Another day and another lead change a top of the car class occurred while two class leaders entering stage nine were victorious and there was a first time winner.
Carlos Sainz won his second stage of the 2016 Dakar Rally and the Spaniard leaped to the top of the car class. He defeated Erik Van Loon by ten seconds. Mikko Hirvonen finished third, 17 seconds behind the Spaniard. Giniel de Villiers finished 38 seconds back in fourth and Nasser Al-Attiyah rounded out the top five, two minutes and four seconds back. Cyril Despres was sixth, six minutes and 46 seconds back and Stéphane Peterhansel finished seventh, nine minutes and 12 seconds behind Sainz. Yazeed Al-Rajhi finished 26 seconds behind Peterhansel in eighth. Orlando Terranova was ninth, ten minutes and 53 seconds back. Mark Corbett scored his best stage finish this year as the South African ended up tenth, 15 minutes and 31 seconds behind Sainz.
Sainz takes the overall lead by seven minutes and three seconds over Peterhansel. Al-Attiyah is 14 minutes and 38 seconds back in third. Hirvonen is fourth, over 34 minutes back. De Villiers trails by 53 minutes in fifth. An hour and a minute back is Al-Rajhi with Leeroy Poulter two minutes behind the Saudi driver. Van Loon is an hour and 28 minutes back in eighth. Nani Roma and Despres round out the top ten, both over an hour and 42 minutes back.
Toby Price won his second consecutive stage and fifth overall. The Australian defeated Kevin Benavides by seven minutes and ten seconds with Štefan Svitko ten minutes and 33 seconds behind him in third. Pablo Quintanilla finished 15 seconds behind the Slovakian and Ricky Brabec finished fifth, 11 minutes and three seconds behind Price. Antoine Meo finished 50 seconds behind the American. Adrien Van Beveren finished seventh, 14 minutes and 23 seconds back. Gerard Farres was eighth, 15 seconds behind Van Beveren. Hélder Rodrigues finished 16 minutes back of Price in ninth and Armand Monleon finished tenth, 38 seconds behind Rodrigues.
Price extended his overall lead to 24 minutes and 47 seconds over Svitko. Quintanilla is 32 minutes behind in third. Benavides trails Quintanilla by less than half a minute. Meo rounds out the top five, just over 40 minutes back. Rodrigues trails by 46 minutes in sixth. Farres is 52 minutes back in seventh. Brabec, Van Beveren and Italian Alessandro Botturi rounded out the top ten; all trail by over an hour.
Pablo Copetti won his first stage of the 2016 Dakar Rally in the quad class. He defended Alejandro Patronelli by 35 seconds and Marcos Patronelli by a minute and 28 seconds. Brian Baragwanath finished three minutes and four seconds back in fourth. Nelson Sanabria rounded out the top five, three seconds behind Baragwanath.
Marcos Patronelli still leads overall. He is a minute and 13 seconds ahead of his brother Alejandro. Alexis Hernandez is third, over 40 minutes back. Jeremias González trails by 50 minutes in fourth. Sergei Karyakin is fifth, an hour and five minutes behind Patronelli.
Gerard de Rooy won his second consecutive stage. The Dutchman defeated his fellow countryman Ton Van Genugten by three minutes and 59 seconds. Sixteen minutes and four seconds back in third was Andrey Karginov. Federico Villagra was 41 seconds behind Karginov in fourth. Eduard Nikolaev finished fifth, 19 minutes and 14 seconds behind de Rooy.
De Rooy's lead has increased to 27 minutes and 12 seconds over Nikolaev. Villagra is third, over 41 minutes back. Pieter Versluis trails by 44 minutes in fourth. Van Genugten jumps up to fifth, just over 45 minutes behind de Rooy.
Stage ten heads from Bélen to La Rioja.
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