A Czech team Instaforex Loprais Team has managed to win the Morocco Desert Challenge. Aleš Loprais with his crew, consisting of Ferran Marco Alcayna and Petr Pokora, did not finish first just in the truck category, but also in the overall standings. All that after very difficult eight days at the biggest truck race in the world.
Eight stages, thirty-three trucks and almost 2,500 kilometres stood between Aleš Loprais and the finish line. But Loprais managed to win three stages and took an overall victory with a 23-minute lead over Martin van den Brink who finished second.
"I think this is a great satisfaction for us. We've come here mainly for testing and we just wanted to be fast and reliable. And we've managed to do all that, plus we've also won. I'd like to say thank you to the guys in the cabin, to our mechanics and also all our partners for their support and allowing us to start here," said Aleš Loprais after the finish line.
"I was expecting much bigger technical problems. But in the end, we just had some problems with sensors and that was it. Punctures are just part of this difficult competition. I can't wait for the next challenge," said a cabin mechanic Petr Pokora.
"It was a very beautiful but also very hard competition. We kept getting better every day and got into the lead. Aleš and all the mechanics did a great job and I'm very happy with our result. It was a great win," said Spanish navigator Ferran Marco Alcayna. Aleš Loprais with his crew didn't win just in the truck category, but they also finished first in the overall standings with a time 31:02:08.
"This race is a part of our Dakar 2019 mission and it's really nice to win like this. It was a very difficult African adventure, but a successful one, a golden one," added Loprais.
