Florimo, de Villiers win stage 9 in bikes, cars

The Dakar Rally adventure continued through Tuesday as the second half of the raid got underway last Sunday. You can read more about the characteristics of the stage here.

Bikes

The stage for the bikes category today was won by Ignacio Cornejo Florimo. The Chilean rider went through the challenge of the 9th rally section and finished ahead of Kevin Benavides, who finished in second place.

The victory means little in the fight for the Dakar title for now though, as Florimo placed 11th in the general standings after today’s result, with Benavides in the 5th overall position. However, the nature of the rally implies that anything can happen, and Florimo shouldn’t be ruled out just yet.

Last year’s runner-up, Ricky Brabec, finished the stage in third place after looking at the lead through the first waypoints of the stage. However, he failed to keep his momentum and finished today’s challenger in third place.

Austria’s Matthias Walkner is the new leader in the overall standings for the bikes. The Red Bull KTM rider finished today’s stage in 4th place, compared to the 14th-place finish by Sam Sunderland which gave Walkner an advantage of 2 minutes and 12 seconds over his British competitor.

Stage 9 standings:

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time/Gap
1	Ignacio Cornejo Florimo	MONSTER ENERGY HONDA	02H 29′ 30”
2	Kevin Benavides	RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING	+ 00H 01′ 26”
3	Ricky Brabec	MONSTER ENERGY HONDA	+ 00H 01′ 47”
4	Matthias Walkner	RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING	+ 00H 02′ 06”
5	Joan Barreda Bort	MONSTER ENERGY HONDA	+ 00H 02′ 10”

Overall standings after stage 9:

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time/Gap
1	Matthias Walkner	RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING	30H 14′ 03”
2	Sam Sunderland	GASGAS FACTORY RACING	+ 00H 02′ 12”
3	Adrien van Beveren	MONSTER ENERGY YAMAHA RALLY TEAM	+ 00H 03′ 56”
4	Pablo Quintanilla	MONSTER ENERGY HONDA	+ 00H 04′ 41”
5	Kevin Benavides	RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING	+ 00H 10′ 22”

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Cars

Giniel de Villiers took today’s stage victory by only 9 seconds to Hank Lategan. The South African – who won the 2009 Dakar Rally – managed to stay ahead in today’s challenger without running over any bikes competitor.

Current class leader, Nasser Al-Attiyah, finished the stage in third place by just over a minute to de Villiers. The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver remains on top of Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, who finished today’s stage in 5th place. He was penalized after an incident in yesterday’s stage, but only with a fine – meaning no further time loss which could complicate his chances for the victory.

Lategan led through the first half of the stage and was battling the position with Al-Attiyah. However, a charging de Villiers capitalized on his performance and managed to build an advantage – though short – over both drivers.

The top 5 was completed by Stage 8’s winner Mattias Ekstrom, who finished in 4th place by just over 2 minutes to Al-Attiyah.

Stage 9 standings:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time/Gap
1	Giniel de Villiers	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING	02H 23′ 08”
2	Hank Lategan	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING	+ 00H 00′ 09”
3	Nasser Al-Attiyah	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING	+ 00H 01′ 04”
4	Mattias Ekstrom	TEAM AUDI SPORT	+ 00H 02′ 07”
5	Sebastien Loeb	BAHRAIN RAID XTREME	+ 00H 02′ 11”

Overall standings after stage 9:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time/Gap
1	Nasser Al-Attiyah	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING	30H 10′ 04”
2	Sebastien Loeb	BAHRAIN RAID XTREME	+ 00H 39′ 05”
3	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	OVERDRIVE TOYOTA	+ 00H 58′ 44”
4	Orlando Terranova	BAHRAIN RAID XTREME	+ 01H 36′ 09”
5	Giniel de Villiers	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING	+ 01H 45′ 01”