“Today’s special stage was difficult, with a mix of everything. But it seemed like Aleš had an excellent sleep, and our physio Bohouš probably gave him some Gummiberry Juice because he was incredible! I think he pushed a little, but without taking any risks and making unnecessary errors,” praised the cabin mechanic Petr Pokora his driver.

“And Jaroslav was excellent as always! I don’t understand it. If I was a navigator, I would have gone crazy for having so much stress and fear,” he also praised the navigator Jaroslav Valtr jr.

Following a brilliant performance by all crew members, the red-and-black Praga V4S DKR #508 finished in the second position in the stage classification, beating Martin van den Brink by two minutes and 37 seconds in the process. Van den Brink’s team protested a penalty given to them last night after the sixth stage. The organisers have accepted the protest, which means Loprais, and his crew now lead over the experienced Dutch driver by exactly two minutes. Saturday’s winner Janus van Kasteren remains in third place, more than 22 minutes behind the overall leader.

“We had a great run. Some places we enjoyed, some not so much, so I thought I’d better go a bit faster, so we can put It all behind us,” smiled Aleš Loprais.

“We’re halfway through the marathon stage and the whole Dakar Rally as well. I believe that we can make it until Monday, which is a day off, and after that, we’ll try to do the second half in a way that we’re satisfied at the very end.”

Due to rough weather conditions, which have been affecting the competition since Tuesday, the organisers could not build a full-sized bivouac in Ad Dawadimi. That is why the crews will have to make it through the night without the skilful hands of other team members. The vehicles have been put in a parc fermé, where they spend the night. Yet, it is not a typical marathon stage, which would require crews to take care of the vehicles themselves. The organisers have prepared a temporary service zone on a liaison section between the end of the special stage and a bivouac. There, the mechanics were allowed to attend to the vehicles for two hours before heading back to Riyadh.

“We checked the vehicle, cleaned it, washed it, polished it, applied a ceramic coating… nothing special! Just a typical detailing,” joked Petr Pokora, who was in a good mood as always.

“Of course, we changed the tyres and did our usual service, as we always do after every stage. Even though we had to prioritize some steps due to the limited time. But we were allowed to have our whole team there, and the guys can do pretty much anything in those two hours. Including changing a turbo or dampers. Anyway, we didn’t add too much work for them today, just those mirrors, as usual,” he continued on a more serious note.

“I must say that the organisers have done a good job with all those schedule changes, and they have come up with a rather interesting solution, like that limited-service time. Thanks to that we’ve suddenly found out that our guys can do pretty much everything necessary within an hour,” praised Jaroslav Valtr ml. the organisers and mechanics of the Instaforex Loprais Team.

The second half of this year’s Dakar Rally begins with the eighth stage on Sunday, January 8, with an 824-kilometre route from Ad Dawadimi back to Riyadh. The 346-kilometre-long special stage is set to offer another interesting mix of terrains, from undulating parts and rocky sections to fast sandy plains and more dune fields.