Saturday, January 17, 2015

Al-Attiyah, Coma, Sonik and Mardeev Are Dakar Winners

The 2015 Dakar Rally is complete and we have two first-time winners with one competitor scoring his second consecutive Dakar victory.

Robby Gordon won the final stage of the 2015 Dakar Rally in the car class. The American defeated Toyota's Leeroy Poulter by 25 seconds with Argentina Emiliano Spataro finishing four seconds behind the South African in third. Orlando Terranova finished behind his countryman in fourth, 31 seconds back with Giniel de Villiers rounding out the top five, 34 seconds back of Gordon.

Nasser Al-Attiyah clinched his second career Dakar Rally victory with a sixth place finish, 39 seconds back of Gordon. Bernhard Ten Brinke finished seventh, nine seconds behind the Qatari with Krzysztof Holowczyc finishing eighth, a second off the Dutchman. Erik Van Loon finished 57 seconds behind Gordon in ninth with Vladimir Vasilyev rounding out the top ten, a minute and one second back.

Al-Attiyah wins the 2015 Dakar Rally by 35 minutes and 34 seconds over de Villiers. Holowczyc finishes third, an hour and 31 minutes back. Van Loon and Vasilyev round out the top five, both finishing over three hours behind Al-Attiyah. Christian Lavielle finished just under three hours and 16 minutes back in sixth. Ten Brinke finished seventh, just a half hour behind the Frenchman. Carlos Sousa finished within three minutes of Ten Brinke in eight. Aidyn Rakhimbayev finished ninth, four hours and eight minutes back with Ronan Chabot rounding out the top ten, four hours and 42 minutes back.

Stéphane Peterhansel finished 11th, just over five hours behind Al-Attiyah. Terranova and Gordon finished 18th and 19th respectively, both over seven hours back.

Ivan Jakeš and Stefan Svitko made it a Slovakian 1-2 in the final stage of the bike class with 45 seconds cover the KTM riders. Toby Price swept the podium for the Austrian bike as the Australian finished a minute and seven seconds behind Jakes. Paulo Gonçalves finished fourth, eight seconds off the podium. Marc Coma scored his fifth h Dakar Rally victory in the bike class and second consecutive, finishing fifth on the stage, three minutes and 11 seconds off Jakes.

Dutch riders Hans Vogels and Frans Verhoeven finished sixth and seventh. Vogels was 25 seconds back of Coma and Verhoeven finished 59 seconds off Vogels. Pablo Quintanilla came home eighth, 17 seconds off Verhoeven. Xavier de Soultrait finished a minute and two seconds behind the Chilean with Laia Sanz rounding out the top ten, two minutes and a second behind the French rider.

Coma wins the 2015 Dakar Rally by 16 minutes and 53 seconds over Gonçalves. Price finished third, 23 minutes and 14 seconds off the Spaniard. Quintanilla and Svitko round out the top five both within an hour of Coma. Ruben Faria finished an hour and 57 minutes back in sixth. David Casteu finished two hours back in seventh. Jakeš finished 18 minutes off Casteu in eight. Sanz finished six minutes back back of Jakeš with Olivier Pain rounding out the top ten, three hours and nine minutes back.

South African Willem Saaijman won his first stage of the 2015 Dakar Rally in the quad class. Saaijman held off Christophe Declerck by six seconds as the Frenchman was looking for a hat trick of stage victories to close out the 2015 Dakar Rally. Argentine Daniel Domaszewski finished nine seconds back in third. Italian Juan Carlos Carignani was 39 seconds back in fourth with Nelson Augusto Sanabria Galeano finishing fifth, three minutes and 42 second back.

Argentine Pablo Luis Bustamante and Chilean Sebastian Palma finished sixth and seventh on the stage. Rafał Sonik finished eighth, good enough to take his first ever Dakar title. Walter Nosiglia and Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli rounded out the top ten on the day.

Sonik wins by two hours and 54 minutes over Gonzalez Ferioli. Nosiglia finished three hours and 42 minutes back in third. Sanabria Galeano finished fourth, four hours and nine minutes back with Delcerck rounding out the top five, over five hours and 48 minutes behind the Pole.

Hans Stacey ends his 2015 Dakar Rally with a hat trick as the Dutchman won his third consecutive stage, fourth total. It was also the third consecutive Dutch 1-2 as Marcel Van Vliet finished a minute and 21 seconds back in second. Airat Mardeev clinched his first Dakar Rally victory with a third on the stage, two minutes and 23 seconds back. Dmitry Sotnikov finished fourth, 22 seconds back of Mardeev with Eduard Nikolaev rounding out the top five, three minutes and 32 seconds back.

Mardeev defeats Nikolaev by 13 minutes and 52 seconds to win the 2015 Dakar Rally in the truck class. Andrey Karginov makes it a Russian 1-2-3, 51 minutes back. Aleš Loprais finished an hour and 56 minutes back in fourth with Dmitry Sotnikov finishing fifth, two hours and 24 minutes back. Stacey ends sixth, just under five minutes outside the top five.

Al-Attiyah's victory is Mini's fourth consecutive. KTM has won 15 consecutive in the bike class. Yamaha remains unbeaten in the quad class, having won all seven editions. Kamaz has won six of seven Dakars since the race moved to South America.

Coma ties Cyril Despres and Cyril Neveu for second all-time in bike class victories. Coma is one behind Stéphane Peterhansel's six Dakar titles on two wheels. Sonik is the second European to win the Dakar in the quad class. Czech rider Josef Macháček won the inaugural Dakar for quads in 2008. With Mardeev's victory, the truck class has seen five different winners in as many years.