Last week, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Joan Barreda had both built up solid leads in the car and bike classes respectively in the 2015 Dakar Rally.
Stages 7 and 8 took place last weekend, though the bikers were given a well deserved day of rest Saturday.
The drivers were still hard at work, however, as they started the weekend with a run from Iquique to Uyuni. For the third time during the rally, Orlando Terranova took the stage win, while Al-Attiyah finished behind second-place-overall driver Giniel de Villiers, who was able to reduce the lead to eight minutes.
On Sunday, all of the drivers and riders were back to work.
Joan Barreda’s handlebar broke in a crash during Sunday’s stage (stage 7 for the bikes), which enabled second-place-overall rider Marc Coma to reduce his gap to the leader from 12 minutes to six, while Paulo Goncalves won the stage on his Honda.
Rookie Yazeed Alrajhi took the spoils in the car category on Sunday (stage 8 for the cars), while Nasser Al-Attiyah placed third, extending his overall lead back up to 8 minutes 27 seconds.
Among the more spectacular incidents of the weekend was an end-over-end flip by Juan Manuel “Pato” Silva, followed by an identical end-over-end flip by Matthew Campbell, who flew right over the Mercedes of Silva before his car caught fire. Fortunately, nobody was injured.
Polish bike rider Michal Hernik remains the only fatality so far of the 2015 Dakar Rally.
Video by dakar
