Britain’s Sam Sunderland had a tough second day at Dakar 2021 but managed to finish as overall lead works KTM rider albeit down in 12th place.

Sunderland put in a great performance through the early part of the special, across the sand dunes that suit his riding style.

Defending a top-10 position through to the last quarter of the stage, the Brit, like many others, made a small mistake that ended up costing him some time.

Advertisement

Despite the set-back, Sunderland was able to get back on track to ultimately cross the finish line in a provisional 17th position, 23 minutes down on the eventual stage winner Joan Barreda.

ā€œWell, they have really thrown us in at the deep end with these first two stages, but this is the Dakar ā€“ it should be tough,” said Sunderland.

“If yesterday was tricky because of the navigation, today was hard for slightly different reasons. Overall, the stage was a lot faster, but at the beginning we crossed some really soft dunes, and it was easy to lose time there, especially up near the front.

“Iā€™m happy with my riding and the position today is not too bad ā€“ I think as the race goes on weā€™re going to see these changes to the lead each day, depending on who opens the stage. Still there’s a long way to go, so Iā€™ll push on again tomorrow.ā€