Martin Macik achieved his first victory in the 2024 edition of the Dakar in trucks this Wednesday. He prevailed in the fifth stage, which was the worst so far for the leader of the standings, Janus van Kasteren.
At the helm of an Iveco from MM Technology Team, Macik set the pace of the day and, despite being penalized by 30 seconds, managed to surpass Mitchel van den Brink (Eurol Rallysport/Iveco) by 1m22s. In third place was the surprising Vick Versteijnen (Versteijnen Truck Racing/Iveco). As for van Kasteren (Boss Machinery Team de Rooy FTP/Iveco), he even started as the fastest, but ended up losing a lot of time: he finished tenth, 23m40s behind the winner.
Nevertheless, van Kasteren even extended his overall lead to 22m03s. He is now pursued by Macik, who took advantage of Ales Loprais’ (Instaforex Loprais Praga) problems. The Czech had issues during the stage and dropped to third place overall, whose top five is completed by Pascal de Baar (Tatra Buggyra ZM Racing) and van den Brink.
Top ten of Stage 5:
Top ten overall:
