Dakar 2011 - STAGE 11
author: Andries van der Walt
Series stage 11 report
· Damage limited for Coma
· unlimited damage for Sainz
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Cyril Despres
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The 11th special of the Personal Argentina-Chile Dakar 2011, 370 km long and divided into two parts, smiled on Cyril Despres. The Frenchman's objective was to regain ground on the bike category leader Marc Coma. With 2'12 lost by the Catalan to the Frenchman, in the end, the day could have been worse for Coma. Despres will have to settle for a 3rd special stage triumph this year. Coma's lead in the general standings now stands at 15'59. In the car race, the die seem cast. Carlos Sainz, already in trouble yesterday, seriously damaged his Volkswagen Race Touareg and lost more than an hour. Nasser Al Attiyah holds a solid lead over his new nearest rival, De Villiers.
370 kilometres was the distance of the timed section on offer to Cyril Despres to try and buck the trend after his severe setback the day before. It seemed to be a delicate assignment for the title holder, with him being 18'10" behind Marc Coma in the general standings. Setting off in the position of pursuer, 2 minutes after his rival, the Frenchman logically gained ground during the first part of the special, totalling 1'31 after 224 km, a good score, but not sufficient to worry the Catalan. Far from the battle for the title, "Chaleco" Lopez took advantage of his fourth-placed starting position to follow the tracks of the two leading bikers and concentrate on riding his race. The Chilean put in the best time on arrival at the neutralised zone, with a good lead of 1'29 over Despres.
The second part of the special was the same as the first but for one detail. Despres set off 29" behind Coma this time, before gradually catching up with him and overtaking him thirty kilometres from the finish. Behind him, however, "Chaleco" Lopez suffered a moment's absence, misreading a note in his road-book. This navigation error cost him victory. As a result, Despres triumphed, taking his third stage victory since the start of the rally and the 26th in his career on the Dakar. The KTM rider is now one behind Jordi Arcarons and 6 behind the record holder in the bike category, Stephane Peterhansel.
The Frenchman regained 2'12 on the Spaniard, though this was not a big blow for Coma, who rode a controlled race and stuck to the tail of Despres once he was overtaken. He conserves a significant advantage of 15'59 over his best enemy. "Chaleco" Lopez remains on the third step of the virtual podium, but more than 49 minutes behind the leader, and even gained time on the day's fourth-placed rider, Helder Rodrigues.
In the quad category, Argentina once again took pride of place. Sebastian Halpern picked up his 2nd special stage victory, beating his countrymen Tomas Mafei and Alejandro Patronelli. The elder of the Patronelli brothers maintains his advantage in the general standings with a lead of 1 hour and 6 minutes over Halpern and 6 hours and 30 minutes over Frenchman Christophe Declerck.
Like in the bike category, a formidable duel between Nasser Al Attiyah and a Carlos Sainz out for revenge after his problems yesterday was expected. Such a battle did take place between the two VW drivers, at least up to the neutralised zone. Having set off behind the Qatari, Sainz put the pedal to the metal and soon found alongside the first competitor to start the day. After 224 km, Sainz had a lead of 1'24 and seemed to be heading for a 23rd stage victory on the Dakar.
However, the afternoon heat of the La Rioja region proved to be ominous for the title holder. After 412 km, Sainz, blinded by the dust, ripped his right front wheel off after hitting a hole. As a result, he spent one hour repairing in the company of his team-mate Mark Miller. Yesterday, Sainz admitted he had lost the rally unless Al Attiyah was to suffer a setback. Today, the Spaniard lost his second place and will have to fight to stay on the podium.
In the end, Nasser Al Attiyah had very little to worry about during this special, apart from the performance of Stephane Peterhansel. The runner-up of the last Dakar won his 3rd special stage or the rally with a lead of 1'13 over "Peter" and 4'52 over De Villiers. His lead in the general standings consequently takes a leap to almost 52 minutes over his new pursuer, De Villiers. Sainz is third, 1 hour 27 minutes behind and only 13 minutes in front of Peterhansel.
Finally, in the truck race, Vladmir Chagin was again victorious after his success yesterday. The Russian Kamaz driver beat Spaniard Pep Vila by more than 11 minutes and his nearest pursuer in the general standings, Firdaus Kabirov, by 13'04. The Tsar is now well set for outright victory, with a lead of more than half an hour over Kabirov.
BMW X-raid stage 11 report
MONSTER ENERGY X-RAID TEAM'S PETERHANSEL CLIMBS INTO CONTENTION FOR PODIUM FINISH ON DRAMATIC STAGE INTO SAN JUAN
- Holowczyc snatches fifth overall back from Miller on 11th stage
- Spain's Sainz delayed; Qatar's Al-Attiyah extends overall lead
- Stephan Schott damages radiator and waits for assistance
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Stephane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret
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SAN JUAN (Argentina): The Monster Energy X-raid team duo of Stephane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret climbed back into contention for a podium finish on a dramatic 11th special stage of the 33rd Personal Dakar Argentina-Chile, held in punishing heat between Chilecito and San Juan, on Thursday.
The French crew were held up in dust for much of the special, but managed to set the second fastest time behind stage winner and runaway overall leader Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah.
With the news that Spain's Carlos Sainz was badly delayed by front suspension problems, Peterhansel will start the penultimate special on Friday, 13m 18s behind the Spaniard who lost second overall to Giniel de Villiers. Al-Attiyah's outright advantage grew to 51m 49s as a result of Sainz's woes.
"Since about 150km we were in the dust and it was not possible to be within 300 metres of Giniel," said Peterhansel. "We did all the stage at the limit of his dust and we were never able to pass. The car was perfect, but the second stage was so hot.
"This rally is not over yet. Tomorrow will be the longest stage of the rally. Other long stages have been cut. I think it could be very interesting tomorrow."
Krzysztof Holowczyc and Jean-Marc Fortin started the special in second position behind Giniel de Villiers and were under strict instructions from team director Sven Quandt not to take any undue risks if they did decide to challenge Mark Miller's hold on fifth overall.
The Pole reached the start of the neutralisation zone just under 14 minutes behind the leaders and had slipped to fifth place on the road, but rival Miller stopped to assist Sainz when the second section of the stage resumed and dropped considerable time on the special.
"When you stay in the dust all the time, like Carlos did, accidents can happen," said Holowczyc. "There was a big hole in the river bed and maybe this was the problem. We had two slow punctures on the rear after about 25km. It was unbelievable. I thought that maybe Jean-Marc (Fortin) had done something with the valve when he changed the pressure. We touched nothing. We changed one wheel and then added air to the other tyre. After the next 30km it was going down again very slowly. The tyre looked like new, but maybe the construction was broken.
"We let Stephane pass early in the stage. We attacked on the second part because we did not know that Miller and Sainz had stopped. We will look at the strategy for tomorrow because, for sure, the Volkswagen strategy will be to push like hell."
"Every day is a dramatic day on the Dakar," said team director Sven Quandt. "There is always something happening and today we were quite lucky, except that Stephane could not pass Giniel. This was a bit strange for him to be behind Giniel for the whole day after catching up four minutes in the beginning.
Ricardo Leal Dos Santos and Paulo Fiùza started the day in a comfortable seventh overall, but the Portuguese crew could not afford any mistakes with Frenchman Christian Laveille not too far behind in eighth position. Dos Santos reached PC1 in a virtual sixth position and had slipped behind Holowczyc to seventh at the start of the neutralisation. When Sainz and Miller were delayed, Dos Santos stormed through to record the fifth fastest time.
Stephan Schott and Holm Schmidt completed the 10th stage in 23rd overall from a starting position of 56 and climbed back to 21st overall before the start of the stage to San Juan. The Germans reached PC1 in 17th position, but clouted a rock at 178km, damaged the radiator and were forced to wait for the rapid assistance truck. Schott passed PC2 in 51st position at 16.21hrs and had lost over three hours to that point.
Andrea Mayer, Thomas Baumann and Phillip Beier began the 11th stage out of San Juan at 10.39hrs and 32nd on the road in the truck category. The trio finished the 10th special in 29th position in their rapid MAN assistance truck and were classified 32nd in the general standings in the truck category. They were tasked with helping with repairs to Schott's damaged KS Toolsbacked BMW X3 CC.
Volkswagen 1-2-3 on Dakar Rally with two stages remaining; Giniel de Villiers second
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A picture by Quickpic.co.za
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The fat lady hasn’t sung yet, but the outcome of the 2011 Dakar Rally in Argentina and Chile was pretty well decided on Thursday’s stage 11 between Chilecito and San Juan in Argentina.
Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah drove his diesel-powered Volkswagen Race Touareg 3 to his fourth stage win and Volkswagen’s 10th on this year’s event and now leads overall by 51 min 49 seconds from South African team-mate and 2009 Dakar winner Giniel de Villiers with just two stages remaining.
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A picture by Quickpic.co.za
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Big news on the day’s stage, which was shortened from the original 622 km to 530 km as a result of heavy rain, was the crash of defending champion Carlos Sainz. Blinded by the dust, the Spaniard they call El Matador hit a hole and ripped off his right front wheel. He lost an hour during which team-mates Mark Miller of America and South African Ralph Pitchford stopped to assist. He also lost second place overall after finishing the stage 13th, 1 hr 14 min 50 sec behind Al-Attiyah, and is now third overall, 35 min 38 sec behind De Villiers.
Miller and Pitchford completed the stage in 10th place and dropped from fifth to sixth overall, 4 hr 42 min 38 sec behind Al-Attiyah.
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A picture by Quickpic.co.za
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Sainz’s misfortune will allow Al-Attiyah to have a much more comfortable last two days. A Volkswagen 1-2-3 finish in Buenos Aires on Saturday is still very much on the cards.
France’s Stephane Peterhansel (BMW X3) was second on today’s stage, finishing 1 min 13 sec behind Al-Attiyah and 3 min 39 sec ahead of De Villiers.
“The second part of the stage was much harder than we had previously expected,” said De Villiers. “The first part was also tricky. Many canyons and bushes meant plenty of work at the steering wheel. We benefited from Carlos’ problem – it was a tough break for him after he’d driven so well for so long. It shows that anything can happen every day during this extremely tough rally. You have to be alert all the way to the finish. This is how my co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz and I have been since the start and we plan to keep it that way to the finish.”
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A picture by Quickpic.co.za
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A philosophical Pitchford reported that it was their job to stop and help Sainz after they became the team’s ‘water carriers’ after their roll on stage two. “Since our crash we have been running behind our team-mates, ready to help if they should get into difficulties. Today, Carlos needed assistance and we lost just under an hour fixing his car. It means that Krzysztof Holowczyc (Nissan Navara) was able to take our fifth place overall and now we are 40 minutes behind him in sixth place. Our aim is to get the car safely to the finish without losing any more places and perhaps to make up a place if someone ahead has a problem.”
The rally’s penultimate special stage on Friday covers 555 km between San Juan and Cordoba and includes dunes for the first 60 km. It’s another long stage with much at stake.
Dakar torture far from over
Altogether 622 km of stage from Chilecito to San Juan , of which 160 are neutralised, will be on the menu for the competitors for special stage 11 the second to last stage of the 33rd Dakar. The stage will take them on a fairly technical route at altitude to begin with, before the neutralised section.
Afterwards, the second part holds a wider variety of terrains in store. In sporting terms, this special will be one of the last opportunities to make the difference for the participants involved in the fight for the title.
In the bike category, Frenchman Cyril Despres (KTM) will have no other choice but to go on all out attack to reduce the gap that separates him from the leader, Spaniard Marc Coma (KTM), before the 12th and last real special on which he will have to give absolutely everything. Indeed, with a lead of 18 minutes the Catalan can allow himself to concentrate on simply controlling the race, in regular fashion.
Experiencing this type of situation will also be the hope of Nasser Al-Attiyah (VW) in the car race. The Qatari leader of the general standings with a lead of 12'37 over the title holder, his Spanish team-mate Carlos Sainz (VW), played his trump card during the 10th special stage and must now manage his lead on tracks similar to those on the WRC circuit, generally more favourable to the former two times world rally champion in 1990 and 1992.
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