Orlando Terranova won his third stage of the Dakar Rally by two minutes and 20 seconds over Toyota' Yazeed Alrahji. Bernhard Ten Brinke finished third, six seconds behind his fellow Toyota driver. Krzysztof Holowczyc finished fourth, two minutes and 57 seconds back of the Argentine with Nani Roma rounding out the top five, four minutes and two seconds off his Mini teammate.
Giniel de Villiers finished sixth on stage seventh, six minutes and 50 seconds back. Overall leader Nasser Al-Attiyah finished seventh, nine minutes and 48 seconds back of Terranova with Stéphane Peterhansel finishing ten minutes and 43 seconds back in eighth position. Robby Gordon came home in ninth, five seconds behind the Frenchman. Stage five winner Vladimir Vasilyev rounded out the top ten, 13 minutes and 32 seconds back.
Al-Attiyah holds an eight minute and 14 second lead over de Villiers after seven stages. Alrahri is 21 minutes and 16 seconds back in third with Holowczyc 54 minutes and two seconds back in fourth. Ten Brinke is three minutes and one second behind the Pole in fifth. Erik Van Loon is sixth, over an hour and quarter back after finishing thirteenth on stage seven. Christian Lavieille is seventh, an hour and 37 minutes behind Al-Attiyah. Peterhansel is eighth, an hour and 50 minutes back.
Gordon is 23rd, five hours and 48 minutes back while Terranova is a position behind the American, trailing Al-Attiyah by six hours and 43 minutes after the stage victory. Roma is 35th, nine hours and 19 minutes back.
While the cars went to Bolivia, the trucks stayed in Chile and headed to Atacama. Aleš Loprais won his first stage of the 2015 Dakar Rally by five minutes and 39 seconds over Gérard de Rooy. Andrey Karginov finished ten seconds behind the Dutchman in third position with Dmitry Sotnikov coming home seven minutes and 17 seconds back in fourth. Airat Mardeev finished fifth, eight minutes and 14 seconds off the Czech driver but retook the truck leads after Eduard Nikolaev had a disastrous stage. Nikolaev finished an hour and six behind Loprais.
Hans Stacey finished sixth, 25 minutes and 59 seconds off Loprais.
Mardeev has a 22 minute and 13 second lead over Karginov while Sotnikov is 44 minutes and six seconds back in third. Nikolaev fell to fourth, 44 minutes and 23 seconds back of his fellow Kamaz driver. Loprais rounds out the top five, an hour and 11 minutes behind Mardeev. Siarhei Viazovich is sixth, an hour and 46 minutes back after finishing 13th on stage seven. Stacey is seventh, an hour and 47 minutes back.
The bikes and quads return to competition tomorrow as they will head from Iquique to Uyuni, Bolivia. The cars will turn around and head back to Iquique as will the trucks before their rest day on Monday.
