2018 Dakar Rally Statistics, Stage 10 (January 16, 2018)

The 2018 Dakar Rally continued Tuesday, January 16, with the 10th stage (ninth stage running) – a 797-kilometer run from Salta to Belen, Argentina. The ninth stage the day before was canceled due to poor weather conditions along the scheduled route from Tupiza, Bolivia, to Salta.

A huge change atop the leaderboard in bikes, as Tuesday’s winner, Matthias Walkner of Austria, claimed the overall lead after previous leader Adrien Van Beveren of France dropped out following an incident. Walkner, who finished second last year, had been running third prior to Tuesday, and had only earned a single stage victory (in 2015) before this year’s race. Despite a one-minute penalty, he becomes the fifth overall leader in bikes, and owns a 39-minute plus lead over Joan Barreda Bort, who owns the most stage victories in the class thus far. Kevin Benavides, who was running second by only 22 seconds, dropped to third overall, now 41 minutes plus in arrears. Despite Van Beveren’s problems, the bike category had the lowest attrition rate of any of the five categories during the stage, with 91 of the 98 competitors reaching the finish.

A pair of French drivers – Stephane Peterhansel (cars) and Patrice Garrouste (SxS) – won their respective stages, each moving into second in their categories while sharply reducing the leads held by their competitors. Peterhansel, with three victories, the most of any driver in the car category, reduced overall leader Carlos Sainz’s (Spain) advantage to less than an hour. The car category saw the highest attrition rate, with only 34 of the 54 competitors (63 percent) reaching the end. Meanwhile, Garrouste also reduced Reinaldo Varela’s (Brazil) lead to less than 50 minutes after his second stage victory in this event.

The truck category’s overall leader, Eduard Nikolaev of Russia, saw his lead drop to only 24 minutes, after finishing nearly 22 minutes behind his closest competitor, Federico Villagra of Argentina, second in the 10th stage to Ton Van Genugten of The Netherlands. Nikolaev has led overall since winning the second stage overall, and led by as many as 58 minutes after the fourth stage. But Villagra’s consistency – he’s finished second five times, including each of the last three contested stages – has helped to slowly but steadily cut into Nikolaev’s advantage.

In the quad category, a pair of Argentinians led the way in their home country, with rookie Nicolas Cavigliasso reaching the finish line first ahead of Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli. Chilean Igancio Casale remained solidly in first overall, and still leads by more than an hour-and-a-half.

Here are the winners/leaders and some of the statistics following the 10th day of the 40th Dakar Rally.

Statistics – After Day 10 (Salta to Belen, Argentina, 797 kilometers)

Bike:

- Left: 98 vehicles

- Finished: 91 vehicles

- Winner: Matthias Walkner (Austria), KTM 450 Rally Replica

- Runner-Up: Pablo Quintanilla (Chile), Husqvarna FR 450 Rally

- Winner’s Time: 4 hours, 52 minutes, 26 seconds

- Margin of Victory: 11 minutes, 35 seconds

- Stage Wins (Drivers): Joan Barreda Bort (3), Sam Sunderland (2), Antoine Meo (2), Adrien Van Beveren (1), Matthias Walkner (1)

- Stage Wins (Countries): Spain (3), France (3), United Kingdom (2), Austria (1)

- Overall Leader: Matthias Walkner (new; by 39 minutes, 42 seconds over Joan Barreda Bort)

Quad:

- Left: 36 vehicles

- Finished: 28 vehicles

- Winner: Nicolas Cavigliasso (Argentina), Yamaha YFZ 450

- Runner-Up: Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli (Argentina), Yamaha Raptor 700

- Winner’s Time: 6 hours, 35 minutes, 26 seconds

- Margin of Victory: 2 minutes, 6 seconds

- Stage Wins (Drivers): Ignacio Casale (3), Nicolas Cavigliasso (2), Sergei Kariakin (1), Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli (1), Axel Dutrie (1), Simon Vitse (1)

- Stage Wins (Countries): Chile (3), Argentina (3), France (2), Russia (1)

- Overall Leader: Ignacio Casale (by 1 hour, 41 minutes, 3 seconds over Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli)

Car:

- Left: 54 vehicles

- Finished: 34 vehicles

- Winner: Stephane Peterhansel (France), Peugeot 3008 DKR (41st career stage victory)

- Runner-Up: Giniel de Villiers (South Africa), Toyota Hilux

- Winner’s Time: 4 hours, 43 minutes, 46 seconds

- Margin of Victory: 8 minutes, 46 seconds

- Stage Wins (Drivers): Stephane Peterhansel (3), Nasser Al-Attiyah (2), Carlos Sainz (2), Cyril Despres (1), Sebastien Loeb (1)

- Stage Wins (Countries): France (5), Qatar (2), Spain (2)

- Overall Leader: Carlos Sainz (by 50 minutes, 35 seconds over Stephane Peterhansel)

SxS:

- Left: 9 vehicles

- Finished: 5 vehicles

- Winner: Patrice Garrouste (France), Polaris RZR 1000 Turbo

- Runner-Up: Juan Carlos Uribe Ramos (Peru), Can-Am Maverick X3 Turbo

- Winner’s Time: 6 hours, 37 minutes, 7 seconds

- Margin of Victory: 1 hour, 9 minutes, 30 seconds

- Stage Wins (Drivers): Reinaldo Varela (4), Patrice Garrouste (3), Anibal Aliaga (1), Juan Carlos Uribe Ramos (1)

- Stage Wins (Countries): Brazil (4), France (3), Peru (2)

- Overall Leader: Reinaldo Varela (48 minutes, 12 seconds over Patrice Garrouste)

Truck:

- Left: 23 vehicles

- Finished: 16 vehicles

- Winner: Ton Van Genugten (Netherlands), Iveco Powerstar

- Runner-Up: Federico Villagra (Argentina), Iveco Powerstar

- Winner’s Time: 5 hours, 31 minutes, 49 seconds

- Margin of Victory: 33 seconds

- Stage Wins (Drivers): Eduard Nikolaev (3), Federico Villagra (2), Ton Van Genugten (2), Ales Loprais (1), Dmitry Sotnikov (1)

- Stage Wins (Countries): Russia (5), Argentina (2), Netherlands (2)

- Overall Leader: Eduard Nikolaev (by 24 minutes, 44 seconds over Federico Villagra)

Sources:

-       Dakar Rally official website – www.dakar.com