Gerard de Rooy keeps fighting for the lead in 2017 Dakar Rally

Ton van Genugten placed the Petronas Team de Rooy Iveco inside the Top 5 of the special. Gerard de Rooy, after losing seven minutes in the stage, fell back to third place in his Iveco Powerstar, but is two minutes away from leader Dmitry Sotnikov.

​​​​​​​​​Bad weather conditions are having a negative effect in 2017 Dakar Rally. For the third day of racing in a row, the organisation is forced to cancel part of a stage. Truck category was the most affected today, with its race finished after the first control point. As a consequence of the heavy rain, Route 9 in Jujuy was blocked by an avalanche and the caravan had to stop its way to the biouvac in Salta.

Ton van Genugten was the man of the day for the Petronas Team de Rooy Iveco, as he lost only 3m49s with Martin van der Brink, winner of the stage. The Dutchman in the #507 Trakker keeps a good pace in the toughest roads of South America, but he also regrets the six hours lost in the mud a couple of specials behind. That keeps him far away from the leaders in the overall classification.

Gerard de Rooy suffered another puncture today and lost the first place in the general. Today’s setback was not big: he arrived only seven minutes behind and fell back to third with his #500 Powerstar. Gaps are small and he is only 2m20s away from the lead.

Wuf van Ginkel got very near from the Top 10, 10m42s behind the best time of Stage 8. The #525 Trakker is looking to move up in the overall standings to enter the Top 20 of the race.

Federico Villagra placed the best Iveco of the day in the second place after battling head to head with Martin van der Brink, who beat him by 17 seconds. The Argentine driver takes advantage of Mardeev’s delay to advance to fourth place overall.

The organisation will try to solve the complications with the avalanche that blocked the caravan in Route 9 to keep moving along on the path to Buenos Aires. In first instance, 406 kilometres are programmed for tomorrow in the ‘Super Belén’ between Salta and Chilecito.

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 8​​​​​​ and General Trucks

General Ranking