DAKAR STAGE 10 TO STAGE 11
author: Leon Botha
Today in Stage 11 the teams will re-cross the spine of the Andes Mountain range via Liberatores Pass back into Argentina.
The Dakar entourage will still be led by the Blue Red Bull Volkswagen team in a fantastic 1-2-3 format with the luxury of the fourth Volkswagen driven by South African Giniel de Villiers who lost hours earlier on in the race and is now lying in 7th overall position, to back them up should they have any problems.
This strategy as we speculated earlier after Giniel's problems adds up to the staying and firing power of this formidable team.
Their only "opposition" came from BMW in the earlier stages but the Volkswagen Team now has build up a 2hour gap between them and the BMW team while they are still winning stages overall as was the case in stage 10 yesterday 12 January 2010 when Carlos Sainz took his first stage win in the 32nd Dakar Rally when he beat Stéphane Peterhansel by 28s and Mark Miller by 1m 4s.
Today which is unfortunatley for some also the 13th of January will prove whether the stage win by Carlos yesterday was such a clever move even while you are holding more Aces in your hand than what was in the pack at the start!
Petterhansel will be right on his tail while he wll have to clear and find the road ahead of the pack in a stage that will run up to 3000m above sea level into the snowline adjacent to the majestic peaks of the Aconcagua mountain through the Argentinian frontier village of Uspallata in the Mnedoza province.
Those of you who followed the rally last year will remember that Carlos rolled out of the event while leading the rally and also having to open the road after he kept on driving like a man posessed even while having a substantial lead?
One has to add however that he had the advantage of twisty winding roads yesterday which gave him as an experience WRC driver a bit of an edge. Fact is Sainz can drive a car and today's stage will probably again suit him better than any other driver plus the fact that it seems he learned a lesson from last year's experience, which will probably mean a bigger gap between him and second placed Al-Attiyah tonight at the end of Stage 11?
Today's stage will consist of 211km liaison forllowed by Stage 11 that runs over 220km and then a short 3km liaison section to 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 San Juan in the Cuyo region and is located in the Tulúm Valley, west of the San Juan River.
OVERALL STANDINGS AFTER STAGE 10
|
1
|
303
|
SAINZ (ESP)
|
CRUZ (ESP)
|
VOLKSWAGEN
|
16:10:51
|
00:00:00
|
|
2
|
306
|
AL-ATTIYAH (QAT)
|
GOTTSCHALK (DEU)
|
VOLKSWAGEN
|
16:15:28
|
00:04:37
|
|
3
|
305
|
MILLER (USA)
|
PITCHFORD (ZAF)
|
VOLKSWAGEN
|
16:20:30
|
00:09:39
|
|
4
|
302
|
GORDON (USA)
|
GRIDER (USA)
|
HUMMER
|
17:10:46
|
00:59:55
|
|
5
|
314
|
SOUSA (PRT)
|
BAUMEL (FRA)
|
MITSUBISHI
|
17:24:13
|
01:13:22
|
|
6
|
308
|
HOLOWCZYC (POL)
|
FORTIN (BEL)
|
Nissan Overdrive
|
17:27:09
|
01:16:18
|
|
7
|
312
|
NEVES (BRA)
|
MAESTRELLI (BRA)
|
VOLKSWAGEN
|
17:31:01
|
01:20:10
|
|
8
|
307
|
CHICHERIT (FRA)
|
THOERNER (CHE)
|
BMW
|
17:38:32
|
01:27:41
|
|
9
|
322
|
SPINELLI (BRA)
|
PALMEIRO (PRT)
|
MITSUBISHI
|
17:48:39
|
01:37:48
|
|
10
|
301
|
PETERHANSEL (FRA)
|
COTTRET (FRA)
|
BMW
|
18:15:40
|
02:04:49
|
|
11
|
325
|
HENRARD (BEL)
|
BEGUIN (BEL)
|
VOLKSWAGEN
|
18:52:42
|
02:41:51
|
|
12
|
332
|
BARBOSA (PRT)
|
RAMALHO (PRT)
|
MITSUBISHI
|
18:56:14
|
02:45:23
|
|
13
|
313
|
LAVIEILLE (FRA)
|
FORTHOMME (BEL)
|
NISSAN
|
18:59:10
|
02:48:19
|
|
14
|
310
|
NOVITSKIY (RUS)
|
SCHULZ (DEU)
|
BMW
|
19:04:24
|
02:53:33
|
|
15
|
323
|
ERRANDONEA (AND)
|
GARCIN (FRA)
|
SMG
|
19:08:18
|
02:57:27
|
|
16
|
336
|
LEAL DOS SANTOS (PRT)
|
FIUZA (PRT)
|
BMW
|
19:09:41
|
02:58:50
|
|
17
|
317
|
VAN DEIJNE (NLD)
|
ROSEGAAR (NLD)
|
MITSUBISHI
|
19:43:32
|
03:32:41
|
|
18
|
300
|
DE VILLIERS (ZAF)
|
VON ZITZEWITZ (DEU)
|
VOLKSWAGEN
|
20:01:38
|
03:50:47
|
|
19
|
311
|
TERRANOVA (ARG)
|
MAIMON (FRA)
|
MITSUBISHI
|
20:15:49
|
04:04:58
|
|
20
|
318
|
MISSLIN (FRA)
|
POLATO (FRA)
|
MITSUBISHI
|
20:19:14
|
04:08:23
|
|
21
|
320
|
GARLAND (AUS)
|
SUZUKI (AUS)
|
ISUZU
|
20:29:04
|
04:18:13
|
|
22
|
334
|
MIRONENKO (RUS)
|
LEBEDEV (RUS)
|
Nissan Overdrive
|
21:09:53
|
04:59:02
|
|
|
|
