Day 8, Stage 8 for Cars & Trucks, 7 for Bikes & Quads! Bikes & Quads Grand reception at Uyuni for the day's arrivals The car...
Day 8, Stage 8 for Cars & Trucks, 7 for Bikes & Quads!
Bikes & Quads
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| Grand reception at Uyuni for the day's arrivals |
The cars will tackled it first yesterday, and today
by the motorcycle and quad riders. Right from the outset, the long liaison
section with an early start, followed by a gradual climb to a
height of more than 3,500m towards the high plateaux, where the special stage
will began.
The instructions in the road-book to follow with great care,
in light of the large number of junctions on the route.
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| Bikes & Quads route of the day |
One of the
challenges of the day could be wear and tear on tyres. Once they have
arrived in Uyuni, the competitors will only have completed half of the
marathon stage, while the cars made the return journey to Iquique, Chile.
Cars
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| Cars route for Day 8 |
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| Peugeot2008DKR on stage |
The cars flat-chattered on the salt flats of over 100 km in Bolivia, before the descending route being more technical & lined with trees on the sides. It will be tricky if it rains, and so it did rain to the later part of the competition. A couple of crashes marred the confidence of many others, while others didn't care.
Trucks
 |
| De Rooy's Iveco |
The trucks will once again took the return of the yesterday's stage in backwards over many sand dunes. The leaders' driving skills in the dunes
will make the difference on this first separate day, with long and
decisive sandy sections. Once again, they will need to find the right
balance between self-control and performance. When they reach their
private bivouac, the much awaited rest-day should rejuvenate their body & rejoice their spirits for the remaining half of the marathon towards Buenos Aires.
BIKES
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| Barreda's damaged bike |
 |
| Laia Sanz, lone woman rider |
The leaderboard changed with varying results, as the stage progressed. Marc Coma showed a different spirit than so far, but it was Matthias Walkner who surprised to finish ahead of the Spaniard. But the defending champion pushed really hard, and the Portuguese even harder to first place, only to push Walkner to 3rd. Marc Coma had to settle to second to Paulo with a tiny 14s gap.
 |
| Barreda & damaged bike |
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| Bolivian clothes to beat the cold |
Barreda Bort still holds on to the overall lead, however after a hard crash with a broken Handlebar on his Honda 450 Rally bike, and with Marc Coma's spirited riding did cut down the margin to a great extent. Paulo Goncalves sits in third.
Indian rider Santosh C S took to the stages with ease from 66th off the start despite a fractured left foot toes, and gradually climbed to 49th overall by the end of the day. [Update: CS is good. Says foot did not hurt at all. Lot of falls. One major. Helmet broken again. Almost swept away in a river. Slush, rain and cold - Sukhwant Basra, for HT]
Top 5 Bikes, Stage 7
| Pos. | N° | Name | Mark | Time | Difference | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | GONCALVES (PRT) | HONDA | 03:56:00 | - | - |
| 2 | 1 | COMA (ESP) | KTM | 03:56:14 | 00:00:14 | - |
| 3 | 27 | WALKNER (AUT) | KTM | 03:56:30 | 00:00:30 | - |
| 4 | 31 | QUINTANILLA (CHL) | KTM | 03:57:32 | 00:01:32 | - |
| 5 | 26 | PRICE (AUS) | KTM | 03:57:49 | 00:01:49 | - |
| 66 | 59 | C S SANTOSH (IND) | KTM | 06:21:13 | 02:25:13 | - |
Overall Top 5, Bikes after Stage 7
| Pos. | N° | Name | Mark | Time | Difference | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | BARREDA BORT (ESP) | HONDA | 25:40:48 | - | - |
| 2 | 1 | COMA (ESP) | KTM | 25:47:16 | 00:06:28 | - |
| 3 | 7 | GONCALVES (PRT) | HONDA | 25:51:47 | 00:10:59 | - |
| 4 | 31 | QUINTANILLA (CHL) | KTM | 26:06:04 | 00:25:16 | - |
| 5 | 26 | PRICE (AUS) | KTM | 26:10:08 | 00:29:20 | - |
| 49 | 59 | C S SANTOSH (IND) | KTM | 34:28:43 | 08:47:55 | - |
QUADS
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| Quad rider ,happy to arrive at Bolivia |
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| Splashing through rain water |
Portuguese rider on his Yamaha quad, Nelson Augusto Sanabria Galeano was the fastest of the quad squad. Rafal [Super] Sonik was second and Casale third fastest.
Super Sonik ruled the roost at overall positions with nearly 22minutes to Casale, while Lafauente in third over an hour the leading Polish.
Top 5 Quads, Stage 7
| Pos. | N° | Name | Mark | Time | Difference | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 256 | SANABRIA GALEANO (PRY) | YAMAHA | 05:22:12 | - | - |
| 2 | 251 | SONIK (POL) | YAMAHA | 05:27:58 | 00:05:46 | - |
| 3 | 250 | CASALE (CHL) | YAMAHA | 05:33:49 | 00:11:37 | - |
| 4 | 277 | VINET (CHL) | CAN-AM | 05:46:32 | 00:24:20 | - |
| 5 | 252 | LAFUENTE (URY) | YAMAHA | 05:54:45 | 00:32:33 | - |
Overall Top 5, Quads after Stage 7
| Pos. | N° | Name | Mark | Time | Difference | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 251 | SONIK (POL) | YAMAHA | 31:50:46 | - | 00:15:00 |
| 2 | 250 | CASALE (CHL) | YAMAHA | 32:12:45 | 00:21:59 | 00:20:00 |
| 3 | 252 | LAFUENTE (URY) | YAMAHA | 32:58:46 | 01:08:00 | - |
| 4 | 261 | GONZALEZ FERIOLI (ARG) | YAMAHA | 35:06:25 | 03:15:39 | - |
| 5 | 256 | SANABRIA GALEANO (PRY) | YAMAHA | 35:15:59 | 03:25:13 | - |
CARS
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| Yazeed zooming to clinch his first stage victory |
Many struggled through the day's stages, and it was the desert tamers, Saudi's Yazeed Al-rajhi who took his debut stage win on his very first Dakar. Orlando Terranova in MiniAll4 was second by only 1m12s, while another Mini driver, Qatari, overall leader, Nasser Al-attiyah who was third with 2m36s to the first time leader.
Overall lead is still kept by Nasser with over 8 minutes to De Villiers, and the debutant Yazeed is now in third overall spot in his Toyota Hilux.
Top 5 Cars, Stage 8
| Pos. | N° | Name | Mark | Time | Difference | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 325 | ALRAJHI (SAU) GOTTSCHALK (DEU) | TOYOTA | 03:26:49 | - | - |
| 2 | 305 | TERRANOVA (ARG) GRAUE (ARG) | MINI | 03:33:38 | 00:01:12 | - |
| 3 | 301 | AL-ATTIYAH (QAT) BAUMEL (FRA) | MINI | 03:29:25 | 00:02:36 | - |
| 4 | 303 | DE VILLIERS (ZAF) VON ZITZEWITZ (DEU) | TOYOTA | 03:29:38 | 00:02:49 | - |
| 5 | 307 | HOLOWCZYC (POL) PANSERI (FRA) | MINI | 03:30:01 | 00:03:12 | - |
Overall Top 5, Cars after Stage 8
| Pos. | N° | Name | Mark | Time | Difference | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 301 | AL-ATTIYAH (QAT) BAUMEL (FRA) | MINI | 26:41:15 | - | 00:02:00 |
| 2 | 303 | DE VILLIERS (ZAF) VON ZITZEWITZ (DEU) | TOYOTA | 26:49:42 | 00:08:27 | - |
| 3 | 325 | ALRAJHI (SAU) GOTTSCHALK (DEU) | TOYOTA | 26:59:55 | 00:18:40 | - |
| 4 | 307 | HOLOWCZYC (POL) PANSERI (FRA) | MINI | 27:35:53 | 00:54:38 | - |
| 5 | 315 | TEN BRINKE (NLD) COLSOUL (BEL) | TOYOTA | 28:04:07 | 01:22:52 | - |
TRUCKS
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| Kamaz dunking in the dunes |
Eduard Nikolaev won the stage of the day, Gerard De Rooy & Andrey Karginov finished in second and third, respectively.
Overall lead is still held by the Kamaz drivers, Mardeev, Karginov & Nikolaev.
Top 5 Trucks, Stage 8
| Pos. | N° | Name | Mark | Time | Difference | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 502 | NIKOLAEV (RUS) YAKOVLEV (RUS) AKHMADEEV (RUS) | KAMAZ | 03:25:47 | - | - |
| 2 | 501 | DE ROOY (NLD) RODEWALD (POL) DAMEN (BEL) | IVECO | 03:37:03 | 00:11:16 | - |
| 3 | 500 | KARGINOV (RUS) MOKEEV (RUS) LEONOV (RUS) | KAMAZ | 03:40:45 | 00:14:58 | - |
| 4 | 503 | LOPRAIS (CZE) MARCO ALCAYNA (ESP) VAN DER VAET (BEL) | MAN | 03:45:48 | 00:20:01 | - |
| 5 | 507 | MARDEEV (RUS) BELYAEV (RUS) SVISTUNOV (RUS) | KAMAZ | 03:57:49 | 00:32:02 | - |
Overall Top 5, Trucks after Stage 8
| Pos. | N° | Name | Mark | Time | Difference | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 507 | MARDEEV (RUS) BELYAEV (RUS) SVISTUNOV (RUS) | KAMAZ | 26:33:21 | - | - |
| 2 | 500 | KARGINOV (RUS) MOKEEV (RUS) LEONOV (RUS) | KAMAZ | 26:38:30 | 00:05:09 | 00:01:00 |
| 3 | 502 | NIKOLAEV (RUS) YAKOVLEV (RUS) AKHMADEEV (RUS) | KAMAZ | 26:46:02 | 00:12:41 | - |
| 4 | 503 | LOPRAIS (CZE) MARCO ALCAYNA (ESP) VAN DER VAET (BEL) | MAN | 27:32:40 | 00:59:19 | - |
| 5 | 520 | SOTNIKOV (RUS) DEVYATKIN (RUS) AFERIN (RUS) | KAMAZ | 27:47:50 | 01:14:29 | 00:02:00 |
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| Bikes + Quads' return route on Day 9 to Iquique |
Day 9, Bikes & Quads will make a return ride back to Iquique, Chile to join the cars & trucks, while they enjoy the rest-day (our mistake of noting yesterday as rest day for cars & trucks)
Action plot will thicken after Day 10, and some serious racing scenes shall be at display of the battle, as we get nearer to the final leg of this year's marathon rally.
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