Russia’s Vladimir Vasilyev and Konstantin Zhiltsov commanded yesterday’s 697 km long route from Copiapo to Antofagasta from the very beginning to take their maiden Dakar stage victory. The Mini All4 duo finished just 20 seconds ahead of Dakar debutant Yazeed Alrajhi and 2011 champion co-driver Timo Gottschalk.
The Russian pair shocked the field by blasting flat-out through the first section of the 458 km timed section, managing to open up six minutes on Alrajhi, and chose to play it safe and protect their lead. The Saudi put in a mammoth effort in his Overdrive Toyota Hilux to chase them down though.
“I think I can push more and take more risks. It’s the first year for me with no experience. All the guys here have done the Dakar a lot of times with lots of tests. They live with the car. For me, this is a new car and it was the first time I drove it on the first stage. We got a good result. All this is alien to me, I’ve never seen it before. I think I can do better, but we’ll see what’s going on and when we can push more. I hope that I’m one of the main actors in the race and that we win the Dakar soon,” Alrajhi said.
American Robby Gordon returned to form on yesterday’s stage, bringing his Gordini Buggy to within 1 minute 25 seconds of Vasilyev. Overall leader Nasser Al-Attiyah finished fourth, 3 minutes 24 seconds in arrears, with Stephane Peterhansel in fifth – a further 40 seconds behind.
“It was not an easy stage, you know. We drove all the way until the last 10 km with a flat tyre, so we decided to change the wheels. I don’t know if we went slowly from the beginning, but the stage was really hard, not easy, with a lot of fesh-fesh. I’m quite happy to finish the stage with just one puncture and without any trouble with the car,” Al-Attiyah said.
South Africa’s Giniel de Villiers, who finished sixth, retains a comfortable second, but compatriot teammates Leeroy Poulter and Rob Howie had another forgettable stage in the Imperial Toyota Hilux, losing another hour to the front-runner due to an electrical fault.
“We started strong, and were 11th fastest past the first two checkpoints. But then the engine suddenly cut out, and we spent nearly an hour hunting for the problem. In the end it was an easy fix, and we were back up to race pace immediately,” Poulter said.
