With the first half of the Argentina-Chile Dakar now last week’s news, teams are counting the stages to the final and keenly monitoring the top positions as the leaders try to separate themselves from the chasing pack. This is no more evident than in camp Volkswagen, with the only real threat posed from a lone BMW lingering in third overall.
The first seven stages were pretty much a power struggle within Volkswagen Motorsport for top spot during the week. Despite the charge by Nasser Al-Attiyah, the earlier special stages favoured former WRC champion Carlos Sainz’s style of driving. Dakar legend Stephane Peterhansel’s been hanging in the wings with his BMW X3 and took a stage victory for the Monster X-raid team on Thursday – reminding all that he remains just slightly behind the top two VWs.
Unfortunately for Peterhansel, the Volkswagen team strategy is paying dividends, with a 1-2-3-4 whitewash on Friday’s sixth stage, and following a brief period of rest on Saturday, Al-Attiyah led the VW team to a 1-2-3 yesterday.
“We had a very difficult stage. We quickly joined Carlos Sainz but it was impossible to overtake him because of the dust. We decided not to take any chances and stayed in his tail. From now on, I really have to attack. In order to avoid flat tires, we have to avoid sliding sideways too much. Last year, I had 6 flat tires. This year, I really focused on my driving to avoid flats and stay on course as much as possible.”
Sainz was second, a minute and 20 seconds behind Al-Attiyah, with South African Giniel De Villiers taking the final podium spot, and retaining fourth overall. “The navigation today was particularly difficult in the dunes, but my co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz and I made almost no mistakes. There were bikes travelling in all directions, which was quite confusing, but you have to trust your own navigation and follow the road book precisely.
In the truck category, Czech contender Ales Loprais has managed to sneak into second overall, upsetting the private party Kamaz giants Vladimir Chagin and Firdaus Kabirov have been enjoying, with two consecutive wins. Kabirov still leads, with six-time winner Chagin chasing after a seventh title in third overall. With a quarter of an hour more or less separating the top three, the racing is sure to intensify within the next two stages…
Today the stage between Antofagasta and Copiapo is 508 km long, and heads south – into deep sand and camel grass and mountainous dunes, that promises to be one of the most challenging stages of this year’s Dakar.
