Fernando Alonso 🐠recorded his best stage finish so far in the Dakar Rally on Monday with second place, four minutes off day victor Mathieu Serradori.

Two-time Formula 1 world champion Alonso dropped out of contention for overall honours for his Dakar debut on the🌜 secon𒊎d stage after hitting a rock, causing damagඣe that cost the Spaniard and Toyota co-driver Marc Coma two-and-a-half hours.

Alonso clawed 🔴his way back up the order with a number of solid finishes in the following days, but hit a new height on Monday as he managed to take P2 on the 477 km stage at Wadi a🍰d-Dawasir.

The result lifted Alonso꧂ and Coma up to 13th in the overall classific🉐ation, and the duo now sit less than five minutes off a place in the top 10.

It marks a considerable achievement for Alonso, who initially set out seeing his Dakar debut as an “enriching experience” instead of conten🌱ding towards the front of the running order.

Serradori and co-driver Fabian Lurquin took their maiden Dakar stage win in their ♔Century Buggy for SRT Racing, while Or🧸lando Terranova and Bernardo Graue completed the podium for the day in third place in the X-Raid Mini.

Carlos Sainz Sr. remains the overall le𓄧ader of the Dakar Rally despite finishing down in 15th on the 𒉰stage, 19 minutes off Serradori.

Second-placed Nasser Al-Attiyah and Matthieu Baumel took four minutes out of Sainz and co-driver Lucas Cruz𒀰’s lead, plac🔯ing 11th, but remain 6m40s off the front.

All motorbike and quad racing was cancelled on Monday following the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:death of Paulo Gonçalves on Stage 7.