The 2017 Dakar Rally caravan is again moving after two days without race activity due to heavy rain in Bolivia. The organisation was forced once again to shorten Stage 7, as a result of the continuous bad weather affecting the roads.
The 322 kilometres special was cut to half and only 161 kilometres were taken into account for the clock in a mixed stage with sections of Stage 6 – which was cancelled on Saturday – and Stage 7. This is the beginning of the "Marathon Stage", where the teams of all categories except Trucks are not allowed to work on their cars and only the drivers are allowed to do the job.
Despite of the difficulties for the participants, it has been a great day for the PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO Team. With the #507 Trakker, Ton van Genugten finished in the second place, only 2m51s behind Sotnikov, winner of the day. The Dutchman benefits from this fantastic result to advance in the overall classification, after a hard end of the first part of the Dakar.
Gerard de Rooy, last Dakar winner in Trucks, secured a good fourth place that keeps him in the overall lead in his #500 Powerstar with five stages still to run until the arrival in Buenos Aires.
Wuf van Ginkel, with the #525 Iveco Trakker, fell back to 13th place, 12 minutes behind the leader. This puts him more than seven hours behind the leaders and outside the Top 20 in the overall classification.
In the #502 Powerstar, Federico Villagra achieved another podium finish and arrived third in Uyuni, less than one minute behind Ton van Genugten. The Argentine driver is now in fifth position, placing a second IVECO inside the Top 5 in the overall classification.
The race will continue on its way to Argentina tomorrow, in a very long day for the participants. Almost 900 kilometres will be run, with 492 of them in a timed stage between Bolivia and Argentina.
Stage 7 Results – Dakar 2017
1. Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz) 1h41m35s
2. Ton van Genugten (IVECO) +2m51s
3. Federico Villagra (IVECO) +3m37s
4. Gerard de Rooy (IVECO) +4m25s
5. Siarhei Viazovich (Maz) +5m22s
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13. Wuf van Ginkel (IVECO) +12m19s
Overall Classification – Dakar 2017
1. Gerard de Rooy (IVECO) 15h52m07s
2. Dmitry Sotnikov (Kamaz) +2m11s
3. Eduard Nikolaev (Kamaz) +5m57s
4. Airat Mardeev (Kamaz) +20m12s
5. Federico Villagra (IVECO) +33m42s
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20. Ton van Genugten (IVECO) +6h05m29s
22. Wuf van Ginkel (IVECO) +7h12m28s
Follow all the news at www.iveco.com/dakar
IVECO will keep its fans up to date throughout the rally on www.iveco.com/dakar, following the race step by step with daily updates from South America. The website narrates a journey through the world's most difficult and demanding off-road race. The website, published in English and Spanish, will be updated every day with Team PETRONAS De Rooy IVECO's results and performance data, plus multimedia content transmitted directly from the course itself. Likewise, the IVECO's social media channels will be updated every day, with all the latest news as well as reports, videos and photos.
