Stage 5 of the 2017 Dakar Rally marked a serious turning point in the fortunes of more riders, with Monster Energy Honda’s Joan Barreda finding himself stripped of the overall lead.
Barreda’s position was the result of a 1-hour penalty handed down to him and the entire Monster Energy Honda team for refueling outside of a controlled refueling area. Now, the Monster Energy Honda riders, including Barreda, Paulo Goncalves, Michael Metge and Ricky Brabec, all find themselves well down in the order with only faint hopes of recovering well enough to finish anywhere near the overall podium. The team is claiming that indications which had been given during the rider and team’s briefing were not altogether clear, and the team thought that it was at the organization’s refuelling zone as it entered Bolivia.
Stage 5 was run entirely in Bolivia, and it added more drama as bad weather forced the route to be radically shortened with the second portion of timed special being eliminated. It was a good day for Red Bull KTM’s Sam Sunderland, who managed to avoid trouble en route to becoming the fifth different stage winner of the 2017 Dakar Rally—no rider has one more than one thus far. The Brit kept a cool head and managed to avoid what turned out to be serious navigation difficulties for most of the field to win the shortened stage with a time of 2 hours, 21 minutes and 51 seconds. With the penalty to Barreda, Sunderland now finds himself in the overall Dakar Rally lead with a not-so-slim 12-minute lead over Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Pablo Quintanilla.
“It was a tough day, you know,” Sunderland said. “Even though the second part was cancelled, we still had three hundred kilometers in the rain and the cold. I’ll be happy to get cleaned up and have a rest. It was a good day. I started off with a good feeling this morning and feeling fast. I tried to really focus on the navigation. There were one or two really tricky places. Sometimes it works out okay and sometimes you have problems. Today it worked out okay for me. We’ve got a long way to go. Yesterday I was really down and annoyed because I’d made a mistake, and now I’m really happy, so now I need to try and stay calm and keep focused because it’s only day five.”
Barreda, who started behind Stage 4 winner Matthias Walkner, had more trouble in Stage 5 when he got lost. Worse yet, much of his competition followed him, creating a frenzy of confusion as riders desperately sought to get back on route. Quintanilla and Slovnaft KTM’s Stefan Svitko were also affected. Walkner would later get lost while opening the road.
Although he was caught up in the Honda penalty, Monster Energy Honda veteran Paulo Goncalves was able to keep it together well enough to finish second in Stage 5, finishing 7 minutes and 7 seconds behind Sunderland and 22 seconds ahead of Yamalube Yamaha factory rally rider Adrien Van Beveren.
“Today I had quite a good stage with some complications for the navigation,” Goncalves said. “I started out well and got to open the way, but about 20 kilometers from the finish I made a slight error that cost me a couple of minutes. We have to keep fighting. We still have seven days ahead that will be really hard, but it might give us time to recover some of the time disadvantage that we have.”
As it stands, Sunderland holds the overall lead through the first five stages with a time of 15 hours, 22 minutes and 5 seconds. Quintanilla sits second, 12 minutes back, and Van Beveren is now third, 16 minutes and 7 seconds out of the lead.
It was another tough day for American rider Ricky Brabec, who not only suffered the indignity of the 1-hour time penalty from the refueling error in Stage 4 but also struggled along the arduous route finishing way down in 28th place, over 42 minutes off Sunderland’s winning time. Brabec now finds himself in a bottleneck with fellow Monster Energy Honda rider Metge, who is 20th. Brabec is 21st, just 3 seconds behind Metge.
“Today’s stage started out with fast tracks with lots of rain coming down,” Brabec said. “The roads were fast and the pace was quick. There was a bit of confusion at kilometer 147 with everybody. The second special was cancelled, so the day was quite short for us with a long liaison section. The bike has been running really well and we are all in great shape still. We will just have to keep battling on.”
2017 Dakar Rally
Tupiza, Bolivia, to Oruro, Bolivia
Results: January 6, 2017 (Stage 5 of 12)
Stage 5
1. Sam Sunderland (GBR)-Red Bull KTM/2 hours, 21 minutes, 51 seconds
2. Paulo Goncalves (POR)-Monster Energy Honda/+00:07:07
3. Adrien Van Beveren (FRA)-Yamalube Yamaha/+00:07:29
4. Joan Pedrero (ESP)-Sherco TVS Rally Factory/+00:09:40
5. Franco Caimi (ARG)-Honda South America/+00:12:13
6. Gerard Farres (ESP)-Himoinsa Team KTM/+00:15:07
7. Pablo Quintanilla (CHI)-Rockstar Energy Husqvarna/+00:18:12
8. Cristian Espana (AND)-Tallercall KTM/+00:21:32
9. Juan Carlos Salvatierra (BOL)-Duust Rally Team KTM/+00:23:44
10. Daniel Oliveras (ESP)-Himoinsa Team KTM/+00:24:29
28. Ricky Brabec (USA)-Monster Energy Honda/+00:42:08
2017 Dakar Rally Overall Standings (after 5 of 12 stages)
1. Sam Sunderland (GBR)-Red Bull KTM/15 hours, 22 minutes, 5 seconds
2. Pablo Quintanilla (CHI)-Rockstar Energy Husqvarna/+00:00:12
3. Adrien Van Beveren (FRA)-Yamalube Yamaha/+00:16:07
4. Gerard Farres (ESP)-Himoinsa Team KTM/+00:20:57
5. Matthias Walkner (AUT)-Red Bull KTM/+00:29:01
6. Xavier De Soultrait (FRA)-Viltais Racing Team HFP Yamaha/+00:36:06
7. Stefan Svitko (SLO)-Slovnaft Team KTM/+00:48:43
8. Pela Renet (FRA)-Rockstar Energy Husqvarna/+00:54:45
9. Martin Diego (ARG)-XRaids KTM/+01:04:55
10. Paulo Goncalves (POR)-Monster Energy Honda/+01:08:21
21. Ricky Brabec (USA)-Monster Energy Honda/+01:49:27
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