2015 Dakar Rally Stage 6 ResultsSix stages and five different winners. This is the way the 2015 Dakar Rally in South America is playing out.
Winning Friday’s stage six was Team HRC Honda’s Helder Rodrigues, who has taken five other stage victories in past Dakar Rally events. Stage six took riders 428 miles from Antofagasta to Iquique in Chile, with 198 of those timed.The Portuguese Rodrigues, who finished on the podium at both the 2011 and 2012 Dakars, climbed from 10th to sixth overall after showing strength on Friday. He finished the day 1:10 minutes ahead of KTM-supported rider Toby Price, the Australian displaying great speeds in his rookie yearTaking the final podium Friday – 1:42 minutes behind Rodrigues – was the other Team HRC Honda CRF450 Rally pilot and Rodrigues’ fellow countryman Paolo Gonclaves. Gonclaves was followed Friday by Pablo Quintanilla (Chile) and Stegan Svitko (Slovak), both on KTM 450 Rally machinery.Though his Friday performance was impressive, he remains sixth overall in general classification, 36:04 minutes behind the leader, Joan Barreda Bort, who finished Friday in sixth.“I started very badly with my body at the beginning of this rally. I had three days that were not so good. On day four I had a problem with the bike due to mechanical problems, but today I had a good stage. Of course, I’m happy and I have one week more to attack. I’m happy. If have the best time, that’s good. If I have the second time, it’s also good. I had a good day and rode very fast. I pushed a lot until I saw Marc and Joan and then I just rode to the finish and didn’t push anymore,” Rodrigues says.As for Bort, the Spaniard has finished on the podium in four out of six stages so far, including two wins. Throughout Friday, the Team HRC Honda rider Barreda battled with four-time Dakar winner Marc Coma, who finished eighth after suffering a minor crash. Barreda’s performance allowed him to extend his lead to 12:27 minutes over the Red Bull KTM pilot Coma, who won stage five.“At the beginning I had a small crash, nothing important. I’m lucky. But it meant that I did not feel comfortable at the beginning of the stage. Then the navigation was also a little bit tricky. I lost some time looking for a way point, but it was nothing dramatic. In the end, I was opening all the day with Joan together, but this is the game,” Coma says.“Now we have a rest day in front of us. It will be perfect for the bike and for my body too, to rest a little bit, and then of course to prepare for the marathon stage because we know how tough it will be, with the altitude, with no mechanics and no spare parts, so it’s something that we have to take care about.”Rounding out the top 10 Friday were Honda’s Israel Esquerre, Coma, KTM’s Ruben Faria and KTM’s Ivan Jakes.Saturday marks the one and only break in the 2015 Dakar Rally ahead of Sunday’s stage seven, which takes riders 445 miles from Iquique to Uyuni.2015 Dakar Rally Stage 6 Results:
