VOLKSWAGEN CLEAN SWEEPS PODIUM ON STAGE 12
2010-01-15 15:09:38 Author: admin Source:
The 12th stage of the Dakar Rally 2010 between San Juan - San Rafael in Argentina featured a 130km tarmac neutralized section through a listed natural heritage site between 204km and 334km and a total competitive distance of 346km.
Fifty-nine cars started the section in soaring temperatures, but at the end of stage, VW's overall leader Carlos Sainz emerged the victor with team mates Nasser Al Attiyah and Mark Miller completing the podium for a Volkswagen clean sweep. All three Race Touareg were more than ten minutes faster than their closest rivals in the process and continue to hold a commanding lead in the overall standings.
In the overall ranks, Al Attiyah was trailing Sainz by 4’28’’ before they got down to business in this stage. But, after the stage's completion, he now trails Sainz by an extended margin of 5'20" with the final two stages to decide the overall Dakar victor.
Sainz started the race some way behind his team mate and title rival, so the Spaniard had to go out and conquer, and he did so, overtaking in particular Robby Gordon. Meanwhile, Al Attiyah had come across his former team-mate Guerlain Chicherit, who had ground to a halt after breaking the transmission on his BMW X3. The Qatari, who also overtook Orlando Terranova, was therefore forced into opening the road by the circumstances of the race.
At the half-way point, the statistics were in Sainz’s favour, since he had put in the best intermediate time, with a lead of 2’03’’ over Stephane Peterhansel (above) and more importantly 4’19’’ over Al Attiyah. However, on the second section of the special, Al Attiyah picked up the pace to get closer to the leading Race Touareg 2, but would only come in second best at the finish, 52’’ behind the winner. Sainz and co driver Lucas Cruz, therefore, celebrated their second stage win, the sixth for a Race Touareg this year.
Team X-raid GmbH’s Peterhansel lost a few crucial minutes on the closing kilometres and secured only the fourth fastest time on stage 12, while team mate and yesterday's winner Guerlain Chicherit (above) had a misfortune of some kind to crawl home in 30th. Chicherit began the stage from the front of the car field, but lost over one and a half hours replacing a damaged front right suspension arm and eventually finished the stage 1:39'10" behind Sainz. He retains fifth in the overall rankings, although Portugal’s Carlos Sousa was able to close to within 10'35s".
Today is the penultimate competitive day of the 2010 Dakar Rally between San Rafael and Santa Rosa de la Pampa in Argentina. The format offers a special stage of 368km and two liaison sections of 76km and 281km in a total distance of 725km.
The special includes a pass through the tricky Nihuil dunes at the start and faster tracks to the finish.The second high speed liaison crosses the pampas grasslands to Santa Rosa. The city is the capital of La Pampa Province in the Argentina Pampas region and lies on the shore of the Don Tomás Lagoon.
Standings after Stage 12
1 Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz 42h 47m 24s
2 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk + 5m 20s
3 Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford + 28m 12s
4 Stéphane Peterhansel/Jean-P. Cottret + 2h 20m 42s
5 Guerlain Chicherit/Tina Thörner + 4h 02m 50s
6 Carlos Sousa/Matthieu Baumel + 4h 13m 25s
7 Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz + 5h 04m 54s
8 Robby Gordon/Andy Grider + 5h 52m 34s
9 Guilherme Spinelli/Filipe Palmeiro + 5h 55m 22s
10 Orlando Terranova/Pascal Maimon + 5h 55m 32s
