2017 Dakar Rally – Stage 10: Barreda, Barreda, Barreda

Racing returns to the 2017 Dakar Rally, with Stage 10 taking the competitors from Chilecito to San Juan. The day had two timed special stages, with 449km of terrain to cover while under the stopwatch.

One of the last days to make time on the leaders, we saw some heroic rides from farther down the time sheet, while the top riders kept it conservative.

Of course, the big news of the day was the retirement of Pablo Quintanilla, who fainted during the stage, and gave up his #2 spot in the overall standings. This was a huge blow to Husqvarna’s Dakar hopes for 2017, as Pierre-Alexandre Renet is now the team’s top rider – 6th overall after today.

Fortunes were mixed for the Honda boys as well, as Joan Barreda took another stage win, and climbed to fifth overall. Barreda is now less than hour back from overall leader Sam Sunderland, which should be a topic of conversation after Honda’s one-hour time penalty for an illegal fueling.

The day would have been a one-two for Honda, but Michael Metge missed allegedly missed a waypoint, and was handed another one-hour time penalty for it.

Metge’s ride still was important for HRC though, as the French rider helped Barreda, after the Spaniard made a navigation error – like any good water-carrier does.

Stage 10 was billed as the most difficult stage of this year’s rally, and for Yamaha’s Adrien van Beveren it certainly was. Making mistakes on the course, Van Beveren finished 17th on the stage, which dropped him to 4th overall. He will need to make up over three minutes to get back into podium position.

For KTM, it was solid day of time management for Sam Sunderland, who finished in 12th, over 17 minutes behind Barreda. But, because his nearest rivals didn’t fare the day as well, Sunderland actually extended his overall lead by almost 10 minutes.

Sunderland now commands a 30-minute lead over teammate Matthias Walkner, and a 38-minute lead over fellow KTM rider Gerard Farres. For as much contention as there has been for the 2017 Dakar Rally leaderboard, it is looking very possible that we could see KTM sweep the podium when we get to Buenos Aires.

Tomorrow sees the Dakar Rally heading closer to the finish line, with 288km planned for the penultimate timed special. Riders will have to contend with their last set of sand dunes, which will come early in the stage, before hitting more “rally” styled roads.

This will likely be the last chance to see movement in the leaderboard, though never say never.

Top 15 from Stage 10 – Chilecito to San Juan:

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Time
1	BARREDA Joan	SPA	Monster Energy Honda Team	Honda	5:49’45
2	SVITKO Stefan	SLO	Slovnaft Team	KTM	+0’24
3	CAIMI Franco	ARG	Honda South America Rally Team	Honda	+3’48
4	RENET Pierre-Alexandre	FRA	Husqvarna Factory Rally Team	Husqvarna	+4’21
5	RODRIGUES Helder	POR	Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team	Yamaha	+5’46
6	CERVANTES Iván	SPA	Himoinsa Team	KTM	+7’15
7	METGE Adrien	FRA	Sherco TVS Rally Factory	Sherco	+8’18
8	GONCALVES Paulo	POR	Monster Energy Honda Team	Honda	+8’43
9	KLYMCIW Ondrej	CZE	Klymciw Racing	Husqvarna	+9’22
10	WALKNER Matthias	AUT	Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team	KTM	+12’53
11	SALVATIERRA Juan Carlos	BOL	Duust Rally Team	KTM	+14’57
12	SUNDERLAND Sam	GBR	Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team	KTM	+17’06
13	FARRES Gerard	SPA	Himoinsa Team	KTM	+21’25
14	SANZ Laia	SPA	KTM Factory Racing Team	KTM	+21’39
15	GYENES Emanuel	ROU	Autonet Motorcycle Team	KTM	+23’32

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	28:07’59
2	WALKNER Matthias	AUT	Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team	KTM	+30’01
3	FARRES Gerard	SPA	Himoinsa Team	KTM	+38’43
4	VAN BEVEREN Adrien	FRA	Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team	Yamaha	+41’57
5	BARREDA Joan	SPA	Monster Energy Honda Team	Honda	+53’47
6	RENET Pierre-Alexandre	FRA	Husqvarna Factory Rally Team	Husqvarna	+55’24
7	GONCALVES Paulo	POR	Monster Energy Honda Team	Honda	+1:00’11
8	DE SOULTRAIT Xavier	FRA	Viltais Racing Team HFP	Yamaha	+1:32’55
9	CAIMI Franco	ARG	Honda South America Rally Team	Honda	+1:37’57
10	SVITKO Stefan	SLO	Slovnaft Team	KTM	+1:48’45
11	RODRIGUES Helder	POR	Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team	Yamaha	+1:51’25
12	SALVATIERRA Juan Carlos	BOL	Duust Rally Team	KTM	+2:04’38
13	KLYMCIW Ondrej	CZE	Klymciw Racing	Husqvarna	+2:08’55
14	RODRIGUES Joaquim	POR	Hero Motorsports Team Rally	Hero	+2:09’09
15	CERVANTES Iván	SPA	Himoinsa Team	KTM	+2:22’04