Santorino focused on Dakar set-up at Rally Morocco

Lorenzo Santorino (Sherco) has added over 2,000 kilometers to his preparations for Dakar after completing his participation in the Morocco Rally. This was the positive side of his week-long competition conditioned by problems on the first day, and he had no choice. in classification. Instead, the Salamanca-native rider dedicated his stages to finding the pace, navigating the race conditions and testing improvements on his bike heading into January. The accident where the was activated and I wasn’t completely comfortable on the track was the bitter side of the race. Guijuelo’s rider is self-critical and admits the result was not what he expected.

The rally ended this Thursday with stage five, a 290km special between Tintin and Agadir, returning to the start of the rally. The stage was characterized by the sand and coastal scenery that the riders were trying to find from the start. In addition, we also had to pay attention to navigation. Santorino were looking to finish well after the penalties on the first day of the prologue had made it difficult to move up in the provisional standings.

The Salamanca man started the track in 13th place, a position he had taken from the day before, the biggest fear of the entire race. The water in his bag he went 150km without him being able to drink. At the first bar he set his best partial of the week and at the first waypoint he set his eighth partial. He then slowed his pace to finish 13th, 9.43 behind winner Adrian van Beveren (Honda). In the general classification, Skyler Howes (Husqvarna) tied for 13th place and won the final.

“I didn’t finish the Rally of Morocco as expected. The whole team and I wanted to do a little better, but from day one I made a serious mistake in prologue navigation and lost all options.”General something good for us,” recognizes Santorino.

“The rest of the day I didn’t find a great rhythm. There was a stone and it was not comfortable.Nevertheless, we worked with the team every day to find a solution and prepare the bike for Dakar.Not because of the result, but a positive thing is that we keep improving things.”

The Andalusian event was moved from a May date due to high temperatures and will run from October 18-23, and is the last race before the Dakar in Saudi Arabia next January.