Leaders Remain Same After Stage Six

There were no lead changes on stage six of the Dakar Rally as two class leaders extended their leads with stage victories.

Nasser Al-Attiyah won his third stage in the car class. The Qatari has won every even-numbered stage so far. Thirty-seven seconds back in second position on the stage and still second overall is Giniel de Villiers as Nani Roma finished a minute and 24 seconds back in third. Robby Gordon finished fourth, 21 seconds behind the Spaniard. Orlando Terranova rounded out the five, five minutes and 48 seconds back of his fellow Mini driver.

Toyota driver Berhard Ten Brinke and Yazeed Alrahji finished sixth and seventh on the stage, eight minutes and four seconds and eight minutes and 15 seconds back respectively. Krzysztof Holowczyc came home in eighth, 11 minutes and 58 seconds back. Erik Van Loon finished ninth, 13 minutes and 18 seconds behind Al-Attiyah while Frenchman Christian Lavieille rounding out the top ten, five seconds behind the Dutchman.

Al-Attiyah's overall lead is now 11 minutes and 12 seconds over de Villiers. Alrahji is 28 minutes and 44 seconds back while Holowczyc trails by an hour and 53 seconds. Ten Brinke is an hour and four minutes back in fifth. Van Loon follows his fellow Dutchman, just over another two minutes back. Lavieille jumped to seventh, an hour and 27 minutes back. Carlos Sousa is an hour and 47 seconds back in eighth with Ronan Chabot just over six minutes behind Sousa. Stéphane Peterhansel is tenth, 14 seconds back of Chabot after finishing 20th on stage six.

Gordon is 25th, five hours and 47 minutes back with Terranova 29th, nearly an hour back of the American. Roma is 39th, nearly nine and a half hours behind Al-Attiyah.

Hélder Rodrigues won his first stage of the 2015 Dakar by a minute and ten seconds over KTM's Toby Price. Paulo Gonçalves bookended the podium for Portugal and Honda finishing 32 seconds behind the Australian. Chilean Pablo Quintanilla came home in fourth, six minutes and 11 seconds back with Slovakian Stefan Svitko finishing 31 seconds back of Quintanilla.

Bike leader Joan Barreda finished sixth, seven minutes and 20 seconds off the stage winner. Jeremias Israel Esquerre came home in seventh, eight minutes and 58 seconds back. Marc Coma finished nine minutes and 14 seconds off Barreda in eighth. Ruben Faria finished 30 seconds behind Coma in ninth. Ivan Jakes finished tenth on stage six, 13 minutes and 59 seconds back.

Barreda leads overall by 12 minutes and 27 seconds over Coma. Gonçalves is 17 minutes and 12 seconds back in third with Quintanilla 29 minutes and 59 seconds behind in fourth. Trailing by 33 minutes and 44 seconds is Price. Rodrigues is 36 minutes and four seconds back after his stage victory. Faria is seventh, trailing Barreda by 40 minutes and 27 seconds with Svitko a minute behind Faria in eighth. Alain Duclos is ninth after finishing 13th on the stage. The Frenchman 52 minutes and 56 seconds back. Israel Esquerre rounds out the top ten, an hour and 48 seconds off Barreda.

Ignacio Casale won his third stage of the 2015 Dakar and took eight minutes and 58 seconds out of Rafał Sonik's lead as the Pole finished second on stage six. Sergio Lafunete finished third, 23 minutes and eight seconds back of Casale. Argentines Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli and Sebastian Halpern rounded out the top five with Gonzalez Ferioli finishing 27 minutes and 35 seconds after Casales and Halpern finishing nearly 20 minutes after his fellow Argentine.

Despite losing such a large amount of time on stage six, Sonik still leads Casale by 16 minutes and eight seconds. Lafuente is 41 minutes and 31 seconds behind Sonik with Gonzalez Ferioli an hour and 49 seconds back. Bolivian Walter Nosilglia is fifth in the quad class, nearly three hours behind Sonik with Halpern in sixth, three hours and three seconds back.

Eduard Nikolaev won his third consecutive stage as the Kamaz driver extended his lead by five minutes and 37 seconds over Airat Mardeev. Andrey Karginov made it an Kamaz sweep of the podium, ten minutes and 40 seconds back in third. Gérard de Rooy finished 31 seconds off the podium in fourth with Dmitry Sotnikov rounding out the top five, a minute and 13 seconds after de Rooy.

Siarhei Viazovich finished 25 minutes and 16 seconds off Nikolaev in sixth as Aleš Loprais finished nearly two minutes after the Belarusian in sixth. Hans Stacey finished eighth, 30 minutes and 28 seconds back.

Nikolaev's overall lead is 13 minutes and 38 seconds over Mardeev with Karginov nearly a half hour off Mardeev in third. Sotnikov makes it four Russians in the top four 58 minutes and 41 seconds back of Nikolaev. Viazovich rounds out the top five, an hour and 16 seconds back with Loprais an hour and 33 minutes off the lead. Stacey is just over ten minutes back of Loprais.

The bikes and quad will rest on Saturday as the cars leave Chile for Uyuni, Bolivia. The trucks will head remain in Chile and head to Atacama for stage seven. The bikes and quads will head to Uyuni on Saturday.