Stage report
Dakar Dakar
Dakar 2019, Stage 7: Sunderland fastest, Brabec leads again
Sam Sunderland bounced back from a difficult Sunday to top Stage 7 of the Dakar Rally and take second overall behind Ricky Brabec, who retook the bikes class lead.
David Gruz
Edited: Jan 15, 2019, 4:22 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
KTM rider Sunderland struggled with his rear brake in Stage 6 and was 23 minutes off the pace, but the 2017 champion dominated proceedings in the subsequent 331 timed kilometres of Monday's route, which both started and ended at San Juan de Marcona.
Honda man Brabec led in the early stages of the test - which was delayed and then suspended due to fog - but Sunderland took over at the third of six waypoints.
Chilean rider Jose Ignacio Cornejo (Honda) managed to stay close to Sunderland, finishing only 1m51s behind, but none of the title contenders were able to keep up with the Briton.
Brabec was best of the rest in third and the American reclaimed the lead from Pablo Quintanilla, the Husqvarna rider struggling throughout the day.
Yamaha's Adrien van Beveren was the last rider less than 10 minutes off the pace, followed by Luciano Benavides (KTM), Andrew Short (Husqvarna), Xavier de Soultrait (Yamaha) and Toby Price (KTM).
Price and Matthias Walkner were more or less on par with Sunderland until WP4 but then lost a big chunk of time, the duo finishing 12 and 16 behind their pace-setting teammate.
Kevin Benavides and Quintanilla were the biggest losers of the day as they surrendered 19 and 21 minutes respectively, dropping to fifth and sixth overall.
Price stepped up as Brabec's main rival with a gap of 6m55s, the Australian now closely followed by van Beveren.
Sunderland moved up to fourth while Walkner is only seventh, a single second behind Benavides.
Cavigliasso continues winning streak
Nicolas Cavigliasso took his fourth consecutive and sixth overall stage win in the quad class, and now leads by 1h15m36s.
Cavigliasso was battling for the lead with Alexandre Giroud in the first half of the stage before he pulled away, and won by 4m10s.
Giroud took second, beating the Argentinian trio of Marcos Andujar, Gustavo Gallego and Jeremias Gonzalez.
But the Frenchman, fourth overall, was only four minutes faster than them, unable to significantly change his nearly two-hour deficit to third place.
Gonzalez and Gallego continue to hold second and third overall, separated by 23 minutes.
Standings after Stage 7 (Bike class, Top 10):
Pos. Rider Bike Time/Gap 1 
Ricky Brabec Honda 24h48m02s 2 
Toby Price KTM 6m55s 3 
Adrien van Beveren Yamaha 7m47s 4 
Sam Sunderland KTM 9m58s 5 
Pablo Quintanilla Husqvarna 9m59s 6 
Kevin Benavides Honda 16m15s 7 
Matthias Walkner KTM 16m16s 8 
Stefan Svitko KTM 37m09s 9 Xavier de Soultrait Yamaha 39m08s 10 Andrew Short Husqvarna 39m17s
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Van den Heuvel talks Dakar "support role"
Next article Dakar 2019, Stage 7: Peterhansel fastest, setback for Loeb
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
David Gruz
Honda reveals 2020 World Superbike challenger
World Superbike
World Superbike
Honda reveals 2020 World Superbike challenger
Redding: Bautista cost himself 2019 WSBK crown
World Superbike
World Superbike
Redding: Bautista cost himself 2019 WSBK crown
Espargaro: Aprilia showed podium pace at Sepang
MotoGP
MotoGP
Sepang February testing
Espargaro: Aprilia showed podium pace at Sepang
More from
Sam Sunderland
Sunderland's second Dakar win "feels better than the first"
Dakar
Dakar
Dakar
Sunderland's second Dakar win "feels better than the first"
Dakar 2022: Sunderland hangs on to clinch second bikes crown
Dakar
Dakar
Dakar
Dakar 2022: Sunderland hangs on to clinch second bikes crown
Dakar 2022, Stage 11: Sunderland retakes lead ahead of final day
Dakar
Dakar
Dakar
Dakar 2022, Stage 11: Sunderland retakes lead ahead of final day
More from
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
MotoGP riders step up pressure in final bid to avoid Qatar Grand Prix
MotoGP
MotoGP
Malaysian GP
1 h
MotoGP riders step up pressure in final bid to avoid Qatar Grand Prix
Why tensions between MotoGP and riders have escalated amid Qatar row
MotoGP
MotoGP
Qatar GP
20 h
Why tensions between MotoGP and riders have escalated amid Qatar row
Latest news
MotoGP Malaysian GP: Marc Marquez takes dominant win to inch closer to title
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
25 min
MotoGP Malaysian GP: Marc Marquez takes dominant win to inch closer to title
MotoGP riders step up pressure in final bid to avoid Qatar Grand Prix
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
1 h
MotoGP riders step up pressure in final bid to avoid Qatar Grand Prix
Live: MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix as it happens
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
1 h
Live: MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix as it happens
Carson Kvapil gets Rodney Childers a clock and the O'Reilly Chase is wide open now
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Martinsville II
3 h
Carson Kvapil gets Rodney Childers a clock and the O'Reilly Chase is wide open now
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe