Argentinian Nicolás Cavigliasso (Vertical Motorsport) won the 11th stage of the Dakar Rally in the Challenger category and dreams of a comeback that, for now, seems almost impossible. According to the Argentine News Agency, Cavigliasso, who won the Dakar Rally in 2019 in quads and last year in the Challenger category, set a time of 3 hours, 17 minutes, and 27 seconds on the 346-kilometer timed special that linked Bisha with Al Henakiyah. This allowed him to take a 29-second lead over his runner-up, the Dutchman Paul Spierings (Rebellion-Spierings). In this way, Cavigliasso, whose co-driver is his wife Valentina Pertegarini, solidified his third place in the general classification, where he is 44 minutes and 4 seconds behind the leader, Spaniard Pau Navarro (Odyssey Academy), and 18 minutes and 56 seconds behind the second-place driver, South African Yasir Seaidan (Nasser Racing Team). The other Argentine who stood out in this stage was Kevin Benavides (Odyssey Academy), who finished fourth, just one minute and 18 seconds behind Cavigliasso, which allowed him to maintain 10th place in the general classification. Al-Attiyah struggled in stage 11 but remains the leader in cars In the car category, victory in stage 11 went to Swedish driver Mattias Ekstrom (Ford Racing) with a time of 2 hours, 47 minutes, and 22 seconds. After this stage, the Swede remains in fourth place in the general classification and has cut an interesting 12 minutes off the leader, Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (The Dacia Sandriders), to now be just 21 minutes and 32 seconds behind. In second place overall is Spaniard Nani Roma (Ford Racing), just eight minutes and 40 seconds behind Al-Attiyah, while in third place is Frenchman Sebastien Loeb (The Dacia Sandriders), 18 minutes and 37 seconds behind. Loprais won the stage in trucks and Zala maintains the lead in the general classification Finally, in the truck category, victory in stage 11 went to Czech driver Ales Loprais (Instatrade Loprais Team), although he could only cut two minutes off the general leader, Lithuanian Vaidotas Zala (Nordis Team), who leads him by 16 minutes and 24 seconds.
