Uyuni (Bolivia), Jan 14 (PTI) Oriol Mena finished thestage seven of Dakar Rally in the 17 position to break intotop-20 while his Hero MotoSports Team Rally team-mate CSSantosh finished 39th for an overall ranking of 40.
After a rest day at La Paz, the Dakar Rally went on theroad again with the first Marathon stage kicking off from LaPaz to Uyuni. A change in software was required for the ridersas the landscape changed from sandy dunes to lot of off-piste,river beds and harder ground and the stages become longer andfaster from here on.
Both Mena and Santosh tackled the stage with a steadyhead and arrived at the Uyuni bivouac safely, though deprivedof any assistance from the team for the overnight halt as perthe regulations of the marathon stage.
Stage 8 will see the rally move through to Tupiza for thesecond leg of the marathon stage, which will test the riderswith the longest special stage of the rally, covering nearly500 kms, including a high altitude dune crossing.
Tupiza will be the last halt for the rally in Boliviabefore changing the borders again and crossing over toArgentina. PTI ATAT.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.