Yesterday’s 459 km stage from Calama to Iquique saw defending and 11 times champion Stephane Peterhansel add to his 2014 Dakar tally (a record 64th career stage victory) and reduce the damage to overall leader Nani Roma to just 12 minutes. South African Giniel De Villiers lost his third place overall standing to Argentinian Orlando Terranova.
Peterhansel’s third stage win of this year’s 35th edition of the Dakar came despite a difficult route in the dunes, and a strong challenge from perhaps the most gifted dune driver in the field – Qatari Nasser Al- Attiyah, who started out first yesterday and could not push as hard as he usually would.
“We attacked full throttle and tried to follow Nasser. We could see his dust all day, but I was never able to catch him. For sure, I am in a good position because I have no pressure because I am not the leader. Now I’m trying to drive as fast as possible. I’m taking real pleasure in it now, because I have nothing to lose. At the end I’m second and it’s not my goal to finish second. So I will push and we will see what happens,” the Frenchman said afterward.
SA’s title contender De Villiers dropped out of the top three when he experienced navigational issues and his Imperial Toyota Hilux suffered two punctures, while rival for third overall Orlando Terranova only had to stop for one puncture. Because of Al-Attiyah’s efforts, he now shares fifth overall with De Villiers.
One of the biggest losers on the day was Spaniard Carlos Sainz. His SMG Buggy broke a suspension arm after 194 km and eventually finished the stage two hours behind Peterhansel. Argentinian Lucio Alvarez also had rotten luck in the SA-built Ford Racing Ranger, when he got stuck looking for a waypoint just 20 km from the finish after being on course for a top 10 finish – dropping them to 22nd.
“After 230 km, before we reached the dunes, I heard a noise from the front of the car, which I thought might be the driveshaft. We eased our pace a little because if we had broken a driveshaft there would have been no chance to cross the dunes in only two-wheel drive. We went okay through the sand until we missed a waypoint. We drove around to find it but when we tried to return to our road we became stuck and stayed there for 40 minutes,” Alvarez said.
OVERALL STANDINGS
CAR RANKINGS
1. Roma #304 (Mini All4) = 34 hours 15 minutes 37 seconds
2. Peterhansel #300 (Mini All4) + 12 minutes 10 seconds
3. Terranova #307 (Mini All4) + 54 minutes 33 seconds
5. Al-Attiyah #301 (Mini All4) + 59 minutes 46 seconds
5. De Villiers #302 (Toyota Hilux) + 59 minutes 46 seconds
24. Rundle #404 (Toyota Hilux) + 9 hours 48 minutes 12 seconds
32. Poulter #323 (Toyota Hilux) + 14 hours 28 minutes 40 seconds
34 Alvarez #308 (Ford Ranger) + 14 hours 41 minutes 3 seconds
BIKE RANKINGS
1. Coma #2 (KTM) = 36 hours 55 minutes 07 seconds
2. Barreda #3 (Honda) + 55 minutes 36 seconds
3. Viladoms #4 (KTM) + 1 hour 54 minutes 2 seconds
4. Israel Esquerre #38 (Speedbrain) + 2 hours 7 minutes 23 seconds
5. Pain #6 (Yamaha) + 2 hours 16 minutes 27 seconds
13. Van Niekerk #30 (KTM) + 4 hours 17 minutes 48 seconds
30. Cummings #59 (KTM) + 8 hours 35 minutes 37 seconds
QUAD RANKINGS
1. Casale #251 (Yamaha) = 45 hours 50 minutes 48 seconds
2. Lafuente #256 (Yamaha) + 22 minutes 39 seconds
3. Sonik #252 (Yamaha) + 46 minutes 28 seconds
4. Husseini #255 (Honda) + 3 hours 7 minutes 51 seconds
5. Abu-Issa #263 (Honda) + 7 hours 8 minutes 24 seconds
TRUCK RANKINGS
1. De Rooy #501 (Iveco) = 36 hours 37 minutes 45 seconds
2. Karginov #506 (Kamaz) + 13 minutes 28 seconds
3. Nikolaev #500 (Kamaz) + 1 hour 21 minutes 41 seconds
4. Sotnikov #549 (Kamaz) + 1 hour 33 minutes 7 seconds
5. Loprais #504 (Tatra) + 2 hours 9 minutes 25 seconds
