Gerard de Rooy and his Iveco Powerstar had another great day in the one of the most difficult stage with sand and dunes of the 2016 Dakar and took advantage of a very tough navigational stage to gain an even stronger lead in the general.
The tenth special of the competition connected the cities of Belén and La Rioja, and included a must-have feature of every Dakar: dunes. In fact, the huge mountains of sand in Fiambalá crushed the hopes of many participants, but that wasn't the case with Iveco.
The stage got off to an interesting start, with the top 10 Cars, 5 Trucks and 5 Bikes from nine's race all together. This meant that De Rooy, Villagra and Van Genugten of Iveco, and Karginov and Nikolaev of Kamaz, began the race one hour before the rest.
De Rooy coped with this the best. Van Genugten and Villagra, who was winning the stage until the last waypoint, got lost in the last section and crossed the finish line 1 hour and 38 minutes and 52 minutes, respectively, behind their Dutch team leader. The Kamazes had even more trouble and that is why De Rooy had such a good day, gaining an even bigger lead in the general classification, in spite of having come in 2nd position, only 2 minutes and 36 seconds behind the surprising leader, Pascal De Baar, who won today's stage with Renault Trucks.
The experienced Spanish pilot Pep Vila, aboard an Iveco Trakker, finished the day in 11th place and didn't lose as much time as other pilots did, but came in 1 hour 11 minutes and 4 seconds behind the leader. In the general, he was able to climb up a couple positions and is getting closer and closer to the Top 10 in the general. After the tenth stage, Vila is currently in 11th place, 15 minutes behind the competitor that is just ahead of him.
Finally, the Kamazes piloted by Nikolaev and Karginov, which took off together with the first three Iveco trucks, finished the Belén-La Rioja stretch more than 3 hours and 30 minutes behind Gerard de Rooy and lost all chances of victory.
Gerard de Rooy is now way ahead in the general, with a 1 hour 15 minute and 19 second lead over his closest rival, the Russian pilot Airat Mardeev, who is driving a Kamaz.
Villagra is now the second Iveco pilot on the podium, and Ton van Genugten, currently in 5th place, brought another Iveco truck into the Top 5, just behind Hans Stacey and his MAN.
Stage 10 Trucks
1. De Baar (NLD), Renault Trucks – 4:51:41
2. GERARD DE ROOY (NLD), IVECO plus 2 minutes 36 seconds
3. Mardeev (RUS), Kamaz – plus 26 minutes 6 seconds
4. Kolomy (CZE), Tatra - plus 26 minutes 25 seconds
5. Stacey (NLD), MAN – plus 27 minutes 25 seconds
9. FEDERICO VILLAGRA (ARG), IVECO – plus 53 minutes 59 seconds
11. PEP VILA (SPA), IVECO – plus 1 hour 11 minutes 4 seconds
15. TON VAN GENUGTEN (NLD), IVECO – plus 1 hour 34 minutes 29 seconds
General Classification − Trucks
1. GERARD DE ROOY (NLD), IVECO − 33:25:03
2. Mardeev (RUS), Kamaz – plus 1 hour 15 minutes 19 seconds
3. FEDERICO VILLAGRA (ARG), IVECO – plus 1 hour 32 minutes 47 seconds
4. Stacey (NLD), MAN – plus 1 hour 48 minutes 57 seconds
5. TON VAN GENUGTEN (NLD), IVECO – plus 2 hours 16 minutes 55 seconds
11. PEP VILA (SPA), IVECO – plus 4 hours 11 minutes 54 seconds
- ALEŠ LOPRAIS (CZE), IVECO – dropped out
To learn more about Iveco's teams and vehicles and to follow Iveco day-by-day throughout the race, visit www.iveco.com/dakar.
