The top four positions in the Dakar Rally remain unchanged after Tuesday’s 163-km special stage four between Fiambala and Copiapo in Chile, with Volkswagen maintaining its strong showing among the leading cars. For the second day in a row Volkswagen Race Touaregs occupy three of the top four places.
Spaniards Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz remain second overall, 7m 36s behind race leaders Stephane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret of France (BMW X3). VW team-mates Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar and Timo Gottschalk of Germany are third overall, 9m 56s behind Peterhansel. American Mark Miller and South African Ralph Pitchford held on to their fourth place overall and are now 19m 25s behind the leaders.
With four of the scheduled 14 special stages now completed, the gruelling race across Argentina and Chile had its fourth different stage winner in as many days, with Americans Robby Gordon and Andy Gilder taking their first victory in their Hummer. Second was Peterhansel, just one tenth of a second slower, followed by all five VW Race Touaregs. Third was Al-Attiyah (+2m 26s) and fourth was Sainz (+3m 04s).
Giniel de Villiers and his German co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz bounced back after yesterday’s disappointment to claim fifth place, 4m 14s behind Gordon. The defending champions have now moved up two places to 20th overall, 3h 04m 59s behind Peterhansel, after losing nearly three hours on stage three when they stopped with technical problems and had to wait for their assistance team.
Mark Miller and Ralph Pitchford
Miller and Pitchford were sixth, 6m 14s behind Gordon, and were followed by team-mates Mauricio Neves and Clecio Maestrelli of Brazil (+11m 22s). The Brazilians remain in the top 10 overall with a deficit of 1h 20m 35s over the leaders.
De Villiers was pleased with today’s performance and believes he can finish in the top five overall. “Yesterday was one of these bad days you sometimes get on the Dakar. There are good and bad days here. Yesterday in the beginning of the special stage we got stuck with our nose in the dirt and lost six minutes. Then we had an electrical problem. We did not have the parts in the car and we had to wait for our assistance truck to arrive. These things happen.
“Today was much better even if we had to put up with the dust of the many cars in front of us. It was not easy to drive especially in the first half of the stage with the wind blowing in the wrong direction. I will now try to help Carlos, Nasser and Mark. They are in very good positions. There is still a long way to go. I believe I have lost a little too much time to hope for final victory but with a little bit of luck I can still make the top five at the finish.”
The longest stage of the rally so far, Wednesday’s special stage will take competitors 483 km between Copiapo and Antofagasta in Chile. Open but rocky tracks through an area known for its gold and copper mines, it will test crews both physically and mentally. There will also be the ‘fesh-fesh’, the fine dust-like sand that is known as ‘guadal’ in the region. A real test of endurance.
