Peterhansel and Chicherit maintained 4th and 5th positions
Team X-raid Stéphane Peterhansel and Guerlain Chicherit maintained fourth and fifth positions in the overall standings after the relatively straightforward 10th stage of the 2010 Dakar Rally between La Serena and Santiago in Chile on Tuesday. Peterhansel and co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret finished the last Chilean stage of this year’s Dakar in second position to pull a further 2m 04s away from their fifth-placed team mates, Guerlain Chicherit and Tina Thörner, in the overall classification. Russia’s Leonid Novitskiy and German co-driver Andreas Schulz began the day in ninth overall. They were delayed and came under pressure from a hard-charging Robbie Gordon and Orlando Terranova and the 14th fastest time meant that they ceded two places in the overall rankings and reached the Chilean capital in 11th overall.
Spaniards Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz set their first fastest time of the event so far to extend their overall advantage over Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and Timo Gottschalk to 10m 06s. Today’s stage began at Terrnas de Socos after the 112km liaison section from La Serena and took place on a balance of twisty and faster rural tracks to finish at Illapel. A second liaison of 236km then guided teams into the overnight halt in Santiago.
The leading quintet was closely matched through the opening 42km, with Sainz leading the way by a handful of seconds from Miller, Peterhansel, Al-Attiyah and Chicherit. Novitskiy was 10th. The BMW trio held third, fourth and 16th through the 100km checkpoint, but Peterhansel moved up to second position over the closing kilometers as none of the front-runners hit major problems.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) the Dakar re-crosses the spine of the Andes mountain range via the Liberatores Pass and moves back into Argentina. A steeply ascending 211km liaison on switchback roads takes teams up into the snowline, adjacent to the towering and majestic peak of Aconcagua, and on through the frontier to the stage start near the Argentinean tourist village of Uspallata in the Mendoza province.
The day’s varied stage reaches an altitude of around 3,000 meters above sea level before beginning a descent into the overnight halt at San Juan in the shadow of the Andes foothills to the west of the pampas. The city is the capital of the Argentine province of the same name in the Cuyo region and is located in the Tulúm Valley, west of the San Juan River.
2010 Dakar Rally – overall positions after SS10 (unofficial @ 14.00 hrs):
- 1. Carlos Sainz (E)/Lucas Cruz (E) Volkswagen Race Touareg 36h 34m 45s
- 2. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QA)/Timo Gottschalk (D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 36h 44m 51s
- 3. Mark Miller (USA)/Ralph Pitchford (ZA) Volkswagen Race Touareg 37h 03m 04s
- 4. Stéphane Peterhansel (F)/Jean-Paul Cottret (F) BMW X3 CC 38h 49m 05s
- 5. Guerlain Chicherit (F)/Tina Thörner (S) BMW X3 CC 39h 05m 44s
- 6. Carlos Sousa (P)/Matthieu Baumel (F) Mitsubishi Racing Lancer 40h 28m 50s
- 7. Giniel de Villiers (ZA)/Ralph Pitchford (ZA) Volkswagen Race Touareg 41h 20m 58s
- 8. Guilherme Spinelli (BR)/Filipe Palmeiro (P) Mitsubishi Racing Lancer 41h 59m 53s
- 9. Orlando Terranova (RA)/Pascal Maimon (F) Mitsubishi Racing Lancer 42h 15m 16s
- 10. Robbie Gordon (USA)/Andy Grider (USA) Hummer 42h 18m 41s
- 11. Leonid Novitskiy (RUS)/Andreas Schulz (D) BMW X3 CC 42h 25m 18s
Press Release Team X-raid GmbH – Puro Off Road is registered news user with Team X-raid GmbH
Thumb image credits: Petr Lusk
Related posts:
- X-raid Chicherit and Peterhansel moved up to fourth and fifth
- X-Raid’s Peterhansel up to eight after setting fastest time into Iquique
- Chicherit and Thörner produced stunning performance
- Triple lead maintained by VW
- Peterhansel lost crucial minutes on closing kilometers
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This post was compiled by Memin Pinguin
