The cars and trucks headed back to Iquique for stage eight while the bikes and quad headed to Uyuni, Bolivia for their seventh stage. Overall, we saw three competitors pick up their first stage win of the 2015 Dakar Rally on Sunday. We will start with the stage eight results before heading to those still on stage seven.
Yazeed Al-Rahji won his first stage in the car class by a minute and 12 seconds over yesterday's stage winner Orlando Terranova. This was the first stage victory of the rally for Toyota and the first time a Mini didn't end out the top step of the podium. Nasser Al-Attiyah finished third, two minutes and 36 seconds back and will hold on to his overall lead heading into the rest day tomorrow. Giniel de Villiers finished two minutes and 49 seconds back of his Toyota teammate in fourth with Krzysztof Holowczyc rounding out the top five, three minutes and 12 seconds back.
Nani Roma finished 12 seconds behind Holowczyc in sixth with Stéphane Peterhansel 22 seconds behind the Spaniard in seventh. Stage five winner Vladimir Vasiley finished eighth, six minutes off Al-Rahji. Chilean Boris Garafulic finished ninth, ten minutes and nine seconds back with Carlos Sousa rounding out the top ten, 11 minutes and 17 seconds off Al-Rahji.
Robby Gordon finished an hour and seven minutes behind Al-Rahji in 43rd position.
Al-Attiyah leads de Villiers by eight minutes and 27 seconds with Al-Rahji 18 minutes and 40 seconds back after the stage victory. Holowczyc is 54 minutes and 38 seconds back of Al-Attiyah with Bernhard Ten Brinke rounding out the top five, hour and 22 minutes back.
Peterhansel is eighth, an hour and 51 minutes behind the Mini driver. Terranova is six hours and 42 seconds back in 23rd position with Gordon just over ten minutes behind the Argentine in 24th.
Eduard Nikolaev dropped from leading the truck class to fourth on stage seven but recovered to win stage eight by 11 minutes and 16 seconds over Gérard de Rooy. Andrey Karginov finished 14 minutes and 58 seconds back in third. Aleš Loprais finished 20 minutes and a second back in fourth with overall truck leader Airat Mardeev finishing fifth, 32 minutes and two seconds back.
Mardeev leads by five minutes and nine seconds over Karginov heading into the rest day. Nikolaev has cut the deficit to Mardeev to 12 minutes and 41 seconds with the victory today. Loprais is 59 minutes and 19 seconds back in fourth with Dmitry Sotnikov fifth, an hour and 14 minutes back after finishing ninth on stage eight. Hans Stacey is sixth, two hours and five minutes behind Mardeev. The Dutchman finished seventh on stage eight.
Monday is rest day for cars and trucks before heading from Iquique to Calama.
The bikes and quad went to Bolivia and Paulo Gonçalves won his first stage of the 2015 Dakar Rally in the bike class. The Portuguese rider defeated Marc Coma by 14 seconds with Matthias Walkner finishing a half minute off in third. Pablo Quintanilla finished a minute and two seconds behind Walkner with Toby Price finishing 17 seconds behind the Chilean in fifth.
Juan Pedrero Garcia finished sixth, three minutes and 20 seconds behind Gonçalves with Alain Duclos finishing 28 seconds behind the Yamaha rider. Hélder Rodrigues finished eighth, four minutes and five seconds off his fellow Portuguese and Honda rider. Stefan Svitko finished ninth, five minutes and nine seconds back with South African Riaan Van Niekerk rounding out the top ten, six minutes and six seconds back. Jordi Viladoms finished four seconds off the South African in 11th with class leader Joan Barreda three seconds off Viladoms in 12th.
Barreda's class lead has been cut to six minutes and 28 seconds as Coma will try to make a charge in the second half of the rally. Gonçalves is ten minutes and 59 seconds back in third. Quintanilla is 25 minutes and 16 seconds back in fourth with Price 29 minutes and 20 seconds back in fifth.
Rodrigues is sixth, 33 minutes and 56 seconds off Barreda with Svitko 27 seconds behind the Portguese rider. Ruben Faria trails by 40 minutes and 55 seconds in eighth after finishing 14th on stage seven. Duclos is 50 minutes and 21 seconds back in ninth with David Casteu rounding out the top ten, trailing by nearly an hour and 17 minutes.
Paraguayan Nelson Augusto Sanabria Galeano won stage seven in the quad class by five minutes and 46 seconds over class leader Rafał Sonik. Ignacio Casale finished 11 minutes and 37 seconds behind Sanabria Galeano. Chilean Ricardo Vinet finished fourth, 24 minutes and 20 seconds back with Sergio Lafuente rounding out the top five, 32 minutes and 33 seconds behind the Paraguayan.
Sonic leads Casale by 21 minutes and 59 seconds with Lafuente an hour and eight minutes back in third. Sanabria Gaeano is three hours and 25 minutes behind the Pole.
The bike and quads will now double-back from Uyuni to Iquique on Monday.
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