Press Releases

​Albert Llovera finished in 11^th place on Monday with the #517 truck, leading the team’s positions after 367 kilometers from Al Wajh to Neom. Hard special for most crews, with plenty of navigation through the whole journey and some trouble for the Dutch team.


The second day of activity in Saudi Arabia has concluded after a hard fought special between the cities of Al Wajh and Neom, with most of the roads of soil and stones, with little paths of sand. The navigator and mechanic were key characters, as they had to sail through all the waypoints to reach the finish line with more than four hours accelerating onboard de trucks.

Albert Llovera was PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO’s man of the stage, as the Andorran placed his Powerstar in 11^th position after the 367 timed kilometers. The #517 truck finished 39m07s behind Viazovich, who won the special for Maz. As a consequence, Llovera also climbed to 11^th in the general standings, very close to the Top 10 which would be a good objective for the first week of competition.

Albert Llovera: “My navigator Ferran had a great day. We found every point very quickly. The only loss of time was due to a tyre, but it took my guys no more than 15 or 20 minutes. I had a great day”.

Different luck had the three other PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO, with diverse issues along the way.

Janus van Kasteren, who climbed into the podium in yesterday’s stage, was fighting with the Kamaz in the beginning, until a flat tyre complicated his ambitions. Ten minutes took the crew to change it, but it was a key factor for the rest of the day, as the PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO #505 was forced to drive inside a cloud of dust from his rivals and, thus, lost valuable time through the day. Van Kasteren was 13^th at the finish line, 41m30s away from the lead, so he fell in the overall order from 3rd to 8th.

Janus van Kasteren: “Dust, dust, dust. Dust all along the roads. It’s very difficult. When you drive in the dust you go at a 60% of your possibilities. You lose a lot of time. I don’t know the cause of the flat tyres, maybe some rocks. But they all came out of nowhere”.

For the second day in a row, Vick Versteijnen lost too much time after fighting in the Top 10 during the first half of the special. A stone caused damage to the gearbox, as almost two hours and a half relegated the #522 PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO in the stage and in the overall classification, where it lays in 21st place with almost four hours lost.

His teammate Michiel Becx also lost time in the road, after assisting Versteijnen with the problem in the gearbox. The Dutchman gave precious hours in the overall, but accomplished the main objective inside the PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO: help his mate. Becx follows Versteijnen in 22^nd place, 3h59m42s adrift.

The third stage of Dakar 2020 will find its first loop, with beginning and end in the futuristic city of Neom. It will be the highest stage in terms of altitude, as the competitors will reach the 1.500 meter mark, in a special with more than half of the way full of sand and 427 timed kilometers. It will be an important day for the main objectives of PETRONAS Team De Rooy IVECO in its way to get back a position inside the Top 5.

STAGE 2 RESULTS