Iveco remains on the podium with Villagra

Van Genugten penalised, De Rooy loses time with tyres, but Iveco remains on the podium with Villagra

​​​​​​​​​​​Ton van Genugten lost the third position obtained in the third stage of Dakar Rally after receiving a 20 minute penalty for jumping a waypoint, while Gerard de Rooy hit trouble with punctures since the beginning of the stage that linked San Miguel de Tucumán and San Salvador de Jujuy. Yet, Federico Villagra inherited Van Genugten’s place and put Iveco on the podium.

The third stage of the 2017 Dakar Rally proved to be a great challenge in navigation for the crews of all categories. Although that Trucks had a shorter road than the other classes, the biggest vehicles showed their abilities in the ascent to San Salvador de Jujuy, with paths 4.000 metres above sea level.

The 199 kilometres of the Trucks were divided into two sections, with a first portion in which riverbeds were hard to follow and a second part at great altitude.

Gerard de Rooy, Petronas Team De Rooy Iveco leader, had some issues with his tyres. Only in the first part of the stage, the crew winner of the 2016 Dakar Rally suffered three punctures and was not able to inflate them quickly due to a failure in the system. This made them lose more than half an hour and, when they arrived to the neutralised zone, they received two extra tyres from Wuf van Ginkel, who apart from being in the competition, provides direct assistance to his Iveco teammates.

“The system broke down. Because of that three tyres deflated. We had to stop six times to pump it manually. Van Ginkel left us two new tyres, thanks to that we can continue safely in the second part, with new tyres in reserve”, stated De Rooy, who lost 34m16s, a valuable time that leaves him 33m37s off the leader, and placed in 18th position in the overall classification.

Ton van Genugten started the day leading in Waypoint 1 (WP1), but the Dutchman in the Iveco Trakker lost some time in the following points and was penalised with 20 minutes after the stage for having jumped one of the Waypoints. Therefore, he lost the third place and fell back to 12th in the stage and in the overall classification. In spite of this, Van Genugten was the best Petronas Team De Rooy Iveco truck of the day.

After assisting Gerard de Rooy, Wuf van Ginkel continued on his way to 10th place, but was also handed a penalty for the same reason as his teammate. In the end he was classified in 16th position and went out of the Top 20 in the combined times.

After the penalties and with another Iveco Powerstar, Federico Villagra sealed a neat stage to inherit Van Genugten’s third position, 4m33s behind the best time of the stage, securing the provisional third place in the overall classification as well.

The 2017 Dakar Rally will cross the border to Bolivia, where competitors will have to cope with the altitude, desert and big thermal amplitude. Vehicles have a 416 kilometres programme for Thursday, with a base of 3.000 metres above sea level to reach Tupiza.

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 3​​ and General Trucks

General Ranking