Magdalena Zając’s Fenix Rally debut was going well until a mechanical failure took her out of contention in Stage 4. While unable to win her class overall, she still wrapped it up with a stage win on the final day.

The FIA Bajas regular “pushed hard” and held off Koen Wauters to win the stage in Car Open by 1:38. Agostino Rizzardi, who had the overall locked up, was able to cruise and finished sixth with a missed waypoint.

Edvard Sokolovskij beat Julien Robin by 29 seconds for the Enduro win, though Dương Nguyễn-Khoa was third and 1:13 to ice the overall win.

Truck overall leader Gerrit Zuurmond didn’t have much reason to push hard on the last day. Thus, getting lost and having a flat tire to finish last in class meant little in the big picture.

The final stage was 520 kilometers long, but most were liaisons. It ran through the same course as Stage 1, which was heavily truncated due to heavy rain. While the weather was dry on Thursday, the rain washed away much of the roads.

“It was indeed only about 80 kilometers, but we had to be careful,” said Wauters. “At the start of the rally, the organizers intervened because the heavy rain had flooded parts of the course and made them impassable. Today, the damage the rain had done became clear.

“The first 26 kilometers were almost impossible to get through. Parts of the road were washed away, the course was very rough, and there was barely enough room for one car. On top of that, navigation was very difficult. I took it very easy there and then, in the final stretch, simply drove to the finish without taking any risks.”

Stage 7 winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Total Time
Car Open	231	Magdalena Zając	Proxcars TME Rally Team	1:17:01.25
Car Limited	221	Abdul el Karim Ben Hassan	Tunis Automobile Club	1:26:08.11
SSV	418	Nicolas Martinez	Aravis Rallye Raid	1:13:08.13
Truck	506	Tom Heuer	Sueptitz Motorsport	1:28:49.23
Enduro	91	Edvard Sokolovskij	AG Dakar School	1:19:51.51
ATV	10	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	1:21:01.46

Featured image credit: RBI Media