THE HONEYMOON IS OVER.....GENTLEMEN START YOUR ENGINES!
author: Leon Botha
Stage 4: San Salvador de Jujuy-Calama: liaison, 554km; special, 207km; liaisons, 0km, total, 761 km.
Weather conditions: hot and sunny in Calama (torrential rain and thick cloud inJujuy), 25-29°C
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Carlos Sainz still in 2nd overall after SS4
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The 207km stage from San Salvador de Juju in Argentina over the Andes Mountains into Calama in Chile, was won by Spain's Carlos Sainz in a VW with a time of 1:57:09, which means that he is still 1'10" behind his team mate Nasser Al-Attiyah in the overall standings. Al-Attiyah was second today, 50" behind Sainz.
The fact that Sainz was quickest over the stage today places him first on the road through stage 5 tomorrow.
This was not what Sainz ideally wanted as he said after completing Stage 4 that “There was some navigation work, a bit of off-track driving, but I think that it will be tomorrow when things will get serious. I drove very fast today. I hope that someone was quicker than me, so that I don't have to open the way. Peterhansel, Al Attiyah and even De Viliers are dangerous rivals. We're very close to each other in the standings".
Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret maintained third overall after a long liaison section across the Andes mountain range and a relatively short 207km special stage through the Atacama desert between San Salvador de Jujuy in Argentina and Calama in Chile on Wednesday.
Peterhansel began the day’s stage 4m 19s behind Spain’s Carlos Sainz and led for large sections of the special before finishing in third position behind Sainz and Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah after stopping to change a flat tyre. He now trails the Spanish defending champion by 5m 41s.
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Stephane Peterhansel
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“About 50km before the end we had a slow puncture and had to stop and change the tyre,” said Peterhansel. “I think we could have won the special without the flat tyre, but third position is an ideal place to start the stage in the desert tomorrow, so it is not too bad. The stage was fast with quite a few bumps and I had to be careful because it was a little dangerous in the dust of some of the bikes.”
South Africa's, Giniel de Villiers was 55" slower than Peterhansel and is
5'57" behind the Frenchman in the overall standings but trails leader Carlos Sainz by a relatively big deficit of 19m14s?
Fact is that Giniel has been driving very steadily and seemed to have little trouble in “protecting” 4th spot, both overall and “stage speed”!
Stage 5 however will be the first of the desert stages and will run over 432kms which means .... ANYTHING UNDER THE SUN CAN HAPPEN!
The fact that Sainz won stage 4 might easily become a nightmare for him and especially navigator Lucas Cruz Senra in Stage 5? I might be mistaken but from Sainz’ statements after stages it seems if he is trying to shift a bit of the problems to his navigator and if that is true he may once again become his own biggest enemy as nervous navigators are like children whose parents told them not to break something!
I for one will not be surprised if Giniel pops up in the overall standings and cuts some time from that 19 minute deficit, but the Dakar is not your mate and the smallest mistake can easily turn into a big disaster. So lets hope Giniel holds it together and that we will have some great news tomorrow evening.
Mark Miller and his South African navigator, Ralph Pitchford, was 5th on
the stage today 26" behind de Villiers.
Four of the top five positions belonged to VW and it does not look as if anybody is capable of breaking the hold that Sainz and Al-Attiyah have taken of the 2011 Personal Dakar Argentina Chile. Miller is currently fulfilling the role of "chase car" carrying spares for the other three cars after his big accident on stage 2
that cost him 50 minutes. He has made up most of the lost time and is currently 3'16" behind de Villiers.
Guerlain Chicherit and Michel Périn had suffered minor brake problems on the third stage and the Monster Energy X-raid team mechanics had changed the brake cylinders as a precaution in San Salvador de Jujuy. The Mini All4 Racing crew began the stage in 14th overall and ninth on the road and were sixth through PC1 at 81km. They were trouble free throughout the special and recorded the seventh fastest time.
“It was a good feeling today and a nice drive without any problems,” said Chicherit.
Poland’s Krzysztof Holowczyc and Belgian co-driver Jean-Marc Fortin started the short stage in fourth position, but had slipped to ninth in the virtual rankings at PC1 after stopping to change a flat tyre. They eventually recorded the eighth fastest time and maintained fifth overall.
“We had a right-rear flat tyre not far after the start,” said Holowczyc. “The feeling was strange, because we got the flat tyre and arrived in an area of fesh-fesh and we had no power because we were driving with the puncture.”
Orlando Terranova and Filipe Palmeiro had maintained sixth overall on the stage into Jujuy and were seventh at PC1. They set the sixth quickest time on the day’s stage.
Russian Leonid Novitskiy and German co-driver Andreas Schulz were running in eighth position on the stage through the 81km point and finished the special in ninth place.
The Portuguese crew of Ricardo Leal Dos Santos and Paulo Fiùza started the first Chilean stage from 12th position in their Monster Energy-backed BMW X3 CC. They were classified in 11th through PC1 and finished the stage in a similar position.
Germany’s Stephan Schott and Holm Schmidt completed the third stage in 28th overall and held 29th in the general classification at the start of the first Chilean stage. The pair was 22nd through PC1 and finished the special in 20th position.
The leading cars set out from the bivouac at San Salvador de Jujuy at first light to begin the 554km liaison across the Andes mountain range via the Paso de Jama. Thousands of spectators and onlookers lined the roads from the bivouac to the town and on towards the border. Many more had been present the previous evening to witness the cars, bikes and trucks arriving in the service park.
Torrential rain fell at the bivouac before the management and assistance vehicles were allowed to depart from 10.00hrs and heavy rain was forecast for the region for the rest of the day.
Peterhansel duly crossed the border and began the stage, near San Pedro de Atacama, third on the road behind Al-Attiyah and Sainz. Despite a minor indiscretion early in the special, the Frenchman was fastest through PC1, shaving a virtual 15 seconds off Sainz’s overall lead with Al-Attiyah a further 10s behind. Peterhansel continued to lead through the fourth waypoint check, but lost the advantage to Sainz and Al-Attiyah over the closing kilometres and eventually finished 1m 22s behind the leading Spaniard.
American driver Robbie Gordon was stopped with reported engine problems on the liaison section across the Andes.
Situated 2,260 metres above sea level, Calama is a city and commune in the Chilean Atacama desert. The capital of the El Loa Province, it is one of the driest cities in the world with average annual rainfall of just 5mm. It is a convenient gateway to nearby San Pedro de Atacama and the Valley of the Moon.
From tomorrow the "fun" part of the Dakar is behind the competitors as the
combined with some real off-road driving through the Atacama desert to an overnight halt at Iquique, a former finish venue for the Patagonia-Atacama Rally, on the Pacific coast that will test the navigator's ability to the full.
Crews will tackle a punishing 432km special, which begins at over 3,200 metres above sea level and includes stony terrain, rough ground, a section of sandy passes towards the end and a daunting 2.3km sandy descent to the stage finish.
The honeymoon is now over ...gentlemen start your engines!
STAGE 4 RESULTS (unofficial @16.45hrs):
1. Carlos Sainz (E)/Lucas Cruz Senra (E) Volkswagen Race Touareg 1h 57m 09s
2. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QA)/Timo Gottschalk (D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 1h 57m 59s
3. Stéphane Peterhansel (F)/Jean-Paul Cottret (F) BMW X3 CC 1h 58m 31s
4. Giniel de Villiers (ZA)/Dirk von Zitzewitz (D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 1h 59m 26s
5. Mark Miller (USA)/Ralph Pitchford (ZA) Volkswagen Race Touareg 1h 59m 52s
6. Orlando Terranova (RA)/Filipe Palmeiro (P) BMW X3 CC 2h 01m 13s
7. Guerlain Chicherit (F)/Michel Périn (F) Mini All4 Racing 2h 01m 47s
8. Kryzsztof Holowczyc (PL)/Jean-Marc Fortin (B) BMW X3 CC 2h 03m 05s
9. Leonid Novitskiy (RUS)/Andreas Schulz (D) BMW X3 CC 2h 07m 44s
10. Guilherme Spinelli (BR)/Youssef Haddad (BR) Mitsubishi Lancer 2h 08m 32s
11. Ricardo Leal Dos Santos (P)/Paulo Fiùza (P) BMW X3 CC 2h 08m 44s
OVERALL POSITIONS after stage 4 (unofficial @16.45hrs):
1. Carlos Sainz (E)/Lucas Cruz Senra (E) Volkswagen Race Touareg 11h 09m 14s
2. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QA)/Timo Gottschalk (D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 11h 13m 38s +4m24s
3. Stéphane Peterhansel (F)/Jean-Paul Cottret (F) BMW X3 CC 11h 14m 55s +5m41s
4. Giniel de Villiers (ZA)/Dirk von Zitzewitz (D) Volkswagen Race Touareg 11h 28m 28s +19m14s
5. Kryzsztof Holowczyc (PL)/Jean-Marc Fortin (B) BMW X3 CC 11h 36m 59s +27m45s
6. Orlando Terranova (RA)/Filipe Palmeiro (P) BMW X3 CC 11h 42m 25s +33m11s
7. Leonid Novitskiy (RUS)/Andreas Schulz (D) BMW X3 CC 11h 58m 54s +49m40s
8. Guilherme Spinelli (BR)/Youssef Haddad (BR) Mitsubishi Lancer 12h 08m 59s +59m45s
9. Joan Roma (E)/Gilles Picard (F) Nissan Overdrive 12h 17m 46s +68m32s
10. Mark Miller (USA)/Ralph Pitchford (ZA) Volkswagen Race Touareg 12h 17m 50s +68m36s
11. Christian Laveille (F)/Jean-Michel Polato (F) Nissan Dessoude 12h 22m 41s +73m27s
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