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| Ozzie rider Kevin Price snatched a stage win with 2 seconds. |
AS the sun set over South Africa last night. the Dakar racers
welcomed their first clear sunrise after a lot or rain as they lined up to cover
over about 800 muddy kilometres, which including over 500 km of special stage
racing over fast, twisty roads in Argentina.
Australia’s Kevin Price was the first rider in at Termas de Rio
Hondo.
The Australian made the difference in the last few kilometres to
beat Ruben Faria by 20 seconds and take the lead in the general standings by
just two seconds.
Price said he expects today’s stage to be a little more difficult
than yesterday’s.
“But we’ll take off and get going and take our time with it
tomorrow to make sure we make all the right calls,” Price told Dakar media.
Yesterday’s special stage was modified in the morning, but Spain’s
Joan Barreda, who led the riders from the start of the special on his works
Honda, lost the plot and cut a section out off the special after 145 km, leading
Helder Rodrigues, Adrien Van Beveren, Michael Metge and Kevin Benavides
astray.
In total, 136 bikers and 45 quad riders competed in yesterday’s
special stage of 354 km, and all arrived in the paddock, with the only injury
reported by Jean de Azevedo, who had a fall after only 30 kilometres. The
Brazilian, with three top seven finishes on the Dakar, has a minor injury but is
able to resume racing.
After the race, Barreda said: “Today was a difficult day, opening
the track this morning. It was difficult with a lot of danger and a lot of
animals in the middle of the tracks. So, I took it easy until the last
kilometres before refuelling.
“When I arrived there had been one hour with a lot of mud and I had
to get off the bike and push two or three times because my bike was completely
stuck in the mud. After that I had to clean my apparatus. It was slippery with
the bike and I paid the price. Finally, Ruben (Faria) arrived behind me. Ruben
was really fast so I decided to ride with him”.
Quads
On the quads, South African Brian Baragwanath is
lying fourth, just under three minutes behind the leader of the general
standings. Ignacio Casale continues to lead the quads, pursued by Argentinean
brothers Marcos and Alejandro Patronelli.
Cars and trucks
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| Giniel de Villiers, 2009 Dakar winner, then with VW. |
In the cars, Sébastien Loeb won his first stage
on the Dakar, 2:23 ahead of Stéphane Peterhansel with South Africa’ Giniel de
Villiers playing it safe in third place.
Having stood on the second podium four times on
the Dakar, the South African is driving a careful race and the jury is still out
whether the debutant Loeb can use the expernciesn gains with nine World Rally
Championship wins to continue setting fastest times between control points — or
crash out, as is wont in the Dakar.
Lucky not to crach but only get stuck were the 2014 winner Nani
Roma; debutant Xavier Pons; and Orlando Terranova, who all got stuck in mud and
losing valuable time digging themselves out after just 183 km.
The Spaniard and the Argentinean managed to get themselves unstuck,
but Xavier Pons took a little longer. Carlos Sainz also lost valuable time,
remaining immobile for a good fifteen minutes after 112 km with a technical
problem in his Peugeot 2008 .
The first trucks started just before 7 pm South African time, with
Russia’s Airat Mardeev, winner in 2015, leading in his Kamaz, followed by the
Iveco of the Netherland’s Gerard de Rooy, and winner of six stages last year,
Eduard Nikolaev.
At the time of going to print last night, the trucks were still
racing.
