2017 Dakar Rally – Stage 5: Short, But Not So Sweet

Stage 5 of the 2017 Dakar Rally was billed as another brutal challenge for the competitors still remaining. The high-altitude terrain of Bolivia certainly lived up to that expectation, but today’s special was cut in half, with severe weather interrupting the day’s gauntlet.

As such, only 219km of the planned 447km special were ridden, but that “short” distance was enough to once again upheave the overall standings, with several riders losing time from navigational errors and penalties.

Sam Sunderland took the top honors for the day, breathing hope back into KTM’s 2017 Dakar Rally. Sunderland’s victory may have only been by seven minutes, but the gaps were with the right people, as he now stands 20 minutes ahead of Pablo Quintanilla – the previous overall leader.

Quintanilla finished the stage in seventh, losing some time on a navigational error out of a river bed. The Chilean’s conservative approach perhaps did him well though, as his fellow Husqvarna teammate Pela Renet lost over 45 minutes looking for the waypoint around the 152km mark.

With less to lose, the Honda riders pushed hard in Stage 5, though it can’t be said that the results benefited from their gamble. Only Franco Caimi (Honda South America Rally Team) and Paulo Gonçalves (Monster Energy Honda Team), put a Honda in the Top 15 of the day’s rankings.

Gonçalves sits 10th overall for his efforts, one hour and eight minutes behind Sunderland, which could create some interesting “what if” thoughts for the HRC squad, after yesterday’s one-hour time penalties for fueling in a prohibited zone.

Not much has been said this year about the Yamaha Racing effort, but Stage 5 saw a strong performance from Adrien van Beveren, who finished third for the day and seized the same position overall. At just 16 minutes back in the overall standings, Van Beveren is very much in the hunt for this year’s Dakar.

Yamaha’s Xaiver de Soultrait is also in the hunt, sitting 36 minutes back in sixth place. With two KTMs, two Yamahas, and a Husqvarna all with a reasonable hand on the winner’s trophy still, this is certainly shaping up to be an interesting Dakar Rally.

Tomorrow sees the circus traveling the capital city of La Paz. With 527km of special planned, we expect to see more shuffling of the leaderboard.

Top 15 from Stage 5 – Tupiza to Oruro

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Time
1	SUNDERLAND Sam	GBR	Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team	KTM	2:21’51
2	GONCALVES Paulo	POR	Monster Energy Honda Team	Honda	+7’07
3	VAN BEVEREN Adrien	FRA	Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team	Yamaha	+7’29
4	PEDRERO Joan	SPA	Sherco TVS Rally Factory	Sherco	+9’40
5	CAIMI Franco	ARG	Honda South America Rally Team	Honda	+12’13
6	FARRES Gerard	SPA	Himoinsa Team	KTM	+15’07
7	QUINTANILLA Pablo	CHI	Husqvarna Factory Rally Team	Husqvarna	+18’12
8	ESPAÑA Cristian	AND	Tallercall	KTM	+21’32
9	SALVATIERRA Juan Carlos	BOL	Duust Rally Team	KTM	+23’44
10	OLIVERAS Daniel	SPA	Himoinsa Team	KTM	+24’29
11	RODRIGUES Joaquim	POR	Hero Motorsports Team Rally	Hero	+26’45
12	PATRAO Mario	POR	JETMAR / KTM PORTUGAL	KTM	+27’33
13	METGE Adrien	FRA	Sherco TVS Rally Factory	Sherco	+28’44
14	MARTIN Diego	ARG	XRaids	KTM	+28’52
15	NOSIGLIA Daniel	BOL	MEC Team Nosiglia	Honda	+29’16

Provisional Top 15 Overall Standings for the 2017 Dakar Rally

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Time
1	SUNDERLAND Sam	GBR	Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team	KTM	15:22’05
2	QUINTANILLA Pablo	CHI	Husqvarna Factory Rally Team	Husqvarna	+12’00
3	VAN BEVEREN Adrien	FRA	Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team	Yamaha	+16’07
4	FARRES Gerard	SPA	Himoinsa Team	KTM	+20’57
5	WALKNER Matthias	AUT	Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team	KTM	+29:01
6	DE SOULTRAIT Xavier	FRA	Viltais Racing Team HFP	Yamaha	+36’06
7	SVITKO Stefan	SLO	Slovnaft Team	KTM	+48’43
8	RENET Pierre-Alexandre	FRA	Husqvarna Factory Rally Team	Husqvarna	+54’45
9	MARTIN Diego	ARG	XRaids	KTM	+1:04’55
10	GONCALVES Paulo	POR	Monster Energy Honda Team	Honda	+1:08’21
11	RODRIGUES Joaquim	POR	Hero Motorsports Team Rally	Hero	+1:10’20
12	BARREDA Joan	SPA	Monster Energy Honda Team	Honda	+1:12’39
13	RODRIGUES Helder	POR	Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team	Yamaha	+1:23’38
14	CAIMI Franco	ARG	Honda South America Rally Team	Honda	+1:27’10
15	KLYMCIW Ondrej	CZE	Klymciw Racing	Husqvarna	+1:36’22
20	METGE Michael	FRA	Monster Energy Honda Team	Honda	+1:49’25
21	BRABEC Ricky	USA	Monster Energy Honda Team	Honda	+1:49’27