Team X-raid Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret claimed the fastest time on the 13th and penultimate stage of the 2010 Dakar Rally between San Rafael and Santa Rosa de la Pampa in Argentina on Friday. Peterhansel’s 55th career Dakar stage win and his 22nd in a car was also his fourth of this Dakar and the sixth out of 13 for Sven Quandt’s Trebur-based BMW X-raid team this year, following single stage wins for both Joan ‘Nani’ Roma and Guerlain Chicherit. Chicherit and Swedish co-driver Tina Thörner started the stage from 15th on the road and performed superbly to record the third fastest time behind Peterhansel and Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah, but they finished in front of overall leader Carlos Sainz.
Russia’s Leonid Novitskiy and German co-driver Andreas Schulz began the day in 11th overall and maintained their place just outside the top 10 after setting the 12th quickest time. Spaniard Sainz began the day with an overall advantage of 5m 20s and now heads into a thrilling final stage showdown on Saturday a mere 2m 48s in front of his team mate Al-Attiyah.

Today’s 368km stage began with a tricky passage through the Nihuil dunes to 51km and then the tracks became much faster as the route headed across the pampas towards Santa Rosa. Peterhansel and Novitskiy started the special from fourth and 11th places on the road and Chicherit was moved up from 29th to 15th on safety grounds.
The X-raid duo crossed the dunes in fifth, sixth and 11th places and reached the 100km point in second, fifth and 11th, with Peterhansel trailing stage leader Al-Attiyah by 42 seconds. The Frenchman had gained 41 seconds on the Qatari through 165km and extended his virtual stage lead to 1m 12s through 216km, where Chicherit and Novitskiy were running in third and 10th positions.

Peterhansel’s lead had risen to 1m 50s through 265km and held on to take the stage win by the margin of 1m 21s from Al-Attiyah, with Chicherit and Noviskiy reaching the end in third and 12th.

2010 Dakar Rally – overall positions after SS13 (unofficial @ 13.30 hrs):

• 1. Carlos Sainz (E)/Lucas Cruz (E) Volkswagen Race Touareg 45h 49m 42s
• 2. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QA)/Timo Gottschalk (D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 45h 52m 30s
• 3. Mark Miller (USA)/Ralph Pitchford (ZA) Volkswagen Race Touareg 46h 21m 30s
• 4. Stéphane Peterhansel (F)/Jean-Paul Cottret (F) BMW X3 CC 48h 06m 31s
• 5. Guerlain Chicherit (F)/Tina Thörner (S) BMW X3 CC 49h 52m 24s
• 6. Carlos Sousa (P)/Matthieu Baumel (F) Mitsubishi Racing Lancer 50h 16m 14s
• 7. Giniel de Villiers (ZA)/Ralph Pitchford (ZA) Volkswagen Race Touareg 50h 58m 56s
• 8. Robbie Gordon (USA)/Andy Grider (USA) Hummer 51h 50m 44s
• 9. Orlando Terranova (RA)/Pascal Maimon (F) Mitsubishi Racing Lancer 51h 52m 37s
• 10. Guilherme Spinelli (BR)/Filipe Palmeiro (P) Mitsubishi Racing Lancer 51h 58m 51s
• 11. Leonid Novitskiy (RUS)/Andreas Schulz (D) BMW X3 CC 52h 24m 20s

Tomorrow (Saturday) marks the 14th and final stage of the 2010 Dakar Rally and the return to Buenos Aires. The day starts with a 166km liaison from Santa Rosa to the start of a 206km special stage that finishes in the village of San Carlos de Bolivar.
Surviving crews will then follow a 335km liaison to the Argentine capital to prepare for the official ceremonial finish at La Rural on Sunday.

Press Release Team X-raid GmbH – Puro Off Road is registered news user with Team X-raid GmbH

Related posts:

1. Disappointing fifth stage for Stephane Peterhansel
2. X-raid Chicherit and Peterhansel moved up to fourth and fifth
3. Peterhansel’s 54th Dakar stage win
4. X-Raid’s Peterhansel up to eight after setting fastest time into Iquique
5. Peterhansel and Chicherit maintained 4th and 5th positions

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This post was written by Memin