Thursday, January 15, 2015

Class Leaders Remain Same After Stage 11

All four class leaders entering the antepenultimate stage of the 2015 Dakar Rally will enter the penultimate stage as leaders.

Nasser Al-Attiyah won his fifth stage of this year's Dakar and second in as many days. The Qatari defeated Argentine Orlando Terranova by 27 seconds with second overall Giniel de Villiers finishing 39 seconds back in third. Lithuanian Benediktas Vanagas was the surprise of the stage, finishing fourth, a second back of the South African. Vladimir Vasilyev finished a minute and 16 seconds back in fifth.

Bernhard Ten Brinke finished sixth, 56 seconds back of the Russian. Stéphane Peterhansel finished four seconds behind the Dutchman with Carlos Sousa 11 seconds behind Peterhansel. Christian Lavieille finished two minutes and 40 seconds back in ninth with Emiliano Spataro seven seconds behind Lavielle in tenth.

Robby Gordon finished 13th, three minutes and 11 seconds back.

Al-Attiyah is 29 minutes and one second ahead of de Villiers. Krzysztof Holowczyc is third overall, an hour and 28 minutes back after finishing finishing 18th on the stage. Erik Van Loon is fourth trailing by two hours and 54 minutes after finishing 12th on stage 11. Livieille rounds out the top five, three hours and four minutes back. Vasilyev is just over nine minutes behind the Frenchman. Ten Brinke is three hours and 41 minutes behind Al-Attiyah with Sousa eighth, two minutes and 40 seconds behind Ten Brinke.

Peterhansel is 11th, five hours and 16 minutes back. Terranova and Gordon are 18th and 19th respectively, both trailing by over seven hours.

Slovakian Ivan Jakes won stage 11 in the bike class, his first of the 2015 rally after Honda riders Joan Barreda and Paulo Gonçalves received penalties. The Spaniard was penalized 45 minutes while the Portuguese rider was handed 16 minutes. Ruben Faria finished five seconds back in second with Toby Price, 42 seconds back. Marc Coma finished a minute and five seconds back with Pablo Quintanilla making it a KTM sweep of top five, two minutes and 38 seconds back.

Hélder Rodrigues was the top Honda, three minutes and 50 seconds back in sixth. Stefan Svitko was three seconds back in seventh. Gonçalves finished 22nd and Barreda 40th after the penalties.

Coma has a 21-minute and 12-second lead over Gonçalves after the penalty. Price is 31 minutes and 43 seconds back with Quintanilla trailing by 33 minutes and 15 seconds. Sitka rounds out the top five, 48 minutes and seven seconds behind Coma.

In the quad class, Christophe Declerck won his first stage of this year's race by six minutes and 35 seconds over Nelson Augusto Sanabria Galeano. Walter Nosiglia and South African Willem Saaijman finished tied for third, 15 seconds behind the Paraguayan. Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli rounded out the top five, seven minutes and 34 seconds back. Rafał Sonik finished fifth, nine minute and 12 seconds after the Frenchman.

Sonik leads the quads overall by two hours and 50 minutes over Gonzalez Ferioli. Nosiglia is three hours and 42 minutes back in third with Sanabria Galeano trailing by four hours and 16 minutes in fourth. Declerck is fifth after the stage victory, six hours and six minutes behind Sonik.

Hans Stacey and Gérard de Rooy made it a Dutch 1-2. It was also a 1-2 for Iveco as a minute and ten seconds separated the Dutchman. This was Stacey's first Dakar stage win since the opener of this year's rally. Forty-six seconds behind de Rooy was Eduard Nikolaev with Siarhei Viazovich finishing two minutes back in fourth. Marcel Van Vliet bookended the top five for the Netherlands, three minutes and seven seconds behind his countryman.

Airat Mardeev retained the truck class overall lead despite finishing four minutes and six second back in ninth. Mardeev leads by 11 minutes and 11 seconds over Nikolaev with Andrey Karginov 47 minutes and 44 seconds back in fourth after Karginov finished 15th on the day. Aleš Loprais is fourth, trailing by an hour and 21 minutes after finishing seventh on stage 11. Dmitry Sotnikov rounds out the top five, two hours and 24 minutes back after finishing 16th today. Stacey is just under nine minutes behind Sotnikov is sixth. De Rooy is tenth in class, seven hours and seven behind behind Mardeev.

The penultimate stage of the 2015 Dakar Rally head to Rosario, the hometown of Lionel Messi.