Hans Stacey and Iveco fighting at the top.

The 2015 Dakar second stage ended with Hans Stacey in the 6th place, but the Dutch driver is just 40 seconds from the top of the general ranking.

​The 2015 Dakar is now moving towards the Andes. With the bivouac inside the “Eduardo Copello” Racetrack facilities in the province of San Juan, at the foot of the mountains, the Dakar participants are coming across ever tougher routes. This Monday’s stage was rather difficult in some sections, with sharp changes of altitude. The competitors descended from nearly 2,000 meters down to about 300 meters above sea level within just a few kilometers, which is always a tough endeavor for vehicles.

Although Hans Stacey could not step on today’s special stage podium, he is still in second place in the overall ranking at the wheel of his Iveco Powerstar thanks to yesterday’s great performance when he won the first stage of the Rally. In the Villa Carlos Paz – San Juan section, Stacey was again the best Iveco pilot finishing in the 4th place, only 1m27s behind Eduard Nikolaev’s Kamaz. At the end of the race, like many other drivers, he suffered a 60 seconds penalty handed to him by race control, losing the top of the overall ranking by only 40 seconds.

The other two Iveco pilots – Gerard de Rooy (Powerstar) and Pep Vila (Trakker Evolution II) came in a little later. The Dutch driver, winner of the 2012 Dakar with Iveco, arrived in 11th place, but he remains in the top 10 in the overall ranking with a margin of only 6 minutes from the leader. Meanwhile, the Catalonian pilot Pep Vila finished in the 13th position in Stage 2 and is 11th in the ranking 9m22s away from the leader.