Stephane Peterhansel took a third stage yesterday and his 54th in Dakar as he and co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret charged their BMW X3 CC into the Pacific coast town of Copiapo 45 seconds ahead of current race leaders, Volkwagen’s Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz.
After Friday’s gruelling 600 km timed special, in which Peterhansel and Cottret finished second behind Sainz’s VW teammates Nasser Al-Attiyah and Timo Gottschalk, the competitors had a rest day on Saturday, before starting the race out of the Atacama desert yesterday.
“It was tough today, with stones in parts where you had to drive carefully to avoid punctures. It required a lot of navigation too, difficult navigation as well. We also found the dunes at the end tricky to get past, especially since we didn’t stop to let the tires down a bit. Since we had high tire pressure for the stones, we had to cross the dunes with 3 kilos, which isn’t simple,” Peterhansel said.
While the nine times Dakar champion (six on motorcycles and three in a car) has admitted that the battle for the overall lead is still too far away for the French duo to compete in, they doing their utmost to get back in it.
“We know that the Volkswagens are the quickest. Between Nasser (Al-Attiyah) and Carlos (Sainz) it’s a real battle for 1st place. We can’t have a say in that fight because we’re still too far behind. But we keep on picking up the specials and trying our best,” Peterhansel continued.
Sainz and Cruz retain their lead in the overall standings, followed by the Race Touaregs of Al-Attiyah/Gottschalk and Miller/Pitchford, 14m 35s and 22m 28s behind their front running teammates respectively – maintaining the Volkswagen 1-2-3 stranglehold thus far.
I’m very pleased, because the hardest stages are behind us now. I’ve never seen a special with so many stones, they were everywhere. There was an incredible amount of people over the last 15 to 20 km. Loads of spectators and cars which helped in the end, because it showed us which was the right direction,” Sainz said.
Defending Dakar champions Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz in the remaining Touareg came close to their second stage victory yesterday, leading most of the 472 km special until two punctures in the last seven km laid rest to their hopes of another stage win as they settled for fourth. Overall they are now 4 h 34m 49s adrift of Sainz and Cruz.
“We know that we cannot win as we are too far behind now. We are aiming to finish in the top 5, and plan to support the team as much as we can. We are carrying a lot of spares for our team mates and have essentially become the quick assistance team. We are going to do our best to ensure a VW 1-2-3 podium finish,” de Villiers admitted.
Today’s 338 km special is the last out in the Atacama, and very technical, as the competitors also say goodbye to the Pacific coastline before heading inland toward Santiago and the Andes on Wednesday.
