Bernhard ten Brinke impressed today with a strong fourth place. For a large part of the seventh Dakar stage, the speeds were over 170 kilometres per hour. Ten Brinke even called the test a bit boring afterwards, but was still careful in the mix between dunes and flat plateaus. "On the rest day the mechanics of GAZOO Racing did a great job. The Hilux felt very good and ran like a bullet", says Ten Brinke. The Eurol-supported Toyota factory drivers Ten Brinke and his Belgian navigator Tom Colsoul showed themselves at the front on this fast rally day, less than 3 minutes from the day winner. In the general classification, the Dutch / Belgian duo climb from 8th to 7th place.

In the Top 3 there is an epic battle going on between three legends, who did not allow each other any margin on the first day of the second Dakar week. Nasser Al-Attiyah finished second today, but the battle between the Toyota GAZOO driver, Sainz and Peterhansel is far from over. Also in the general classification the three legends are fighting, with Eurol-driver Al-Attiyah in second place for the time being. Today, shortly behind Al-Attiyah and Ten Brinke, De Villiers and Alonso drove a strong rally: With a sixth and seventh place they managed to score formidable again as a team.

Maintenance is everything

In the side-by-sides Kees Koolen had his best day on today's fast course, he came in at a beautiful eleventh place. His team had put a lot of effort into it on the day of rest, replacing the turbo, both CVTs, front differential, gearbox, suspension, drive shafts, lower front arms, spark plugs, stubs and wheel bearings, brake pads, tires and rims but especially also our Eurol oil and oil filters.

The striking coloured purple car ran by Van Merksteijn Rally started well again. Without errors and "only" two flat tires, today made for a solid nineteenth place. After that, the Coronel brothers came in 37th, the rally this year is going smoothly for the twin brothers.

Trucks

In the case of the trucks, we see a shift in which the Mammoet Rallysport truck continues to advance while the Riwald’s consolidate. Martin van den Brink again scored a solid sixth place as best Dutchman, while Pascal de Baar was again the fastest Riwald truck in the Top 10, as a participant in the Dakar Experience. With his Hybrid Renault, Gert Huzink again scored a neat 14th place.