Pending validation by the race stewards, Nasser Al-Attiyah (VW) picked up his 3rd stage victory on the 32nd Dakar and the 6th of his career in the event, by beating his Spanish team-mate Carlos Sainz (VW), who again suffered a puncture today, by 5’59 and his South African team-mate Giniel de Villiers (VW) by 7’38. More importantly, this new triumph enabled th Qatari to climb up the general standings to only 8’36 from the leader, his team-mate “El Matador” Sainz. It demonstrates that there are no racing orders for the moment within the Volkswagen team, who nonetheless still boast 3 Race Touaregs in the first 3 places, with American Mark Miller (VW) comfortably placed 3rd, 27’17 behind the leader, whereas the 4th placed driver, Stéphane Peterhansel (BMW), trails by 2.13:52. In the Open category, there were no surprises as American Robby Gordon (Hummer) was triumphant for the 8th time out of 9 stages in the race. Lastly, in the Production category, the stage victories are continuing to be shared by the official Toyota cars. As a result, Japan’s Jun Mitsuhashi won his 4th special stage of this 32nd edition, 3’23 ahead of his team-mate and major rival, title holder, Nicolas Gibon (Toyota). Nevertheless, the Frenchman is still comfortably in the lead, 58’28 ahead of the Japanese driver.
Bike
Pending validation by the race stewards, Spaniard Marc Coma (KTM) walked away with his 3rd victory on the 32nd Dakar and his 10th overall in the event. With a time of 2.12:30, the title holder beat the leader of the general standings, Frenchman Cyril Despres (KTM), by 4 tiny seconds and Chilean Francisco “Chaleco” Lopez Contardo (Aprilia) by 1’14. As a result, in the general standings, Despres is still out in front with a lead that now stands at 1.21:50 over Pal Anders Ullevalseter (KTM). The make-up of the podium is far from a sure thing however, since the Norwegian, Chilean and Portuguese rider Helder Rodrigues (Yamaha), respectively 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the general standings, are all within the confines of 7 minutes.
Truck
Pending validation by the race stewards, the two times winner of the event, Russian Firdaus Kabirov (Kamaz) grabbed his 2nd victory on this year’s edition and the 31st of his Dakar career. With a time of 2.32:20, the 11th best time of the day, the title holder beat his countryman and team-mate Vladimir Chagin (Kamaz) by 4’41 and Frenchman Joseph Adua (Iveco) by 14’40… Chagin does not need to worry about the general standings though, because the “Tsar” still has a lead of 1.11:31 over his faithful lieutenant, Kabirov, and a massive 8.21:13 lead over Dutchman Marcel Van Vliet (Ginaf).
Quad
Pending validation by the race stewards, Frenchman Christophe Declerck (Polaris) picked up his 1st victory on the Dakar by winning the 9th special of the 32nd edition. With a time of 2.12:30, the winner of the Rally-Raid World Cup in 2006 beat Argentinean Alejandro Patronelli (Yamaha) by 1’33 and his younger brother, Marcos Patronelli (Yamaha), by 1’47. There is no change in the general standings, where Marcos Patronelli is ahead by a chasm: he now boasts a lead of 2.23:07 over his “big brother” Alejandro and 4.20:03 over Spaniard Juan Manuel Gonzalez Corominas (Yamaha).
