Dakar: De Villiers wins Stage 9

Giniel De Villiers has won the day’s special in front of Henk Lategan and Nasser Al-Attiyah, with the Qatari depriving Mattias Ekström of a second consecutive podium finish. Behind the Toyota trio and the Audi, Sébastien Loeb has driven his Prodrive into fifth place, 2’11’’ behind De Villiers, meaning he has lost more than one minute to Al-Attiyah.

BIKES: Walkner is the new boss

Honda’s Nacho Cornejo has won the special on stage 9 by 1’26’’ ahead of Kevin Benavides, 1’47’’ in front of Ricky Brabec, 2’06”ahead of Matthias Walkner and 2’10’’ in front of Joan Barreda, making it a very close top 5 today. In 8th and 9th place, Quintanilla and Van Beveren have finished 5 minutes behind the stage winner, whilst Sam Sunderland completed the stage 8’03” behind. In the general rankings, the balance tipped in favour of KTM’s world champion on the last portion of the special. “Hiasi” Walkner now leads Sunderland by 2’02’’. VBA has managed to withstand the assaults of Quintanilla and the Yamaha rider trails Walkner by 3’56”. The leading trio is the same as this morning, but in a different order and it is the first time KTM have led in the 44th edition of the Dakar. Quintanilla, 4’41” behind the Austrian, is less than one minute from the podium. Title holder Kevin Benavides has also closed in today and is only 10’22” behind the new general rankings leader, accompanied by his Honda team-mate, Joan Barreda, 10’57” behind. Price and Brabec are further back, trailing by slightly more than 35 minutes, though they will be the 10th and 11th riders to start tomorrow’s special.

QUADS: Copetti wins and regains 5 minutes on Giroud

Pablo Copetti has won the day’s special ahead of general rankings leader Alexandre Giroud. The Argentinean with an American passport has regained 5 minutes on the Frenchman who now has a lead of 24’31” over his nearest pursuer. With 3rd place today, Francisco Moreno is hot on the heels of Kamil Wiśniewski in the fight for the last place on the podium. On completion of the special, the two men are separated by 40”, both more than 2 hours and 38 minutes behind the rally leader.

TRUCKS: Victory number three this year for Nikolaev

Eduard Nikolaev has completed the day’s stage with the best time. The Russian, who has won the Dakar four times, has finished in front of his team-mate, title holder Dmitry Sotnikov. A former co-pilot to the Dakar legend Vladimir Chagin, Nikolaev has regained more than 2’30 in the general rankings on Sotnikov, who now only has a lead of 8 minutes heading on to stage ten. Martin Macík has lost out on second place by just three seconds. Outside the top 5 at the start of the special, Anton Shibalov has finished in fourth, approximately 3’30 behind his team-mate, whilst Ignacio Casale has finished more than 4 minutes behind the stage winner.

Stage 9 Cars Top-10

Top-10 Overall Car Standings after Stage 9