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Stage 12

Arequipa > Nasca

Route

January 13th: ‘Robby Gordon likes Nasca‘ – Carlton Kirby, Eurosport. The rally reconverges as one after a long road section, before a special through the sand dunes. The stage had to start further along the course than planned due to flooding.

Magazine (2min):

Something comparing the rally raid MINI against a roadgoing version.

Stage 12 Summary:

Comeback kid.

Standings

Today – Bikes

1. Coma (KTM)
2. Barreda Bort (Husqvarna) +2m43s
3. Viladoms (KTM) +3m10s
4. Despres (KTM) +3m57s
5. Goncalves (Husqvarna) +5m25s

Overall – Bikes

1. Coma (KTM)
2. Despres (KTM) +1m35s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +1h13m49s
4. Viladoms (KTM) +1h40m34s
5. Svitko (KTM) +1h41m45s

Coma takes the lead! With just a couple of stages to go this bike rally could still go either way. Viladoms retakes his 4th place back from Svitko.

Today – Cars

1. Gordon (Hummer)
2. Novitsky (MINI) +15m18s
3. De Villiers (Toyota) +22m06s
4. Ten Brinke (Mistubishi) +23m15s
5. Roma (MINI) +23m38s

Several of the MINIs got stuck in the sand for a while today. Peterhansel came home 7th at +26m27s. It was an impressive performance from Gordon to both miss the worst of the sand and also put in a fast drive, Novitsky didn’t get stuck but finished quarter of an hour behind.

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Roma (MINI) +20m00s
3. De Villiers (Toyota) +1h06m40s
4. Gordon (Hummer) +1h44m04s
5. Novitsky (MINI) 2h00m01s

This rally is still Peterhansel’s to lose, but if he does the impressive Roma is waiting to take over. De Villiers is doing well in a first-year programme car. Gordon not only got inside the 2-hour mark again but took another quarter of an hour. He’s out of time though, there are only two stages left – only one ‘real’ one.

Stage 11

Arica > Arequipa

Route

January 12th: The rally’s first ever day in Peru. Today is split into two stages separated by a road section, the quirk here is that the second section diverges with the bikes and quads doing extra mileage to their own bivouac, with no assistance vehicles allowed! The riders will have to rely on each other. The bikers were actually due to do more of their own stage mileage but were sent the car route after some dry river beds become a bit less dry.
The cars and trucks follow a similar route for much of the way before heading into the town of Arequipa for the night, where they’ll have access to the usual facilities.

Magazine (3min):

Cyril Despres tells us how to ride in the Dakar.. I can’t imagine doing that for 400km on dirt and sand.

Stage 11 Summary:

Navigational errors for the bikes, and problems too for Robby Gordon despite leading early on.

Standings

Today – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Farres Guell (KTM) +1m39s
3. Coma (KTM) +2m01s
4. Aubert (KTM) +3m30s
5. Barreda Bort (Husqvarna) +4m53s

Overall – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +2m22s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +1h08m40s
4. Svitko (KTM) +1h34m56s
5. Viladoms (KTM) +1h39m46s

Rodrigues and Viladoms took an engine change penalty of 15 minutes. Svitko is up to 4th but is the only one of the top 12 not to have incurred a penalty so far.

Today – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Roma (MINI) +3m44s
3. Leal Dos Santos (MINI) +8m56s
4. De Villiers (Toyota) +9m28s
5. Novitsky (MINI) +10m15s

Robby Gordon lost 1h50m40s with technical problems which he stopped to try and fix.

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Roma (MINI) +22m49s
3. De Villiers (Toyota) +1h11m01s
4. Gordon (Hummer) +2h10m31s
5. Novitsky (MINI) 2h11m10s

Gordon’s loss promotes de Villiers to 3rd, but Robby was lucky not to drop further than 4th thanks to some big time gaps in the top five, but it goes to show that even with these gaps it is important to keep your vehicle running and get to the end. In 6th is Alvarez at +3h53m51s, these stages are really biting now.

Stage 10

Iquique > Arica

Route

January 11th: A loop to the South before heading back on the trail North. A variation of surfaces and a few dunes are the order of the day, before a road section to Arica near the Peruvian border.

Magazine (2min):

Stuck in the mud. Give us a tow.

Stage 10 Summary:

Drama for Gordon as the officials find an illegal part, but he’s allowed to continue under appeal as he says it is legal, he checked it with them beforehand and he’s run it on every Dakar he’s contested so far. A bigger disaster for Holowczyc – he lost 5 hours today!

Standings

Today – Bikes

1. Barreda Bort (Husqvar)
2. Coma (KTM) +1m32s
3. Despres (KTM) +3m39s
4. Viladoms (KTM) +8m48s
5. Svitko (KTM) +9m44s

Overall – Bikes

1. Despres (KTM)
2. Coma (KTM) +21s
3. Rodrigues (Yamaha) +45m56s
4. Viladoms (KTM) +1h18m52s
5. Svitko (KTM) +1h24m38s

Coma pulled back 2 minutes today and is now just 21 seconds behind! Amazing considering the distance travelled each day: today’s stage took over 4 hours.

Today – Cars

1. Roma (MINI)
2. Peterhansel (MINI) +21s
3. De Villiers (Toyota) +7m44s
4. Gordon (Hummer) +14m14s
5. Ten Brinke (Mitsubishi) +29m47s

Overall – Cars

1. Peterhansel (MINI)
2. Roma (MINI) +19m05s
3. Gordon (Hummer) +19m51s
4. De Villiers (Toyota) +1h01m133s
5. Novitsky (MINI) 2h00m55s

Roma jumps Gordon for 2nd. Holoqczyc drops from 3rd to 13th, and he’s lucky so many others had dropped back or incurred penalties – if this had been a race with 2 or 3 official manufacturers he might’ve been much further down the list. This promotes Novitsky to 5th despite being two hours down, I think from the daily shows I’ve watched that he’s running as MINI’s ‘fast assistance vehicle’ so has to stop to help whenever the other MINI’s run into trouble.

Trucks: de Rooy’s lead is now an hour over his team mate Stacey.