Dakar Stage 11 San Juan - Río Cuarto news 13.01.2017: Dakar Rally 2017 Stage 11 San Juan - Río Cuarto 759 km Friday, January 13th 2017

Dakar Rally 2017
Stage 11 San Juan - Río Cuarto 759 km
Friday, January 13th 2017




A hellish day for Hirvonen

Mikko Hirvonen eventually completed stage ten yesterday, but on the way to San Juan the Mini driver lost all hope of a result in the general standings because he completed the special 4 hours and 44 minutes after Stéphane Peterhansel.



Caimi shows his worth

Franco Caimi is enjoying a superb first Dakar. The Argentinean rider finished third on stage 10 and is therefore the third rider to start this morning.




bike 002 - Svitko still in the race

Having been taken from the link stage in an ambulance to the hospital in San Juan after finishing yesterday's special in a state of exhaustion, in the end Štefan Svitko returned to reclaim his bike in the evening to finish the link stage.



The Slovakian is a tough nut to crack and has just followed Joan Barreda onto the day's special.




Barreda starts the stage


Joan Barreda is the first rider to tackle today's special following his victory by default yesterday, which was his third on this edition. Still 53 minutes behind in the general standings, the Spaniard is very likely to go on the attack again today.




bike 009 Brabec forced to drop out


Stage ten had a sad end for Ricky Brabec. He was in the top 3 of the special several kilometres from the finish when his Honda gave up the ghost on him.



Unable to repair the problem, the American was forced to withdraw from the race and is therefore not present this morning.




The day's withdrawals

Stage ten crushed the hopes of many bikers, including Pablo Quintanilla, Adam Tomiczek, Livio Metelli, Simon Marčič, Luca Manca, Alberto Urquia and Ricardo Martins.


Quad rider Daniel Mazzucco has also had to wave goodbye to his chances of returning to Buenos Aires, just like Roberto Naivirt in the car race and Gerrit Van Werven in the truck category.




The last major battle


The dunes of San Juan will be the last ones that the competitors confront on the route of the Dakar 2017, dotted over fifty kilometres at the start of the special.


The most skilful at skidding and finding the right line will then be the most at home when tackling the WRC type tracks in the Córdoba region. Naturally, there are likely to be surprises in store…





- ASO  also photo