Rallye

Marc Coma Increases Dakar Lead to Over 40 Minutes on Stage Nine

Author: Aaryn Minerds

Posted:

Wednesday, January 15th, 2014

10:07 AM

Marc Coma, Red Bull KTM‰Ûªs three-time winner of the world‰Ûªs toughest rally on Tuesday bagged his second stage win in this year‰Ûªs edition of the Dakar overnight lead he the field hom on Stage nine of the 2014 event.

Coma finished ahead of HRC Honda's Joan Barreda and old rival, Factory Yamaha's Cyril Despres on the stage that ran from Calama to Iquique and in doing so to edge further ahead in the overall standings as the Rally entered Chile.

Coma, who has been suffering from a cold these past days felt better on Tuesday and delivered a great controlled ride, taking over the lead in the latter part of the stage. He said at the finish it had been ‰ÛÏvery fast and very nice‰Û

Joan Barreda maintains second place in the 2014 event and will be waiting to pounce it Marc Coma finds some misfortune in the two tough days ahead - Credit: Honda Racing

Barreda who lead the 2014 for the opening four stages was happy to make it through another complicated stage and has not given up on winning this years event with two tough days still awaiting the field.

"A very complicated stage today." Barreda admitted. "I tried to push from the beginning upping the pace as much as possible, but Marc [Coma] fought really hard and caught up with me in the dunes. I could do no more.

"There are two really tough days still awaiting us, but we are going to continue following the same line. Tomorrow I‰Ûªll be opening the way again. I‰Ûªm very pleased with the job done," he added.

Rounding out the stage 9 podium, Cyril Despres was happy just to make it to the end of the day's stage after narrowly avoiding a catastrophe when fuel started to leak out of one of his rear tanks directly on to his exhaust pipe.

‰ÛÏI‰Ûªm very relieved to have made it all the way to the end." Despres explained. "At the refuelling at kilometre 201 I noticed I had a fuel leak from the one of the rear tanks, and that petrol was dripping on to the exhaust pipe!

"I tried to drain as much of the fuel out of there into the other tanks as possible and then set off hoping for the best. As I crossed the line the bike started to cut out from lack of petrol!

"I also had a pretty big crash in the fesh fesh around kilometre 250. It‰Ûªs a pity, because up until the refuelling I was concentrating hard on the navigation and making good progress. Overall I made up some more ground today on those just in front of me and as before will keep attacking to see what can be achieved before the final finish line.‰Û

Cyril Despres continues his march up the leader-board despite some scary moments on stage nine - Credit: Yamaha Racing

Rounding out the podium in the overall motorcycle classification after nine stages of racing is Red Bull KTM Factory rider Jordi Viladoms who also had a good day finish sixth and consolidate his third overall position. He now has a good 30-minute advantage over fourth placed Chilean rider Jermias Esquerre.

Australia's Shane Diener continued his climb up the overall standings on day nine after some trouble in the early stages of the race. The Yamaha mounted rider finished the days stage in 34th position and moved up four spots overall to just inside the top 50 in 49th position.

KTM rider Troy O'Connor continues to lead the way for the Australian contingent overall in 38th position after his 42nd position finish on stage nine. Allan Roberts had another solid day finishing the stage in 47th and currently sits in 41st position as the 2014 Dakar enters the final stages.

Stage 10 brings the longest special stage of the Dakar 2014. The riders have to tackle 631 km against the clock on their way to Antofagasta. Together with the following stage on Thursday to El Salvador the decisive moments of the race are approaching.

Stage 9 Results Calama to Iquique - Chile:
1. Marc Coma (ESP, KTM) 04:49:05 hrs
2. Joan Barreda (ESP, Honda) +00:01:41
3. Cyril Despres (FRA, Yamaha) +00:05:28
4. Juan Pedrero Garcia (ESP, Sherco) +00:08:43
5. Stefan Svitko (SVK, KTM) +00:09:42
6. Jordi Viladoms (ESP, KTM) +00:11:23
7. Helder Rodrigues (PRT, Honda) +00:11:44
8. Ivan Jakes (SVK, KTM) +00:13:40
9. Laia Sanz (ESP, Honda) +00:14:34
10. Jeremias Israel Esquerre (CHL, Speedbrain) +00:15:01
34. Shane Diener (Aus, Yamaha) +01:02:43
42. Troy O'Connor (Aus, KTM) +01:17:39
47. Allan Roberts (Aus, KTM) +01:32:38

Provisional Overall Standings after Stage 9:
1. Marc Coma (ESP, KTM) 36:55:24 hrs
2. Joan Barreda (ESP, Honda) +00:40:19
3. Jordi Viladoms (ESP, KTM) +01:38:45
4. Jeremias Israel Esquerre (CHL, Speedbrain) +02:07:06
5. Olivier Pain (FRA, Yamaha) +02:16:10
6. Helder Rodrigues (PRT, Honda) +02:24:25
7. Jakub Przygonski (POL, KTM) +02:25:16
8. Cyril Despres (FRA, Yamaha) +02:29:56
9. Daniel Gouet (CHL, Honda) +02:57:42
10. David Casteu (FRA, KTM) +03:23:06
38. Troy O'Connor (Aus, KTM) +11:18:07
41. Allan Roberts (Aus, KTM) +12:04:01
49. Shane Diener (Aus, Yamaha) +13:31:17

Top Image: Marc Coma increased his lead to back over 40 minutes after winning stage nine.

Credit: KTM Images