CARS news from Stage 10 - updated 15.01.2013: Dakar 2013 Stage 10 January 15th, 2013 1st start (GMT-3) : 7:45 AM 2013 - Argentina/Chile -

Dakar 2013  Stage 10 January 15th, 2013
1st start (GMT-3) : 7:45 AM
2013 - Argentina/Chile -

15:52 - car
302 - Peterhansel strengthens his position in the general

Stéphane Peterhansel leads the general standings by 52'38" from Giniel de Villiers and can approach the stage between La Rioja and Fiambala tomorrow with a certain amount of confidence.


The third placed driver, Russian Leonid Novitskiy has lost 1:08'40" to his team leader since the start of the Dakar 2013, whereas 1:34'04" have been lost due to misfortunes for Nani Roma.


The Spaniard leads todays winner, Orlando Terranova (1:58'49" behind Peterhansel) and Portugal's Carlos Sousa (2h35'00" behind the general standings leader).




15:38 - car
Behind the top 5 finishers

Lucio Alvarez and his Toyota Hilux are in sixth place, 8'43" behind the winner, but ahead of Boris Gadasin (13'37" behind the winner) and Vladimir Vasilyev (13'57" behind the winner) who are both driving Protos G-Force vehicles.

Germany's Matthias Kahle (Sam-Mercedes) is ninth 14'19" behind the winner, followed by the Mini of Leonid Novitskiy, 14'56" behind the winner.

15:22 - car
Gordon and de Villiers finish in the top 5

After the trio of X-Raid drivers, Giniel de Villiers has achieved the day's fourth placed finish, 5'26" behind the winner and Robby Gordon has finished in fifth, 6'51" behind Terranova. Only the first five cars have finished, so these results are merely provisional.

14:34 - car
X-Raid hat-trick still on the cards

After 302 km, with around fifty kilometres left until the finishing line, Orlando Terranova still leads the stage in front of Nani Roma and Stéphane Peterhansel.


The gaps between the three men are very stable: 1'56" between the stage leader and the second, whilst the third is a further 1'59" behind.



14:12 - car
1-2-3 for X-Raid after 280 km

Three cars from the X-Raid team now occupy the first three positions on the special stage: the BMW X3 driven by Orlando Terranova leading Nani Roma's Mini by 1'39" and Stéphane Peterhansel's Mini by 1'59".


Giniel de Villiers is fourth, 3'39" behind Terranova and Robby Gordon is fifth, 6'04" behind the stage leader.


It remains to be seen if Lucio Alvarez will reach the 280-km point quicker than the American, like at the previous time check point.

13:01 - car
308 - Mechanical problems for Sousa?

The Portuguese driver parked his Haval Great Wall at the side of the track after 125 km and spent almost half an hour at a standstill before resuming racing just several seconds ago.

12:16 - car
De Villiers and Gordon near the front

After 100 km, Giniel de Villiers has slipped into third place 1'18'' behind the stage leader, ahead of Stéphane Peterhansel, who is followed by Robby Gordon, 2'22" behind Terranova.


12:13 - car
313 - Terranova moves ahead

At the wheel of an X-Raid team BMW X3, the Argentinean has taken the lead of the car special stage after around 100 km of the route. He currently leads the Mini driven by Nani Roma by 55 seconds and Stéphane Peterhansel by 1'44".



12:09 - car
277 - Van Biljon at a standstill

Having already had many problems yesterday, the South African has been stopped by the side of the tracks after 125 km of the special stage for the last ten minutes, for an as yet unknown reason.




11:35 - car
302 - Peterhansel takes charge after 64 km

The Frenchman has put in the best time so far, with a lead of 12 seconds over the BMW X3 driven by Argentinean Orlando Terranova and 24 seconds over his Mini team-mate Nani Roma, who lies in third place.


Giniel de Villiers, fourth 35 seconds behind Peterhansel, leads the Great Wall driven by Carlos Sousa by 2 seconds and Robby Gordon's Hummer by 43 seconds.




10:54 - car
305 - Roma starts the car special

The Spanish driver's Mini started the day's special stage at 10.43 AM local time, ahead of his team-mate and general standings leader, Stéphane Peterhansel. 253 km of special stage await the cars.



09:57 - car
After thirtieth place in the car category…

Alone on board, the former co-pilot of Stéphane Peterhansel, a genuine Dakar lover, William Alcaraz is living the dream: driving the Dakar solo. He is thirty sixth, behind the wheel of an “exotic” and tiny Polaris, when comparing it to the prototype with Corvette engine driven by Argentinean Victor Mastromatteo (38th).


But then again, the Dakar has always been a rally of contrasts… The two men are in the same group in the general standings, just like the no less McRae prototype driven by Dutchman Chris Leyds (39th) who is counting on his experience of nine participations on the Dakar to make the difference, as well as secure his place against the ambitions of Polish driver Piotr Beaupre (BMW X5) and Australian Adrian Di Lallo (Isuzu).



09:51 - car
Behind the leaders in the car category (cont.)

In twentieth place, China's Yong Zhou and his Great Wall will pull off a very fine performance if they manage to keep going to Santiago. This is also certain to be the goal of Russian Boris Gadasin who intends to put his Prototype Nissan G-Force into the much vaunted top 20 at the finish.


They are both comfortably placed, because the first Renault/Dacia Duster in the general standings, driven by Argentinean Emiliano Spataro, is more than an hour and a half behind twentieth position and will have to resist the assaults of the Nissan Navara driven by Ronald Basso, or the experience (22 participations!) of Spaniard Xavier Foj at the wheel of his Toyota Land Cruiser.



09:46 - car
Behind the leaders in the car category…

Yesterday was a day for drivers of "traditional" 4x4s, as opposed to the buggies, which are not as well-suited to the stony tracks in the region of Cordoba.


Behind eleventh placed Boris Garafulic, with co-pilot Gilles Picard in one of the Team X-Raid's Mini All4s, Geoff Olholm and his Toyota are only four minutes away, with in turn the direct threat of German Matthias Kahle in his rear-view mirror and former Polish skier Adam Malysz, who occupies a very respectable fourteenth place more than four hours behind the leader.


Moving up three places, Christian Lavieille and the Dessoude team Nissan Juke Prototype have made their entry into the top 15, whilst keeping their eye on their direct pursuers: the Toyotas driven by Lucio Alvarez and Venezuelan Nunzio Coffaro.




09:36 - car
Cars on the link stage

At 9.08 AM local time, the first car, Nani Roma's Mini, set off on the link stage towards Cosquin, near to the start of the special stage.


Behind Roma came his team-mate Stéphane Peterhansel and Orlando Terranova, among the 104 cars authorised to start.





20:24
Córdoba–La Rioja: parallel lines

All the competitors must cover the same distance, but that doesn't mean the cars and trucks race on the same course as the motorcycles and quads. Nevertheless, the challenges on their respective menus are quite similar. Today we'll alternate winding tracks and fast roads as they move from forested sectors to much more open plateaus.


A typical course for the Argentinean Rally. After 37 km on the road, they'll have to tackle a sector just over 350 km long before a 242 km link section. Seeing the many unexpected turns of events during yesterday's stage in the Car, Truck and Motorcycle categories, it goes without saying that the overall classifications are still up for grabs.


Stéphane Peterhansel's buffer grew considerably but isn't insurmountable, the KTM pilots have a wafer-thin margin, and the battle of the juggernauts is yet to be decided.




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