last year. This time, the Argentinean is well and truly present, driven by the loftiest of ambitions: “It was a bit tough at the beginning of the year whilst I was recovering from my injury, but I finished the season very well, as runner-up in the World Championships. It’s my dream to win the rally and I’m going to try and make it come true”. To do this, he will have to beat his Spanish team-mate Joan Barreda, in addition to his rivals at KTM (Sunderland, Walkner and Price), Yamaha (Van Beveren) and Husqvarna (Quintanilla), who are expected at the Las Palmas site tomorrow morning.

In the car race, Peugeot’s sequence of victories is not as impressive as KTM’s series, winners of the last 16 titles in the bike category, but the other teams are also considered to be outsiders when it comes to engraving their name on the roll of honour on 20^th January in Cordoba. That said, there are plenty of candidates to knock “Peter” and his gang off their perch, starting with the Toyota clan. Nasser Al Attiyah, the winner in 2011 and 2015, will be playing the role of the all-conquering challenger, having once again become World Champion and having finished ahead of Sébastien Loeb several weeks ago in Morocco. In addition to his assurance and talent, he will also benefit from technical advantages: “I think that the changes to the regulations made this year will make it possible to start the race on a more level playing field. Peugeot perhaps still has the best car, but we are not very far behind them at all and I’m very confident about it”. Few doubt that fact, but his team-mate Giniel de Villiers, also a former winner (in 2009), is displaying the same intentions. What’s more, Toyota presented its star recruit of the year, André Villas-Boas, who is unlikely to be hitting the utmost heights in the general standings, but who is already a serious favourite in the records for signing autographs and having selfies taken! The former manager of FC Porto, Chelsea and Tottenham showed himself to be much more accessible than Pope Francis…