Competitors across all four stages of Dakar Rally were united for stage nine on Tuesday as they took on the 538 km route(450 km timed) from the port city of Iquique to Calama - one of the driest cities in the world.
India's CS Santosh had a mixed day as an initial 47th place finish on the stage was reduced to a 55th place finish due to being handed a 40-minute penalty after missing a waypoint. The 55th place finish was still enough for the Bengaluruan to beat both the TVS sponsored Sherco bikes of Fabien Planet and Alain Duclos. Santosh hold's an overall 42nd place in the standings while Duclos and Planet are 22nd and 32nd, respectively.
BIKES: RODRIGUEZ CLAIMS STAGE WIN, GONCALVES GAINS OVER LEADER COMA
Having lost three hours in yesterday's marathon stage, Portugal’s Helder Rodrigues returned at the forefront of Dakar Rally in stage nine, beating fellow countrymen Paulo Goncalves by five minutes and 28 seconds.
Goncalves, in turn, finished around three minutes ahead of overall leader Marc Coma and is now the only driver that can prevent the Spaniard from taking his second Dakar title in succession.
A day’s rest seem to have done wonders for India’s CS Santosh who continued to progress up the ladder for a second day in succession. The 31-year-old rider from Bangalore clocked the 47th fastest time of the day and now found himself 40th in the overall standings. However, after being penalised for missing a way point, Santosh dropped to 55th on the stage but maintained his overall ranking of 42nd with four stages still to go.
Things weren’t quite as jubilant in the TVS Sherco camp. Alain Duclos’ bike came to a grinding halt twice during the stage. At the time of writing, the French rider is yet to see the finishing line.
Results
Helder Rodrigues (Honda)5:06:14
Paulo Goncalves (Honda)+3:51
Marc Coma (KTM)+7:34
Javier Pizzolito (Honda)+20:07
Stefan Svitko (KTM)+21:40
Toby Price (KTM)+23:09
Pablo Quintanilla (KTM)+23:15
Olivier Pain (Yamaha) +28:09
David Casteu (KTM)+28:12
Joan Barreda (Honda) +34:47
QUADS: CLEAR CUT VICTORY FOR GALLEGOS, SONIK STRIKES BACK OVER CASALE
Victor Gallegos made an impressive debut in Dakar Rally last year, finishing fifth in the overall standings with some consistent top 10 results. What was missing was an elusive stage victory. And the Chilean rider finally got to live through the thrill of winning, with an impressive time of 06:31:46 in today’s stage nine.
The Honda rider’s result is likely to be overshadowed, however, by the on-going fight between defending champion Ignacio Casale and Rafal Sonik. The latter dispensed fellow Yamaha rider from the lead of the overall standings by taking second place in today’s race.
Meanwhile, Sergio Lafuente consolidated the final provisional podium spot with his fifth consecutive third place finish.
Results
Victor Gallegos (Honda) 6:31:46
Rafal Sonik (Yamaha) +15:35
Sergio Lafuente (Yamaha) +25:29
Ignacio Casale (Yamaha) +26:24
Jeremias González (Yamaha) +30:21
Christophe Declerck (Yamaha) +32:14
Walter Nosiglia (Honda) +32:33
Daniel Domaszewski (Honda) +57;30
Nelson Sanabria (Yamaha) +1:16:17
Sebastián Palma (Can-Am) +1:18:02
CARS: ROMA TOPS STAGE AS AL-ATTIYAH INCHES CLOSER TOWARDS OVERALL WIN
The trend of title challengers not fighting for the stage victory continued in the cars category with experienced Nani Roma taking advantage of the situation to win the ninth stage of 2015 Dakar Rally.
The Spaniard finished six minutes and 27 seconds ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah’s whose lead grew to a whopping 23 minutes in the overall standings.
De Villiers who has been challenging the Qatari rider with some consistent top six results, lost 15 minutes to his chief rival today and faces an uphill task to regain lost ground.
Results
Nani Roma (MINI) 4:41:56
Al-Attiyah (MINI) +06:27
Vladimar Vasilkey (MINI) +15:52
Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) +21:58
Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota) +27:16
Krzysztof Holowczyc (MINI) +29:30
Orlando Orly Terranova (MINI) 30:34
Robby Gordon (Gordini) +35:59
Cyril Despres (Peugeot) +45:22
Pierre Lachaume (Optimus) +45:35
TRUCKS: MARDEEV EXTENDS ADVANTAGE WITH STAGE NINE WIN
Ayrat Mardeev was the fastest of the truck drivers in stage nine of Dakar Rally, clocking a time of 5:19:29 in the 450 km special stage. The Kamaz driver also extended his lead over Eduard Nikolaev, who only conceded only a-minute-and-a-half to his teammate.
Andrew Karginov is a comfortable third in the overall standings and ensures Kamaz’s threshold in the trucks category.’
Results
Ayrat Mardeev (Kamaz) 5:19:29
Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz) +1:29
Gerard De Rooy (Iveco) +7:05
Andrew Karginov (Kamaz) +15:33
Ales Loprais (MAN) +18:58
Hans Stacey (Iveco) +25:22
Martin Kolomy (Tatra) +28:42
Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz) +37:20
Artur Ardavichus (Tatra) +54:29
Wulfert Van Ginkel (Ginaf) +58:03
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