2015 Dakar Rally – Stage 9: Honda Continues the Fight

The last day in Bolivia, Stage 9 of the 2015 Dakar Rally was back to business for this weary bunch of competitors. Though the miles are counting down, the terrain isn’t getting any easier, and it’s starting to separate the field.

We’ve already seen the grueling course claim HRC’s Joan Barreda, perhaps dashing Honda’s best hopes of unseating KTM’s dominace of the iconic rally raid race. But HRC responded in-kind on Stage 9, taking four of the Top 5 spots…that lone remaining spot being Marc Coma’s.

While the factory KTM rider may not have much help on the time sheets from his teammates, KTMs well-run racing machine has kept the Spaniard out of trouble.

“It was foggy at the start of the special and I made one small navigation mistake and I lost some time there, but then I tried to push with a high rhythm to come back to my position,” said Coma. “The last part was also tricky navigation and it was difficult to find one of the waypoints. I am lucky because maybe I am faster than some of the others and I can push until the end. It’s okay. It was a good day for us.”

Coma now only has a five-and-a-half-minute lead, ahead of HRC’s Paulo Goncalves. The fellow Portuguese rider has shown fine form over The Dakar, and is perhaps HRC’s best hope of an overall win.

“Today was a good stage. I started out from behind looking to make up time. At kilometre 326, there was a waypoint that was quite difficult to find and I dropped a bit of time,” said Goncalaves. “There were 220 km still left to push and I clawed back some time, finished well, and cut down the distance in the overall standings. I’m very pleased with Helder’s win, and I believe that it has been a great day for Team HRC.

Stage 9 went to Helder Rodrigues, also from Portugal, but likely time-wise out of the Dakar-win hunt. Rodrigues has been a strong competitor for HRC, but he lost considerable time helping Joan Barreda on Stage 8. His Dakar hopes are likely over as a result.

“I’m fine. I’ve worked very hard for this Dakar and to be up front. Yesterday, I lost it all and now I don’t want to take any chances, but I will give everything to win,” said Rodrigues “Today I started out from behind, I caught up with Paulo and Joan, but I got lost in the dunes. Later, at the refuelling I saw that I was going well and I kept pushing. It was a hard day with a lot of navigation and loads of stones on the track, but I’m very happy with the way things went.

For the Yamaha Racing crew, things are finally looking up for the factory squad. The thinning of the herd, and the tough course conditions have brought the cream of the team to the top, putting Olivier Pain 10th overall.

“It was a tough special. It was bumpy, with lots of fesh-fesh, and some difficult navigation. In particular there was a waypoint that you needed to follow your road book correctly to find. I went straight to it, but lots of people never found it, which is obviously good for me,” said Pain.

“The other positive point was that we are definitely making progress with the bike set-up. Each evening we make some small adjustments and since the start of the marathon stage we having been going in the right direction.”

Top 10 from Stage 9 – Iquique to Calama – of the 2015 Dakar Rally:

Overall Top 10 of the 2015 Dakar Rally:

Source: Dakar; Photo: HRC