2021 Dakar Stage 9: Toby Price crashes out and Peterhansel extends lead

By Dean Mellor 4 Min Read

Toby Price crashes out of 2021 Dakar Stage 9 while Peterhansel extends lead in the Car category.

Aussie desert-racing legend and two-time Dakar winner Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Team) has crashed out of the 2021 Dakar Stage 9 and the race altogether, and has been airlifted to hospital with a broken collarbone.

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Price was running in second overall behind Nacho Cornejo (Monster Energy Honda Team 2021) after having run the whole of Stage 8 on a rear tyre held together by race tape and cable ties.

Cornejo S9
Toby Price (main pic) is out while Nacho Cornejo (above) leads overall in the Bike category.

Kevin Benavides (Monster Energy Honda Team 2021) took the Stage 9 win in the bikes ahead of teammate Ricky Brabec and overall leader Nacho Cornejo. Price’s teammate Sam Sunderland finished the stage in fourth and now finds himself in third overall. Both Brabec and Sunderland pulled over to assist the stricken Price and were given their lost time back by event organisers.

“Today was tough, it was always going to be a long day and it was,” Nacho Cornejo said after the stage. “Toby started right behind me. We were fighting for the overall victory and it’s very bad that he crashed and got injured. I hope it’s nothing serious. That’s the last news we want to hear, that one of us has crashed or is out of the race. Toby’s a legend, he’s a very good rider and also a very nice guy, so I wish him a fast recovery.”

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The other Aussie riders, Daniel Sanders (KTM Factory Team), Michael Burgess (BAS Dakar KTM Racing Team) and Andrew Houlihan (Nomadas Adventure) finished Stage 9 in eighth, 28th and 52nd respectively. Sanders now sits in sixth overall, with Burgess in 30th and Houlihan in 53rd.

Peterhansel S9
Peterhansel took the stage win and extended his overall lead.

In the Cars, overall leader Stephane Peterhansel (X-Raid Mini JCW Team) extended his lead after taking his first stage win in 2021. He beat home the Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers Nasser Al-Attiyah and Giniel De Villiers by 12m 0s and 12m 19s respectively. Petrhansel now leads the rally 17m 50s ahead of Al-Attiyah and Carlos Sainz (X-Raid Mini JCW Team).

“For sure this stage was a really complicated one,” Stephane Peterhansel said. “From the beginning we saw that the day would be long, so we decided to not be on full attack but more to manage the tyres and be clean with the navigation. At the end we overtook Carlos and also Nasser.”

Al Attiyah S9
Nasser Al-Attiyah finished the stage in second, and remains in second overall.

In the Truck category, Martin Macik (Big Shock Racing) scored a surprise stage win over the Kamaz – Master team, with Airat Mardeev in second and Dmitry Sotnikov in third. In the overall standings it’s stil Kamaz 1-2-3, with Sotnikov ahead of Shibalov and Mardeev.

 

You can watch the 2021 Dakar Stage 9 daily wrap now at Red Bull TV or this evening from 1730 AEDT on SBS.


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