Iveco finishes Dakar Rally on the podium

Gerard de Rooy manages to take the Petronas Team De Rooy and his #500 Powerstar to the third place after almost 9.000 kilometres in South America’s hardest roads.

​​​​​​​​​The 39th edition of Dakar Rally came to an end with Saturday’s twelfth stage. With a short special of 64 kilometres looping Río Cuarto, participants helped their vehicles to the finish line to conclude world’s most difficult rally raid.

Petronas Team De Rooy leader and winner in 2012 and 2016 with Iveco, Gerard de Rooy, took his Powerstar to the third spot of the podium after battling during two weeks against his rivals and adversity in the routes.

Having led the race, the Dutchman suffered several punctures through the stages that made him fall back in the road, thus, getting too much dust and little chances of overtaking. Anyway, the power of the Iveco let him add another podium finish to his name, as he finished third, 41m19s behind Dakar winner, Eduard Nikolaev.

Iveco Trakkers from Ton van Genugten and Wuf van Ginkel travelled together in the last stages and recovered some positions after being stuck in mud, where they lost more than six hours.

Van Genugten, at the wheel of the #507, finished in 16th place, almost seven hours away from the leaders. Van Ginkel arrived behind his teammate in 17th position, but more than eight hours adrift.

With another Iveco Powerstar, Federico Villagra made it to the end of 2017 Dakar Rally just behind teammate De Rooy in fourth. He was not able to repeat last year’s podium and could not win a stage, an aim yet to achieve. But the Argentine driver kept on showing good potential in his second year together with Iveco.

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 12​ and General Trucks

General Ranking