Dakar 2019 Stage 7: Hero Pilots Storm Into Top 15

There has not been one dull moment in the Dakar 2019 so far as stage 7 saw once again a change of leaders in the overall classification of the Moto class. However, it was Hero’s Joaquim Rodrigues who was the fastest pilot for an Indian team on the day, ending his stint 11th. JRod has so far been the second-best rider in the team, behind Oriol Mena, as he is still recuperating from the career-threatening injury he sustained at the 2018 Dakar. Nevertheless, the Portuguese now finds himself 24th overall.

Teammate Mena was not far behind in the stage, two positions down and a minute off JRod. Mena has been quite consistent so far and had it not been for a few stumbles he went through earlier, he would have been better off in the standings. Still he his 13th overall, with three stages left to once again break into the top ten.

Metge brothers again had a decent ride. Michael was 15th while Adrien was 27th. The two have been trading off better stage positions since the first day and thus have helped Sherco-TVS Racing to be 31st and 32nd overall respectively.

The lone surviving Indian rider, Aravind KP, once again put in a matured effort to end the day 46th. Aravind had some issues with his navigational system the previous day which did hamper his progression. He now finds himself 47th in the main standings.

From what we’ve seen so far, it never pays off to open the stage when it comes to the Moto class as once again Pablo Quintanilla lost a huge chunk of time sweeping the stage. Not only did he lose 21 minutes on the day, he had to also relinquish his lead in the rally to Ricky Brabec. The stage was ultimately won by KTM’s Sam Sunderland who put his stage 6 woes behind him. He was 1 minute 51 seconds faster than HRC’s Cornejo Florimo and 6 minutes 30 seconds ahead of now rally leader Brabec. Yamaha’s Adrien van Beveren put in another consistent run to fourth while KTM’s Luciano Benavides rode across the line in fifth.

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Brabec’s lead, though not slender, still puts him in the crosshairs of the riders. His nearest rival is van Beveren who is nearly eight minutes off the Honda rider. Closely following them are KTM boys Toby Price and Sunderland as well as former rally leader Quintanilla.

Dakar legend Stephane Peterhansel was not ready to throw in the towel just yet as he won the stage and clawed back into rally leader Nasser Al-Attiyah’s lead. Peterhansel led a Mini 1-2-3 on the day as he was followed by teammates Nani Roma and Carlos Sainz. Al-Attiyah could do no better than fourth, losing eleven minutes along the way. Cyril Despres also managed to get his Mini in the top five.

Thus, the gap at the front of the field is 29 minutes 16 seconds between leader Al-Attiyah and Peterhansel. With three stages left, could this change? Roma has now climbed up to third ahead of Sebastien Loeb who lost significant ground on the leaders on stage 7. Despres is fifth here as well.

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