Merzouga Rally – Stage Five
Helder Rodrigues has won stage five of the Merzouga Rally, Sam Sunderland still leads with final day remaining
Team HRC continue to dominate the Merzouga Rally 2013 with three stage wins out of five with Helder Rodrigues winning his second stage of the rally.
Teammate and race leader Sam Sunderland finished just over two minutes behind Rodrigues to take second.
After a night spent in the bivouac in the desert without assistance, the competitors tackled the fifth stage that was characterized by several off-tracks and dunes crossings. After CP2, the second part of the stage was in a sandy and flat area with fast tracks.
“It was a lovely stage with a lot of navigation,” told Rodrigues. “Sam opened the stage with a lot of dunes in the first part, where he rode really hard. In the second part I pushed and was up with him until the end.
“It was great fun. There were some parts of navigation and others of handling, but we had a good time together. I’m second in the overall standings and Sam is first. It’s good for me, for Sam and especially for the team.”
Recording his best finish of the rally – despite the event being his first taste of rally raid – Ireland’s Gordon Clarke (TM) was 15th and just ten minutes outside of a top ten result.
Provisional Biker Classification SS5
1 RODRIGUES Hélder 3:47:36
2 SUNDERLAND Sam 3:49:42
3 PAIN Olivier 3:51:38
4 VERHOEVEN Frans 3:52:02
5 VILADOMS Jordi 3:54:52
6 AZINHAIS Alexandre 3:56:42
7 KNUIMAN Henk 4:04:37
8 BIANCHI PRATA Pedro 4:11:04
9 GIMENO Antonio 4:11:56
10 BUSQUETS Alex 4:36:55
11 MANCINI Andrea 4:37:58
12 GUASCH Marc 4:39:58
13 ZACCHETTI Cesare 4:44:53
14 OLIVEIRA Victor 4:46:23
15 CLARKE Gordon 4:47:14