Stage 6 Riyadh > Riyadh

Team De Rooy with good feeling to rest day in Dakar

Three drivers in top eight after six stages

Below is our full press report with stage information and you can watch a video and see all photos below.

Stage info

For todays stages we will stay in the Riyadh-bivaque for three nights in a row.

Press report

Team De Rooy with good feeling to rest day in Dakar

Three drivers in top eight after six stages

RIYADH – “After the work is done it is good to rest”. The Petronas Team De Rooy Iveco drivers showed their backs again today in the sixth stage of the Dakar Rally. This resulted in three placings in the top ten and an extremely surprising eleventh for the fast assistance truck.

Janus van Kasteren was the fastest Dutchman for five consecutive days and the strongest driver of Team De Rooy Iveco. Today the Iveco driver in the Petronas colors had to transfer this qualification to Martin van den Brink. The driver of Team De Rooy, in the orange colors of Mammoet Rallysport, finished the last stage in the first week in fifth place. Van Kasteren was eighth and Vick Versteijnen classified tenth. Just behind the leaders of Team De Rooy, quick assistant Mitchel van den Brink showed what his skills were. The 19-year-old turned out to be the surprise of this stage, which covered 348 kilometers and started and finished in Riyadh. Van den Brink junior finished eleventh and recorded his best result ever in his second Dakar Rally as a driver.

Janus van Kasteren starts the rest day as the best classified Dutchman. The very consistently performing rally driver from Veldhoven lost a bit today and was audibly disappointed. “Soon after the start we were in the dust of Shibalov’s Kamaz, which had started in front of us. Then we made a small mistake and chose the wrong path. We then had to go back 500 meters. That was a pity and unnecessary. Unfortunately, we ended up just behind Ales Loprais.”

And the latter caused the necessary irritation for Janus, navigator Marcel Snijders and mechanic Darek Rodewald. “Yes, quite. We did everything we could to pass him. Despite all the sentinels, he wouldn’t let us pass. He ignored our signal and that was frustrating.”

With that, a new setback for Van Kasteren presented itself. “We then had a flat tire. It was not going well today,” said Janus, who finished eighth at 12.47 minutes. “Well, it’s a rest day now and we’ll see what happens in the second week. We can be satisfied with the result after the first week.” Van Kasteren and his men are in a very creditable fourth place in the standings. The gap to leader Sotnikov is 1 hour 4 minutes and 54 seconds. Number five, the aforementioned Ales Loprais, is only 1.26 minutes behind the team of Janus van Kasteren.

Vick Versteijnen was the third Iveco man in the top ten on behalf of Petronas Team De Rooy Iveco. “It was a pretty tough special. In the beginning there were quite some dangerous tracks where you can easily write off a truck.”

Despite the satisfaction just after the special, Vick looked back on today’s stage with mixed feelings. “My biggest problem was that I was troubled by the so-called HANS system. The safety system was too tight around my neck. That made driving a bit more difficult. Other than that, we are satisfied and have not had a flat tire or other problems.”

In the last part of the special, the 36-year-old entrepreneur from Hilvarenbeek was able to enjoy it all in the old-fashioned way again. “We drove through a series of beautiful dunes. I think we had one of the highest dunes in this rally. We really flew through it together,” Vick referred to the perfect collaboration with navigator Teun van Dal and mechanic Randy Smits. “Without the problem with HANS, we could have driven a little more relaxed. But tenth place is really nice. We are very satisfied and are now going to enjoy the rest day,” Versteijnen concludes. “I can do with the rest day. I now feel that I have not trained for the rally. But now we can relax for a while and then we’ll go for it again after the rest day.”

Martin van den Brink has underlined his growing form in the Dakar Rally today with a fifth place in the sixth stage. De Harskamper is seventh in the standings. The 51-year-old ‘pilot’ arrived satisfied at the finish of the last stage before the ‘day off’. The rally special in the Riyadh area was again varied. “Very fast, but also technical and beautiful dunes in the last 40 kilometers,” says a delighted Van den Brink.

However, the team can still expect a time penalty. “We drove too fast in the so-called speed zone. In that area you are not allowed to go faster than a certain speed. We had just overtaken someone and were too late to prevent that.” As a result of the penalty of (probably) 6 minutes, Van den Brink had to give up the place of best Dutchman to Gert Huzink. The Renault driver finished 4 minutes and 8 seconds behind him.

The day victory was, just like Thursday, for the Russian Andrey Karginov. Classification leader, Kamaz teammate Dmitry Sotnikov, came in second and the third Kamaz in the top three was driven by Nikolaev. Ales Loprais was fourth.

The rally drivers have a rest day tomorrow. Martin van den Brink is looking forward to Saturday with a good feeling. “We are very satisfied after this first week. Today we drove fiercely and aggressively and we hope to continue that next week.”

The experienced Harskamper successfully rattled the gates of the strong Kamaz drivers. After 348 kilometers on speed, the Iveco driver had to give in to the Russian winner with 5.35 minutes.

In the general classification, Martin and his companions Peter Willemsen and Bernard der Children are seventh (on 1h57h12s).

Mitchel van den Brink can also take a rest with a satisfied feeling. The 19-year-old Harskamper finished eleventh today. The fast assistant of Petronas Team De Rooy Iveco thus achieved his best result ever in the Dakar Rally. Yesterday Van den Brink Jr., navigator Richard Mouw and mechanic Bert van Donkelaar had also performed excellently. The fast assistants then finished thirteenth.

Mitchel van den Brink’s Iveco is about 750 kilos heavier than that of his teammates. The ‘helper’ of the men of Team De Rooy also has less power on board the Iveco Powerstar. In his second Dakar Rally as a driver, a day ranking in tenth place seems a matter of time. “We are really very satisfied with this classification. The last part of the special was really beautiful. The first part was fast. Then followed a part with long straights. We came across Igor Bouwens and that took some time before we passed him. After that we drove at our own pace and especially in the dunes we were fast. It went great. The three of us worked together as one.”

Mitchel was delighted with the Iveco truck. “The service guys have put other springs under the cab. We now have much better cabine suspension. We can go through the holes much faster and the car suffers significantly less. We have not taken any risks. We are the quick assistance and we have to be there for the three leaders. Despite that, the pace was good. Tonight the mechanics can start the big check of the truck. We are going to inspect and replace the required parts in order to start the second week with a fresh truck. I’m looking forward to it.”

The second week in the 44th Dakar Rally starts on Sunday. With fresh courage, the remaining participants can start the seventh leg from Riyadh to Al Dawadimi. The total length of the special is 700 kilometers. The special is at a high pace and about 402 kilometers long.