Yesterday’s second stage was the first real test of this year’s Dakar, giving competitors a taste of what is yet to come in the following two weeks. Defending champion Stephane Peterhansel was triumphant at the end of 242 km of sand tracks and dunes, with South African Giniel de Villiers not far behind.
Frenchmen Peterhansel and co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret were the most consistent in a field that was plagued by navigational errors and claimed the lead with their Monster X-Raid Mini at the end of the Pisco-Pisco loop in Peru, clocking in a stage total of 2 hours 35 min 38 seconds.
“We had a good stage, mainly thanks to navigation. We’re fast, and we’ve got the potential to go even faster, but it was mostly Jean-Paul’s navigation which saved the day, nothing else,” 10-time champion Peterhansel admitted.
De Villiers and co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz were second in their Imperial Toyota Hilux, 2 mins 35 seconds behind the leaders, with Ronan Chabot and Gilles Pillot’s SMG, Orlando Terranova and Paulo Fiuza’s X-Raid BMW X3 CC, and Leonid Novitsky and Konstantin Zhiltsov’s Monster X-Raid Mini making up the top five.
“The special was tougher than we thought, especially in a certain place where navigating was really tricky and the sun didn’t let us see the top of the dunes. So I didn’t go very fast in the first part of the special, but then things got better. At any rate, I’m happy because the car works well and we didn’t have any problems, which is a good sign for the next few days, which should be extremely difficult,” de Villiers said.
The biggest loser was of course Carlos Sainz and Timo Gottschalk, who got off to a good start by winning the first stage. The Spaniard and his German co-driver fell foul to plenty of GPS gremlins, like many others, but which cost their Red Bull Qatar Team buggy the lead. Argentinians Lucio Alvarez and Bernado Graue dropped from second overall in their Overdrive Toyota Hilux overall due to mapwork as well as Frenchmen Guerlain Chicherit and Jean-Pierre Garcin, who fell out of the top ten completely. Americans Robby Gordon and Kellon Walch haven’t been having a great time on the first two stages, and are now is excess of 50 minutes off the lead.
Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah summed up the unpredictability of the event perfectly. “We went through a waypoint and nothing happened, so we continued to look around for a while and all of a sudden it was validated, not only for us but also for all the drivers behind us, who lost far less time. Of course, I’m happy with the car’s performance and speed, but I’m obviously upset we lost time like this. Anyway, our two cars are in the running and, you never know, tomorrow it may be someone else’s turn to have these problems.”
South Africans Duncan Vos and Rob Howie’s Imperial Hilux is five minutes outside of the top ten overall and 27 minutes 45 seconds off Peterhansel’s lead. Compatriot Darryl Curtis performed well in the bike category, finishing stage 2 in sixth overall with his KTM, 7 minutes 49 seconds off the pace with countrymen Riaan van Niekerk 38th and 22 minutes off the pace, and Brett Cummings 75th and 45 minutes off the bike lead. In the quad category, Sarel van Biljon has also been doing well in eighth overall, 27 minutes off the lead.
A half-hour Dakar highlights package will be screened on SuperSport2 (DStv channel 202) at 22:00 every day, with five repeats the following day, from January 5.