Paulo Gonçalves (Honda) ranked 2nd, and Ruben Faria (KTM) 3rd, with more 6min13sec and 9min16sec than the winner, respectively, in the 2nd stage of Dakar2015, which took place today between Villa Carlos Paz and San Juan, in Argentina.
In a stage won by the Spaniard Joan Barreda Bort, there was also a third Portuguese in the top10, Hélder Rodrigues (Honda), who finished 7th, with more 11min35sec than the winner.
Despite being still recovering from a fractured collarbone in early November, the Algarve's Ruben Faria achieved a feat this Monday, finishing in 3rd position on a 625 km stage, which is unanimously considered as strenuous, by the pilots who have already finished it.
The Portuguese biker finished with nine minutes more than the winner, but with an advantage of 4 seconds than Viladoms.
The fourth Portuguese in the competition, Mário Patrão (Suzuki), finished in the 31st position of the stage.
With the excellent results today, Gonçalves is 2nd in General, now led by Barreda, Ruben Faria is 3rd, Hélder Rodrigues is 8th and Mário Patrão is 35th.
Englishman Sam Sunderland, who yesterday won the first stage, got lost at the end of the race and walked away from the route.
The Dakar2015 website commented, around 17:00, that “after more than two hours trying to find the correct route, Sam Sunderland is back on track again. He still has to cover 70 km to reach the end of the stage.
The Englishman ended up reaching the 66th position, with more 2h26min48sec than the winner. With today's defeat, Sunderland has dropped to 67th overall.
In cars, Nasser Al-Attiyah (Mini) was the fastest to complete the 518km special: he arrived 8m30s ahead of second placed Giniel De Villiers (Toyota). The Portuguese Carlos Sousa (Mitsubishi) was eighth, precisely 21 minutes from the Qatar pilot.
The lead in the overall car ranking belongs to Al-Attiyah. De Villiers is 2nd, Bernhard Ten Brinke (Toyota) is 3rd. Carlos Sousa rose to 8th place in the General and is 22m04s behind the leader.
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