The seventh day of the Dakar Rally was marred by Eric Palante’s death; the Belgian rider was found dead at the 143-km mark of Thursday’s stage, the longest of the event, after a vehicle was sent to recover him on Friday morning.
The 50-year-old, a father of five, was competing in the Dakar for the 11th time; he is the 27th competitor killed in the rally’s history.
Stephane Peterhansel was quickest in the cars category, followed by Nasser Al-Attiyah and Orlando Terranova. Nani Roma, who was sixth fastest, maintained the overall lead as Al-Attiyah slipped back to fifth, behind Terranova, Peterhansel and de Villiers, after being hit with a 1-hour penalty for missing one of the waypoints yesterday.
Marc Coma continues to lead the motorcycles class; he finished second to France’s Alain Duclos today as the latter moved up to P3 overall behind Joan Barreda Bort who ended up fourth fastest.
Gerard de Rooy’s lead in the trucks category took a slight hit as he finished only seventh today; he is closely chased by Andrey Karginov who reduced the gap to 29 minutes.
Uruguay’s Sergio Lafuente snatched the Quad class lead after posting the second quickest time this afternoon; P2 and P3 are occupied by Rafal Sonik and Ignacio Casale.