Dakar Rally: Goncalves, Aj-Rajhi, Nikolaev fastest on day eight, Santosh 49th overall

After a well deserved break, the surviving quad and bike drivers at the 2015 Dakar Rally started their marathon stage on Sunday, taking a 717 km route to Uyuni.

The drivers in the remaining two categories - who would have to wait until Monday before they can turn off their engines and take a day off - took two completely different routes on their return to Iquique. The cars took a mammoth 808 km route with truck having to tackle a much shorter, albeit a sandier route before reaching the bivouac.

BIKES: GONCALVES FASTEST FROM COMA, BARREDA BORT HOLDS ON TO SLENDER OVERALL LEAD

Paulo Gonçalves drew first blood as the bikes category resumed racing on Sunday, beating Marc Coma by 14 seconds off the line.

Coma led a trail of KTM rider, with Austria’s Matthias Walkner, Chilean Pablo Quintanilla and Australian rider Toby Price finishing in third, fourth and fifth places respectively. The Factory KTM rider, however, would draw more satisfaction by seeing his Honda rival and standings leader Joan Barreda Port finish six minutes down in 10th place.

With this result, Barreda Port’s lead shrunk to just six minutes with six stages still remaining.

Meanwhile, a determined CS Santosh continued his participation in his maiden Dakar Rally despite suffering from a hairline fracture on Friday. The 31-year-old from Bangalore tackled the 321 km special stage in 6:21:23 to set the 65th fastest time of the day.

TVS Sherco’s Alain Duclos originally finished in the top 10 but was demoted to 24th with a 15 minute penalty.

Results

Paulo Goncalves (Honda) 3:56:00
Marc Coma (KTM) +14
Matthias Walkner (KTM) +30
Pablo Quintanilla (KTM) +1:42
Toby Price (KTM) +1:49
Helder Rodrigues (Honda) +5:09
Stefan Svitko (KTM) +5:09
Riaan Van Niekerk (KTM) +6:06
Jordi Viladoms (KTM) +6:10
Joan Barreda Port (Honda) 6:13

QUADS: SANBRIA THE SURPRISE PACKAGE, SONIK EXTENDS ADVANTAGE OVER CASALE

Nelson Augusto Sanabria sprung a surprise in quads category to beat title rivals and fellow Yamaha riders Rafal Sonik and Ignacio Casale to seal victory in seventh stage.

The Paraguayan rider moved into the lead at the final way point and went on to establish a five minutes 46 seconds gap over standings leader Rafal Sonik. Sonik in turn finished about six minutes ahead of last year’s winner Ignacio Casale to extend his advantage at the top of the table.

Sergio Lafuente stays at third in the overall standings despite finishing 30 minutes down on today’s stage winner.

Results

Nelson Augusto Sanabria (Yamaha) 5:22:12
Rafal Sonik (Yamaha) +5:46
Ignacio Casale (Yamaha) +11:37
Ricardo Vinet (Can-Am) ++24:20
Sergio Lafuente (Yamaha) +32:33
Daniel Domaszewski (Honda) +36:33
Sebastián Palma (Can-Am) +37:21
Christophe Declerck (Yamaha) +47:56
Giuliano Horacio Giordana (Yamaha) +53:07
Hannes Saaijman (Yamaha) +53:36

CARS: AL-RAJHI TAKES STAGE WIN, OVERALL LEADERS AL-ATTIYAH AND DE VILLIERS LOCKED IN BATTLE

In cars category dominated by MINI, Dakar Rally debutant Yazeed Al-Rajhi took his and Toyota’s first stage victory on Sunday, beating yesterday’s pace setter Orlando Terranova by one minute and 12 seconds.

The Saudi Arabian currently sits third in the overall standings, 10 minutes behind Giniel De Villiers and a further eight minutes back to leader Nasser Al-Attiyah.

The duo remained neck-and-neck today, separated by just 13 seconds in the 784 km marathon special stage. Al-Attiyah clocked the third fastest time of the day, while South African De Villiers just finished outside the top three in fourth.

Results

Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Toyota) 3:26:49
Orlando Terranova (MINI) +1:12
Nasser Al-Attiyah (MINI) +2:36
Giniel De Villiers (Toyota) +2:49
Krzysztof Holowczyc (MINI) +3:12
Nani Roma (MINI) +3:24
Stéphane Peterhansel (Peugeot) +3:46
Vladimir Vasilyev (MINI) +6:00
Boris Garafulic (MINI) +10:09
Carlos Sousa (Mitsubishi) +11:17

TRUCKS: NIKOLAEV OVERCOMES STAGE SEVEN SETBACK WITH WIN

Having lost an hour in yesterday’s stage, Kamaz driver Eduard Nikolaev made an asserted effort to claw back lost time with an impressive 11 minute stage eight victory on Sunday.

The Russian dented Ayrat’s Mardeev’s overall lead by 30 minutes and also managed to gain 15 minutes over Andrew Karginov who is currently second in the Dakar Rally standings.

Results

Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz) 3:25:47
Gerard De Rooy (Iveco) +11:16
Andrew Karginov (Kamaz) +14:58
Ales Loprais (MAN) +20:01
Ayrat Mardeev (Kamaz) +32:02
Martin Kolomy (Tatra) +46:28
Hans Stacey (Iveco) +49:43
Marcel Van Vliet (MAN) +51:58
Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz) +1:02:25
Artur Ardavichus (Tatra) +1:04:37