The heroic adventures Tim and Tom Coronel do not have to rely on in the Dakar 2021. In the seventh stage they did not even have to get out of The Beast once. Still, it was quite exciting whether they would reach the finish of the 453 km long stage. The car was so thirsty on the stage to Sakaka that they barely made it to the bivouac. “At the finish we still had 24 liters left from the 408.”

Especially at the beginning of the stage, fuel consumption was high. “It was very heavy sand,” says Tom. “It had rained a bit, making it muddy and slippery. That was really hard work, but we got through it well. On that first stretch we could already pass quite a number of other cars, but I was a bit concerned about the consumption. It was on the limit. ” Immediately upon arrival at Sakaka’s marathon camp, Tim sent the car to the gas station. In the marathon bivouac, assistance is not allowed tonight and Tim and Tom have to carry out the maintenance themselves. That will not be much, because the car did not give a blow wrong and they did not have flat tires.

Tim had a good pace and that was exactly according to plan. “Getting to the finish in the light is also nice,” he says. “It was a nice stage to ride, with sand and dunes in the beginning, and stones in the last part. There were really tricky pieces in between. Even ridiculously tricky, with difficult navigation. But it went fine. Tom has never been wrong with the route. If we left it a bit somewhere, it was at top speed on the long straights, but we simply cannot reach 180 there.

Staying out of trouble earned the brothers a decent 25th fastest time. “We didn’t make any mistakes and I let Tim take the inside corners everywhere,” says Tom. “We didn’t stop anywhere on the way, because we wanted to stay out of the mess. This brings us to a place where we belong and that is very pleasant. ”