#Dakar2015, Day 8 - Uyuni, Bolivia & Iquique, Chile

Bikes & Quads

The cars will tackled it first yesterday, and today by the motorcycle and quad riders. Right from the outset, the long liaison section with an early start, followed by a gradual climb to a height of more than 3,500m towards the high plateaux, where the special stage will began.

The instructions in the road-book to follow with great care, in light of the large number of junctions on the route.

Bikes & Quads route of the day

One of the challenges of the day could be wear and tear on tyres. Once they have arrived in Uyuni, the competitors will only have completed half of the marathon stage, while the cars made the return journey to Iquique, Chile.

Cars

Cars route for Day 8

Peugeot2008DKR on stage

The cars flat-chattered on the salt flats of over 100 km in Bolivia, before the descending route being more technical & lined with trees on the sides. It will be tricky if it rains, and so it did rain to the later part of the competition. A couple of crashes marred the confidence of many others, while others didn't care.

Trucks

De Rooy's Iveco

The trucks will once again took the return of the yesterday's stage in backwards over many sand dunes. The leaders' driving skills in the dunes will make the difference on this first separate day, with long and decisive sandy sections. Once again, they will need to find the right balance between self-control and performance. When they reach their private bivouac, the much awaited rest-day should rejuvenate their body & rejoice their spirits for the remaining half of the marathon towards Buenos Aires.

Barreda's damaged bike

Laia Sanz, lone woman rider

The leaderboard changed with varying results, as the stage progressed. Marc Coma showed a different spirit than so far, but it was Matthias Walkner who surprised to finish ahead of the Spaniard. But the defending champion pushed really hard, and the Portuguese even harder to first place, only to push Walkner to 3rd. Marc Coma had to settle to second to Paulo with a tiny 14s gap.

Barreda & damaged bike

Bolivian clothes to beat the cold

Barreda Bort still holds on to the overall lead, however after a hard crash with a broken Handlebar on his Honda 450 Rally bike, and with Marc Coma's spirited riding did cut down the margin to a great extent. Paulo Goncalves sits in third.


Indian rider Santosh C S took to the stages with ease from 66th off the start despite a fractured left foot toes, and gradually climbed to 49th overall by the end of the day. [Update: CS is good. Says foot did not hurt at all. Lot of falls. One major. Helmet broken again. Almost swept away in a river. Slush, rain and cold - Sukhwant Basra, for HT]

 Top 5 Bikes, Stage 7

Pos.	N°	Name	Mark	Time	Difference	Penalty
1	7	GONCALVES (PRT)	HONDA	03:56:00	-	-
2	1	COMA (ESP)	KTM	03:56:14	00:00:14	-
3	27	WALKNER (AUT)	KTM	03:56:30	00:00:30	-
4	31	QUINTANILLA (CHL)	KTM	03:57:32	00:01:32	-
5	26	PRICE (AUS)	KTM	03:57:49	00:01:49	-
66	59	C S SANTOSH (IND)	KTM	06:21:13	02:25:13	-

Pos.	N°	Name	Mark	Time	Difference	Penalty
1	2	BARREDA BORT (ESP)	HONDA	25:40:48	-	-
2	1	COMA (ESP)	KTM	25:47:16	00:06:28	-
3	7	GONCALVES (PRT)	HONDA	25:51:47	00:10:59	-
4	31	QUINTANILLA (CHL)	KTM	26:06:04	00:25:16	-
5	26	PRICE (AUS)	KTM	26:10:08	00:29:20	-
49	59	C S SANTOSH (IND)	KTM	34:28:43	08:47:55	-

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Quad rider ,happy to arrive at Bolivia

Splashing through rain water

Portuguese rider on his Yamaha quad, Nelson Augusto Sanabria Galeano was the fastest of the quad squad. Rafal [Super] Sonik was second and Casale third fastest.

Super Sonik ruled the roost at overall positions with nearly 22minutes to Casale, while Lafauente in third over an hour the leading Polish.


 Top 5 Quads, Stage 7

Pos.	N°	Name	Mark	Time	Difference	Penalty
1	256	SANABRIA GALEANO (PRY)	YAMAHA	05:22:12	-	-
2	251	SONIK (POL)	YAMAHA	05:27:58	00:05:46	-
3	250	CASALE (CHL)	YAMAHA	05:33:49	00:11:37	-
4	277	VINET (CHL)	CAN-AM	05:46:32	00:24:20	-
5	252	LAFUENTE (URY)	YAMAHA	05:54:45	00:32:33	-

Pos.	N°	Name	Mark	Time	Difference	Penalty
1	251	SONIK (POL)	YAMAHA	31:50:46	-	00:15:00
2	250	CASALE (CHL)	YAMAHA	32:12:45	00:21:59	00:20:00
3	252	LAFUENTE (URY)	YAMAHA	32:58:46	01:08:00	-
4	261	GONZALEZ FERIOLI (ARG)	YAMAHA	35:06:25	03:15:39	-
5	256	SANABRIA GALEANO (PRY)	YAMAHA	35:15:59	03:25:13	-

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CARS

Yazeed zooming to clinch his first stage victory

Many struggled through the day's stages, and it was the desert tamers, Saudi's Yazeed Al-rajhi who took his debut stage win on his very first Dakar. Orlando Terranova in MiniAll4 was second by only 1m12s, while another Mini driver, Qatari, overall leader, Nasser Al-attiyah who was third with 2m36s to the first time leader.

Overall lead is still kept by Nasser with over 8 minutes to De Villiers, and the debutant Yazeed is now in third overall spot in his Toyota Hilux.

 Overall Top 5, Cars after Stage 8

TRUCKS

Kamaz dunking in the dunes

Eduard Nikolaev won the stage of the day, Gerard De Rooy & Andrey Karginov finished in second and third, respectively.

Overall lead is still held by the Kamaz drivers, Mardeev,  Karginov & Nikolaev.

 Top 5 Trucks, Stage 8

Pos.	N°	Name	Mark	Time	Difference	Penalty
1	502	NIKOLAEV (RUS) YAKOVLEV (RUS) AKHMADEEV (RUS)	KAMAZ	03:25:47	-	-
2	501	DE ROOY (NLD) RODEWALD (POL) DAMEN (BEL)	IVECO	03:37:03	00:11:16	-
3	500	KARGINOV (RUS) MOKEEV (RUS) LEONOV (RUS)	KAMAZ	03:40:45	00:14:58	-
4	503	LOPRAIS (CZE) MARCO ALCAYNA (ESP)  VAN DER VAET (BEL)	MAN	03:45:48	00:20:01	-
5	507	MARDEEV (RUS) BELYAEV (RUS) SVISTUNOV (RUS)	KAMAZ	03:57:49	00:32:02	-

 Overall Top 5, Trucks after Stage 8

Pos.	N°	Name	Mark	Time	Difference	Penalty
1	507	MARDEEV (RUS) BELYAEV (RUS) SVISTUNOV (RUS)	KAMAZ	26:33:21	-	-
2	500	KARGINOV (RUS) MOKEEV (RUS) LEONOV (RUS)	KAMAZ	26:38:30	00:05:09	00:01:00
3	502	NIKOLAEV (RUS) YAKOVLEV (RUS) AKHMADEEV (RUS)	KAMAZ	26:46:02	00:12:41	-
4	503	LOPRAIS (CZE) MARCO ALCAYNA (ESP)  VAN DER VAET (BEL)	MAN	27:32:40	00:59:19	-
5	520	SOTNIKOV (RUS) DEVYATKIN (RUS) AFERIN (RUS)	KAMAZ	27:47:50	01:14:29	00:02:00

Bikes + Quads' return route on Day 9 to Iquique

Day 9, Bikes & Quads will make a return ride back to Iquique, Chile to join the cars & trucks, while they enjoy the rest-day (our mistake of noting yesterday as rest day for cars & trucks)

Action plot will thicken after Day 10, and some serious racing scenes shall be at display of the battle, as we get nearer to the final leg of this year's marathon rally.