Dakar 2019 – Sam Sunderland up to third after penalty withdrawal

Bruno Gomes

January 18, 2019

Sam Sunderland | Photo credits: Visordown

ASO, Dakar Rally organizers, has announced a change in the final overall standings for the motorcycle category after they’ve decided to withdrawal the 1-hour penalty handed to British rider Sam Sunderland after Stage 8.

During that stage, the KTM rider was penalized for modifying his Iritrack monitoring system, to obtain an advantage on the starting order for Stage 8. KTM appealed the decision to impose a 1-hour penalty to Sam Sunderland, and now, race stewards analyzed what happened and decided that Sunderland wasn’t to blame for what happened to the Iritrack, so the penalty is revoked.

This means Sam Sunderland moves up to third in the final standings of the Dakar rally 2019, while Pablo Quintanilla (Husqvarna) drops one spot to fourth. This also means that, what seemed unlikely at the beginning of the race, KTM managed to complete an all-KTM final podium.

Yesterday, Toby Price secured the second win of his career in the most challenging off-road race in the world, handing KTM their 18th consecutive win.