Männama and Lepik (Overdrive Racing) finished 43rd in Thursday's 428-kilometer stage of the desert race after losing significant time on navigation.

Starting Thursday's stage in 10th place in the Toyota GR DKR Hilux EVO pickup, the Estonian pair struggled with navigation and lost 50 minutes and 29 seconds on the day's fastest drivers.

Friday is a rest day.

Post stage, Männama said: "The first week of Dakar is done, and we're in 12th place."

"If someone had told us a week ago that we'd be in this position, it would've sounded awesome, but now that we're here, we want more. Next week we hope to pick up the pace. In the marathon stage, we found a good rhythm, didn't break anything, and kept the tires intact. It went pretty well overall. We lost time on navigation, and when you lose your position, you get stuck driving in dust. In any case, we're motivated to push forward after the rest day," Männama added.

Lepik echoed those sentiments, reflecting on the challenges of the marathon stage.

He said: "The marathon stage is done. The days were long, and navigation was very intense, especially yesterday. Today seemed to be going well too, but then we got completely lost on a rocky plateau and had no idea where we were. That cost us some time, but we found our way back."

"Yesterday, we had tire issues — we shared our spares, but that meant stopping, losing positions, and driving in the dust. But that's part of the game, and it's okay, and our position is good," Lepik went on..

Five-time Dakar Rally champion Nasser Al-Attiyah crossed the finish line first but was later hit with a 10-minute time penalty for arriving without a spare tire.

The stage win ultimately went to American Seth Quintero, who beat Al-Attiyah by just one second.

Al-Attiyah has won at least one stage in every Dakar Rally for the past 17 years, but he is still chasing his first stage win this year.

South African driver Henk Lategan leads the overall standings after week one, extending his advantage to 10 minutes and 17 seconds over Saudi competitor Yazeed Al-Rajhi.

Männama and Lepik are now 2 hours, 7 minutes, and 11 seconds behind the leaders.

The second week of the Dakar Rally resumes Saturday.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!