“I’m very satisfied about today’s stage and very happy with my second victory," said Biasion afterwards. "We didn’t make any navigational mistake and technically everything went perfect. Although I’m not going for the standings anymore, I hope I can help Team de Rooy to have a few Iveco’s on the highest steps of the stand. We were quite fast at Loprais’ accident; they indicated that the helicopter was on its way and several people were with them so I couldn’t do very much”.

"It went very well today," commented Hans Stacey in the #505 Team De Rooy Iveco. "Despite we made two times a small navigational mistake and also had to drive in the dust of a Kamaz for quite some kilometres, we are satisfied. We won again, a few minutes on Ardavichus, so now we have to keep a level head. Dakar is not only pushing the gas pedal but also good thinking. We also stopped when we saw the accident of Loprais but so many people were up and at it that we could continue quite fast."

"We had some problems during the first part [of the stage] and two reaction arms of the front axle were crooked, so we had to slow down the last 90 kilometres," said rally leader, #502 Gerard De Rooy. "It’s no problem to repair it so I leave it up to Hugo to take care that we have a tip-top truck at the start tomorrow."

From the very first minute of SS9 and onwards there was a real battle between the Iveco trucks of Team De Rooy and Loprais’ Tatra. The young Czech driver was making a determined last stand against the Iveco ranks and at the first time check Biasion went through with exactly the same time as Loprais, with Gerard De Rooy two seconds behind. De Rooy then took over the lead and, in the run to the final time check, Loprais crashed out.

When it shook out at the finish line, Biasion took tthe flag in first place, 20 seconds ahead of Stacey, with Gerard third (+54 seconds). Artur Ardavichus (Kamaz) was the first non Iveco interloper, in fourth place before the first of the Team De Rooy fast assistance truck, that of Pep Villa (+20.19) came home fifth to make it four Ivecos in the top five. Jo Ardua in the second service truck was seventh - and that made it an impressive five Ivecos in the top seven finishing spots on the stage.

That result gives Gerard De Rooy some more breathing space at the front, the Dutchman is now 47.32 minutes ahead of team mate Stacey, but significantly the leading Kamaz driver, Ardavichus, is in third place but more than an hour behind the leader (+1:06.40). Vila is now in a hugely impressive fourth place overall (+02:25.30) and twelve minutes ahead of fifth placed Andrey Karginov (Kamaz). Adua is seventh in the second assistance Iveco (+03:39.16) and sixteen minutes behind sixth placed Ilgizar Mardeev (Kamaz assistance).

Today's stage is a total drive of 694 kilometres (timed plus coonnection) that will bring the competitors from Iquique to Arica. This will also be the last finish line in Chile. The timed special stage section will be 377 kilometres. The trucks will start at around 9 a.m. and yesterday's winner Biasion will lead them away.