Dakar 2015 Stage 7 - 321kms Iquique - Uyuni Stage 7 was the start of the marathon stage and it did not disappoint. Crossing the border from Chile to Bolivia, the teams climbed to a staggering 3,500 metres to reach the start line. The elevation seemed to affect a lot of racers today. In an interview at the finish line Nasser Al-Attiyah said the stage wasn’t difficult but he lost time stopping three times to throw up and had a headache felt with every bump. He was not the only one. Giniel de Villiers also finished the stage with a headache from the altitude. Robby Gordon had some trouble finding a waypoint and managed to lose 10 minutes but still finished ninth on the day. Three solid stage results in a row now for RG and he’s really been pushing the leaders. A flawless day tomorrow could see him on the top step. Another eventful Dakar stage for Guerlain Chicherit, with the power steering breaking at 150km, but despite the set back the Zebra Buggy made it to the end. Both Guerlain and his navigator Alex are now working on fixing everything for the second part of the marathon stage tomorrow. Orlando Terranova’s overall chances came to an end on the fourth stage of this year’s Dakar but that only gave him the green light to attack and bring home some stage wins. He did exactly that today, winning Stage 7. When you are not going for the overall win, you can afford to take some chances others might not at this point. This year’s Dakar saw 130 cars take the green flag and after seven days of racing, 80 of them started today. That’s an average of seven cars a day dropping out, with the rally only half over. Chances are we could see some serious changes in the overall standings soon. Despite doing it tough, Team Toyo driver Philippe Raud continues to bring his Toyota home. Today he managed 66th, nearly four hours after the stage winner Terranova. Raud is a surviver, that’s for sure, and a solid bet for one of the few finishers at the end of the Rally. Tomorrow’s stage will be crucial, the drivers won’t have the luxury of their teams rebuilding their cars, which could cause some issues for the front runners. The racers will go back to where they started today, finishing with 40km of sand, and the long descent down to Iquique. Stage 8 is one to watch as Robby puts on a great show down the dune. General Ranking 1 #301 Al-Attiyah (QAT) Mini 23:11:50 2 #303 De Villiers (ZAF) Toyota +00:08:14 3 #325 Alrajhi (ARG) Mini +00:21:16 23 #308 Gordon (USA) Hummer +05:48:31 49 #323 Chicherit (FRA) Buggy +19:41:06 65 #400 Raud (FRA) Toyota +37:50:11
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 06:44:17 +0000
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