With Adrien still third, Xavier sixth and Hélder 13th overall, the Yamaha Racing riders will spend the night away from their support crew at the Uyuni bivouac, before setting off to complete the second half of the two-day marathon stage tomorrow in Salta.
With race organisers opting to modify today’s stage due to poor weather conditions, competitors contested a relatively short but still demanding 161km-long timed special in the Bolivian dunes. Enjoying a strong start to the special, Adrien Van Beveren was comfortably running in third place before a series of small mistakes dropped the WR450F Rally mounted rider to an eventual 11th place result. With one more hard day in the saddle now over, Adrien remains third in the rally’s provisional standings.
Struggling to find a competitive pace during today’s stage, Adrien’s Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team partner Hélder Rodrigues wrapped up the day in 26th place. Still a strong contender for the top 10, the Portuguese rider is still waiting for the right moment to launch his attack. With five stages still to be contested at this year’s rally Hélder will keep pushing hard to place himself as close as possible to the top.
Putting in one more impressive performance aboard his rally modified WR450F machine Xavier de Soultrait was the highest placed Yamaha rider at the end of today’s stage seven. Demonstrating once again that he has the potential to battle with the international elite of rally riders the Frenchman posted the fifth fastest time during today’s timed special. Remaining sixth overall, Xavier managed to reduce his gap to the top three by three minutes.
In the Quad category, Raptor 700R mounted Sergey Karyakin was the winner of today’s stage seven, with the Russian taking over the provisional overall lead from his Yamaha teammate Simon Vitse. The end of today’s stage seven finds four Yamaha riders occupying the first four places in the class’ overall standings.
With the 2017 Dakar Rally starting its descent from the Bolivian uplands to the Argentinean plains, tomorrow’s stage eight includes a 492km-long timed special before its finish in Salta. Reaching the end of the two-day-long marathon stage, competitors will have the chance to meet up with their mechanics and support crews tomorrow afternoon in the Argentinean city.
