At the halfway mark in Dakar 2014, Gerard De Rooy has extended his lead over the competition in his Iveco Powerstar – lead vehicle for the Iveco De Rooy Petronas team.
Commenting after stage seven, in which he finished a strong third, De Rooy said: “It’s important to stay sharp during these kinds of stages and to be careful with your tyres and brakes. Every stone you can avoid is an advantage. We saw Marcel van Vliet after 250 km’s with a flat tyre, so we knew it would be a heavy day. If you lose ground in a stage like today, it’s over. Overtaking on such a narrow track is a perilous undertaking for the trucks.”
In the general rankings, De Rooy is defending his position with a great deal of verve. He’s now 37:50 minutes ahead of Karginov. The third place is for Nikolaev who’s 1:03:08 hours behind, followed by Sotnikov at 1:21:46 hour.
De Rooy team-mates Hans Stacey and Pep Vila take fifth and seventh place respectively, with Ales Loprais only 22 seconds behind Hans Stacey.
Jo Adua keeps the entire Iveco De Rooy Petronas team, with his 12th place, together in the top of the rankings.
Today’s stage eight goes from Salta to Calama with a total length of 824 km´s.
Iveco
Iveco is a brand of CNH Industrial N.V., a World leader in Capital Goods listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CNHI) and on the Mercato Telematico Azionario of the Borsa Italiana (MI: CNHI). Iveco
designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles, off-road trucks, city and intercity buses and coaches as well as special vehicles for applications such as firefighting, off-road missions, defence and civil protection. Iveco employs over 26,000 individuals globally. It manages production sites in 11 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and Latin America where it produces vehicles featuring the latest advanced technologies. 5,000 sales and service outlets in over 160 countries guarantee technical support wherever an Iveco vehicle is at work.
