Dakar moto, stage interrupted for too many ruts on the track: cut in the arm for Petrucci

by our correspondent Paolo Ianieri

January 7
– Ryad (Saudi Arabia)

Another stop, after yesterday’s. The motorcycle race knows no peace, with today’s special, the one that saw Danilo Petrucci start first, stopped after 101 kilometers due to the track conditions that did not guarantee the safety of the riders. Competitors were forced to run for most of the day on the route taken the day before by cars and trucks, with deep ruts.

Dangerous steps

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The same grooves that cost dearly above all to Ross Branch, the Yamaha rider who yesterday closed for only 2 “behind Petrucci, and who broke his leg hitting a rock step inside a deep groove after just three kilometers from the route of the special. The same step that a few minutes earlier had caused a bad fall by the Italian driver himself, who in contact with the ground caused a bad injury to his left elbow.

Petrucci, cut on the arm

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“There were very deep channels with rocks that emerged – said Petrux – I didn’t really see that step and I went down. I did not realize that I was injured, they pointed it out to me at the refueling, I had lost my protection and I was full of blood. Luckily it’s just a cut. But after the refueling, where we arrived in nine, they made us leave, except to stop at km 160 with the helicopters, while all the others had already been blocked at km 101. The other day I was penalized because I was going to 40 at the now in a 30-minute stretch, and then they make us run in such dangerous conditions. It does not make sense”. The classification of the stage has not yet been drawn up.