The fifth fastest time moves Loprais to the sixth place overall
Apart from the racing itself, Aleš Loprais and his team had to deal with a turbocharger regulation, that has been causing issues for the crew and the mechanics since yesterday.
“The first three kilometres were great, but then there was an issue with the turbocharger sensor again. We still haven’t figured it out and it cost a lot of time today. Especially in the first part of the stage. When we stopped to restart the unit, several cars and also two trucks got ahead of us. Then we had a screen of dust ahead of us, but we couldn’t get ahead of them for more than half of the race. It was frustrating. And we kept losing power until the finish line,” said Aleš Loprais.
“We’ve managed to gain a lot in the sand, where I had fun in some places. That was a nice satisfaction,” said the Czech driver who feels like home in dunes and sand.

“We had two slow punctures. We changed the first tyre in the neutralised zone, but with the second one, we drove to the end. We just didn’t want to let go what we’ve gained in the sand,” explained Loprais.
Once again, the stage around Neom was very difficult for navigation. In some categories, even the biggest stars got lost. And even Khalid Alkendi had to look for the route for a while.
“We’ve got lost a bit, but it was much better than yesterday. We’ve swapped our position with Martin Macík twice and I really appreciate his fair-play. He let us go because he was slowing us down. I think he had some technical issues as well. Then we missed one junction and he got ahead of us once again. The whole stage was very difficult, but it went very quickly for me,” said the onboard mechanic Petr Pokora.
The Dakar Rally 2020 continues on Wednesday, January 8, with its fourth stage. The route from Neom to Al Ula has 676 kilometres. The special stage is a little bit longer again with 453 kilometres. Most of the stage will consist of soil terrain and the organisers are promising more difficulties in navigation.

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