Second stage win in a row for Iveco and Gerard de Rooy in a shortened special in Bolivia

Bad weather conditions forced the organisation to cancel the second part of today’s stage, as Gerard de Rooy grabbed the victory in the fifth special of the 2017 Dakar Rally.

​​​​​​​​​​A total of 438 kilometres were programmed in two different sections between Tupiza and Oruro. But heavy rain and hail led to the decision of stopping the race at the end of the first part of the special.

Gerard de Rooy, thanks to a faultless driving and a great performance of his Iveco Powerstar, managed to secure a very important win, with the race coming close to the midpoint. The Dutchman led from the start and remained in front of the Trucks category to close the day with a time of 2h39m12s, almost twelve minutes faster than Eduard Nikolaev with a Kamaz.

“In the first 100 kilometres we went through the mountains. It was very hard. At the beginning it was a bit dry, but then it started to rain. We had good grip and managed to get through perfectly in the navigation, while rivals got lost”, stated Gerard de Rooy, who reached his 32nd stage win in Dakar Rallies.

With two consecutive wins, Petronas Team De Rooy Iveco leader, reached the top of the overall classification for the first time in 2017, despite losing half an hour two days ago due to tyre problems.

Ton van Genugten had trouble in the first part of the stage, as he got stuck in the mud that came up as a consequence of the heavy rain. The Iveco Trakker #507 lost almost four hours to his teammate De Rooy, and his chances of getting in the Top 10 are now diminished, although there is more than half of the race ahead.

Wuf van Ginkel and his crew were lost in different parts of the special and helped his teammate Van Genugten, which made them lose a big amount of time. They finished 3h57m26s adrift.

Van Ginkel y Van Genugten also received an additional two-hour penalty at the end of the stage.

Not the best day in the office for Federico Villagra, who was second overall yesterday. With another Iveco Powerstar, the Argentine lost 46m50s to De Rooy and fell back to sixth.

Stage 6 of 2017 Dakar Rally will link Oruro and La Paz, being the longest special of the race with 513 timed kilometres, going over 4.400 metres above sea level in the middle of the stage.

For those who want to read more details about the team, vehicles and follow day by day activity, you can go to www.iveco.com/dakar. ​

​​Results Stage 5​​​ and General Trucks

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