Dakar Rally 2020: Sainz win ov

Image via @dakar

Dakar Rally 2020: Sainz win overshadowed by Goncalves death

Veteran rider Paulo Goncalves crashed on Stage 7 of the Dakar, passing away after suffering a heart attack.

Dakar Rally 2020: Sainz win ov

Image via @dakar

Carlos Sainz’s win on Stage 7 of the Dakar rally was overshadowed by the death of Paulo Goncalves.

Veteran rider Goncalves dies in Dakar accident

Dakar rally leader Carlor Sainz clinched the victory on Stage 7 of the rally but it was overshadowed by the death of veteran rider Paulo Goncalves.

The 40-year-old, contesting his 13th Dakar, crashed 276km into Sunday’s seventh stage.

Although a medical helicopter immediately took him to the Layla Hospital, the rider suffered cardiac arrest and was declared death.

His death, the first of a competitor since 2015, put a damper on Sainz’s third stage win.

The Dakar leader won Sunday’s stage by 2m12 ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah in second. The defending champ dropped exactly 10m off the pace.

Stephane Peterhansel was third on the day and remains third overall.

Giniel de Villiers is up to P6 on the overall ranking having overhauled fellow Toyota Gazoo driver Berhard Ten Brinke.

Barreda takes the bike victory

Joan Barreda put in an impeccable performance to take the win in the bikes ahead of Matthias Walkner.

The day’s showing, though, meant Ricky Brabec is now 24m48 up on Pablo Quintanilla.

Taye Perry recorded another top 60 result for South Africa, 52nd on Stage 7, while Kirsten Landman was 61st and Stuart Gregory 71st.

Perry is 57th overall, the best placed of the South African riders.

Quads, SSVs and trucks

Simon Vitse was the winner in Sunday’s quad classification but Ignacio Casale remains the man to beat, 36m ahead of Vitse.

Blade Hildebrand took his first win in the SSV class ahead of Casey Currie while Andrey Karginov won the trucks. It was his second stage win.

General classification top ten

1 Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz – Mini – 27h49m14s
2 Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel – Toyota – 27h59m14s – 10m0s
3 Stephane Peterhansel and Paulo Fiuza Mini – 28h8m27s – 19m13s
4 Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Konstantin Zhiltsov – Toyota – 28h33m38s – 44m24s
5 Orlando Terranova and Bernardo Graue – Mini – 28h45m12s – 55m58s
6 Giniel de Villiers and Alex Haro – Toyota – 28h55m12s – 1h5m58s
7 Bernhard ten Brinke and Tom Colsoul – Toyota – 29h5m10s – 1h15m56s
8 Mathieu Serradori and Fabian Lurquin – Century – 29h11m11s 1h21m57s
9 Yasir Seaidan and Federation Alexy Kuzmich – Mini – 30h2m57s – 2h13m43s
10 Wei Han and Min Liao – Hanwei – 30h57m44s – 3h8m30s