Yesterday’s 10th Dakar stage, from Iquique to Antofagasta, which included two timed sections, saw defending champion Stephane Peterhansel claw his way closer to the overall leader, Nani Roma, while their team mate Orlando Terranova lost time – allowing Nasser Al-Attiyah and Giniel De Villiers to move into third and fourth overall respectively.
Peterhansel’s pace has allowed him to come within two minutes of Roma, but it was Qatari Al-Attiyah who capitalized on the 11-time Dakar winner’s tracks to move out of fifth overall – especially when Orlando Terranova got lost on the first timed section.
“We’ve only got one option left, going on the attack. We’ve still got three days to go and we’re rather happy. It was a fun stage. We drove very fast with Stéphane, and we stayed together most of the day. I tried to win today, in part because the gap between me and Terranova had shrunk and things were still open. At any rate, the race still has challenges in store for me, it’s not over yet,” Al-Attiyah said afterward.
South African Giniel de Villiers also managed to take advantage of Terranova’s mistake, finishing the stage five minutes ahead of the Argentinian and is now one step closer to the podium in fourth overall – but his lead on the X-Raid Mini in the rankings is just 20 seconds.
Fellow South African Thomas Rundle is moving up the order, and recovered from a steering issue on his 2013-specification Hilux on Tuesday to finish yesterday’s stage in 21st position, moving him up to 22nd overall.
“It was a tough stage with fast tracks, some fesh-fesh – the very fine dust that gets into everything and makes visibility difficult when following another car – and more dunes. The dunes are difficult, with navigation a big challenge and the danger of bogging down in the sand always there. The finish at Valparaiso on Saturday is not far away and we aim to be here,” Rundle stated.
Lucio Alvarez in the SA-built Ford Racing Ranger has also been improving. He finished the stage with the 9th fastest time – 43 minutes behind Al-Attiyah.
“We passed a lot of cars who started ahead of us but it wasn’t hard getting by because they were all stuck. I don’t think I passed a moving car all day, but I went by many drivers who were trying to dig their cars out of the sand. I only had to pass motorcycles and quads and that’s easier than trying to overtake cars,” the Argentinian admitted.
Unfortunately, the race is now over for Spaniard Carlos Sainz. The former WRC champion’s hopes of a second Dakar title (he won in 2010) ended when he crashed out of the event yesterday.
OVERALL STANDINGS
CAR RANKINGS
1. Roma #304 (Mini All4) = 38 hours 52 minutes 57 seconds
2. Peterhansel #300 (Mini All4) + 2 minutes 15 seconds
3. Al-Attiyah #301 (Mini All4) + 46 minutes 1 second
4. De Villiers #302 (Toyota Hilux) + 1 hour 14 minutes 16 seconds
5. Terranova #307 (Mini All4) + 1 hour 14 minutes 36 seconds
22. Rundle #404 (Toyota Hilux) + 11 hours 27 minutes 31 seconds
28. Alvarez #308 (Ford Ranger) + 15 hours 10 minutes 19 seconds
BIKE RANKINGS
1. Coma #2 (KTM) = 41 hours 48 minutes 33 seconds
2. Barreda #3 (Honda) + 44 minutes 24 seconds
3. Viladoms #4 (KTM) + 2 hours 2 minutes 3 seconds
4. Pain #6 (Yamaha) + 2 hours 16 minutes 12 seconds
5. Rodrigues #7 (Honda) + 2 hours 21 minutes 12 seconds
12. Van Niekerk #30 (KTM) + 4 hours 29 minutes 51 seconds
31. Cummings #59 (KTM) + 9 hours 31 minutes 23 seconds
QUAD RANKINGS
1. Casale #251 (Yamaha) = 51 hours 54 minutes 19 seconds
2. Lafuente #256 (Yamaha) + 24 minutes 36 seconds
3. Sonik #252 (Yamaha) + 1 hour 15 minutes 5 seconds
4. Husseini #255 (Honda) + 4 hours 58 minutes 9 seconds
5. Abu-Issa #263 (Honda) + 9 hours 31 minutes 14 seconds
TRUCK RANKINGS
1. De Rooy #501 (Iveco) = 41 hours 54 minutes 50 seconds
2. Karginov #506 (Kamaz) + 7 minutes 55 seconds
3. Nikolaev #500 (Kamaz) + 1 hour 29 minutes 28 seconds
4. Loprais #504 (Tatra) + 2 hours 3 minutes 15 seconds
5. Sotnikov #549 (Kamaz) + 2 hours 47 minutes 48 seconds
