Toby Price (KTM) took command of the 13th stage of the 2018 Dakar early, eventually winning the stage – but hasn’t been able to improve on his third place overall.
Matthias Walkner (KTM) has played it safe today and despite losing over 11 minutes to the flying Price, he still holds a dominating lead in the overall standings.
Kevin Benavides (Honda) has battled with the Australian all day, finishing strongly enough to hold second.
- STAGE 13: San Juan / Córdoba
- Liaison > 560 km – Special > 369 km
Going into the penultimate stage, Toby Price needed something special to put him in a position to claim an overall victory. But pushing too hard could have taken away his chance of a podium.
And Kevin Benavides certainly wasn’t going to let Price take second place away from him easily.
That lead to an intriguing battle on the way to Cordoba, the final stop on the Dakar adventure.
By the end of the first part of today’s special, Toby had opened a 2 min 10 sec gap on Benavides and taken 6 min 38 sec out of Walkner’s lead.
As the second part of the stage progressed, Benavides made his move and consistently closed the gap that Toby had opened. At one stage that gap was back to just 49 seconds.
A final push from Price and a small mistake from Benavides meant that Toby could open the gap again to be 2 min 3sec ahead at the end of the stage – but not enough to move him to second overall.
With the final stage tomorrow being so short and having limited opportunities to make up time, it would look like Matthias Walkner is on his way to his first Dakar victory.
Top 5 after Stage 13
- 1. Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM Factory Team)
- 2. Kevin Benavides (Monster Energy Honda Team) – 00:22:31
- 3. Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Team) – 00:27:35
- 4. Antoine Meo (Red Bull KTM Factory Team) – 00:50:17
- 5. Gerard Farres Guell (Himoinsa Racing Team) – 01:01:19
Australians
- 3. Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Team) – 00:27:35
- 16. Rodney Faggotter (Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team)
- 61. Scott Britnell (KTM)
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