Day 11 Dakar 2014: Coma Wins, Extends Overall Lead

Day 11 marked the longest stage to date of the Dakar Rally, as the competitors tackled the 605km (376 miles) special stage, covering a variety of terrain, hard ground, mountains, plus 120km (75 miles) of sand and dunes in the Copiapo area. Despite this, and a fall at the beginning of the stage, Marc Coma again demonstrated his status as boss of the Dakar 2014, by picking up his third victory of the year, further reinforcing his position at the top of the general standings.

Five-time Dakar winner Cyril Depres opened the piste for 400km before dropping slightly to finish just 02:31 behind Marc Coma in first. The result keeps Despres in sixth in the standings, now 23:22 from third.

Depres’ teammate Olivier Pain was also on form, finishing the stage in third position behind Despres, 5:28 from the front. The result moves the Frenchman closer to a possible Dakar podium. Sitting in fourth in the overall standings he is now just 13:44 from third.

For his part, after falling at the beginning of the stage, Coma then attacked before catching up to Depres in the dunes. The two then finished together, handing Coma the stage victory.

As a result, in the general standings, Marc Coma increases his lead to 52:36 over Joan Barreda, who set off first this morning, but who fell after 250km of the day’s special, breaking all his navigation instruments, forcing him to finish the special stage just by the naked eye. Thanks to his third best time, Olivier Pain is now within 13:44 of the third step on the podium, which is still occupied by Jordi Viladoms. As for Cyril Despres, he continued his climb back up the general standings and now only trails fifth placed Helder Rodrigues by 43 seconds.