The obvious lack of filming, typical of a pilot who had never left the circuits, did not prevent Fernando Alonso from reaching the goal of the Dakar, where he even fought until the last day for a stage victory. The double winner at Le Mans squeezed his Hilux in the last special, although he could not move from fourth to 3:25 of Nasser Al-Attiyah, his leader in ranks at Gazoo Racing.
The satisfaction of completing 7,900 kilometers through the desert of Saudi Arabia was evident in the face of the Spaniard, one of the first to congratulate his friend Carlos Sainz. When he decided to sign up for this adventure, not even the most optimistic executives at Toyota could imagine such a positive climax in this extremely tough rally.
Alonso's balance includes eight stages in the top-10, with special mention for second place in the ninth stage. In that loop around Wadi Al Dawasir played an essential role Marc Coma, the old desert fox who has accompanied him in the right seat. The wise advice of the pentacampeón cleared the way towards the thirteenth final place in the goal of Qiddiyah, to 4 h. 42:47 from Sainz's time ..
Despite his unquestionable talent with any device with a steering wheel, Alonso had to digest the difficulties of any rookie. In the second stage, still near the Red Sea, the impact of a stone caused structural damage to one of its wheels that caused it to lose more than two and a half hours. And on Wednesday, when he was holding the pace of the favorites again, he turned two bells in a cut dune.
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