Dakar Rally

Stage 9 (2016x11)

Air date: Jan 12, 2016

Belen > Belen Carlos Sainz is not the type of man to miss an opportunity a second time. Deprived of victory yesterday by 12 seconds, today he won a stage shortened due to the extreme heat by a similar margin of 10 seconds. The Spaniard triumphed on top of a new-look stage podium, as Erik Van Loon (Mini) finished on his coat-tails and Mikko Hirvonen (Mini) completed the day in third, only 17 seconds behind. Sainz especially took advantage of Stéphane Peterhansel's arrival down the stage order at the advanced finishing line in order to regain the commands of the general standings. The Spaniard now boasts a lead of 7'03'' over his French team-mate. Toby Price (KTM) again won in the bike category, but due to the premature finish to the race, he did not fully benefit from his show of force today. Having started the day in second place in the overall rankings, Paulo Gonçalves came very close to plummeting down the race hierarchy, but was given a life-line by the possible application of a grouped time that could keep him in the club of pretenders to the title.