Dakar - 2013 | Stage 6, Day 6 - [Arica-Calama]

Day 6 begun with a tragic news of the previous night's accident involving the Race2Recovery support crew, with one of the two taxi's crashed head on to their vehicle. Too bad to hear such news for any racer or anyone else to digest easily. However the race resumed for the day and the long transport section of 291 kms begun to align for the start line.

The day's action is a definitely going to be a typical 'Mad Max' day, as the next Special Stage which is about 438 kms, is same for all the categories and for spectators it is going to be a fiesta for eyes to watch all the action from their heroes doing what they love to! But, there is a catch for them too, as it happens that the Stage passes through public highway and it is going to be a neutralised section. Which means, no breaking lands' road-traffic [much like the transport/road section] laws on this stretch for about 97 kms in length. 

Speeding on the neutralised section might result in disqualification and ousting off the rally & may even face legal charges by the law of the land. This ends at the 326 kms mark. Race goes on flat-out from here for another 112 kms, but over rocks-ridden, steep hill-climbing gravel-road, towards stage finish and it is definitely going to be a greater challenge. Another 40 kms of transport ends the day in Calama, Rally HQ.

Franchesco 'Chaleco' Lopez

Quad rush

Country man, Chilean Francesco Lopez took the win of the stage, while Ruben Faria finished second and Cyril Despres finished comfortably in third. Overall, Olivier Pain still leads, but Cyril closes to him by just 2m22s after Pain finished stage down at 10th. French man David Casteu is third overall.

Another Chilean, Ignacio Nicolas Casale took his Quad to stage win and proved that they command on home grounds. Marcos Patronelli still leads overall rally, while Casale in 2nd.

Cars / Trucks

Nasser Al-attiyah

Nasser Al-attiyah wins stage ahead of Peter and Gordon finishes 3rd. It is not good going for Nasser's team-mate, Carlos Sainz, as the buggy developed serious mechanical/engine problems and rendered un-repair-able by themselves, so retired. Peterhansel leads overall lead.

Gerard De Rooy - Stage winner

Rally leader and Iveco driver, Gerard De Rooy won today's stage, while Russian, Andrey Karginov took 2nd and Peter Versluis finished 3rd. Yesterday's stage winner, Hans Stacey landed in trouble, when his Iveco truck nosedived and broke beyond recovery and retired.