Dakar 2011: Leg 5

End of SS5: Calama-Iquique Cars/Trucks: 423Kms Bikes/Quads 423Kms

Carlos Sainz continues to lead the 2011 Dakar Rally, but has had his lead reduced after today’s test. Stéphane Peterhansel stormed to his first stage win of this year’s Dakar Rally after beating Nasser Al-Attiyah by 1 min 24 secs over the 423Km stage. Carlos Sainz finished third, his worst showing of the rally so far. Spaniard Sainz was 3 mins 15 secs behind Peterhansel.

“It was a stage with lots of surprises. We started with the bit between our teeth. We managed to overtake Al Attiyah and Sainz by taking advantage of a navigation error they made. After that, it was our turn to make a mistake and get a flat tyre. They overtook again, but we managed to pass them at the end” Peterhansel said.

The stage today was one of the longer stages of the rally, all crews having to face 423Kms of mixed terrain. First up were some rather rough tracks, then a run through the salt plains, then an uphill run (which covered more than 100Kms) and finally, a steep run down towards the coast town of Iquique. The gradient of the slope down to Iquique was 32%.

Peterhansel took his first success of this year’s Dakar Rally. He showed his talent in the desert, driving with supreme skill to win the stage by 1 min 24 secs over Al-Attiyah. Sainz retains his lead in the rally overall, but as the stages become more desert-based, Peterhansel and six-times Middle East Rally Champion Al-Attiyah could reduce the gap to Sainz. The Spaniard, however, has desert-winning experience, having won the Safari Rally in 1992.

“At the finish, we put in a good time”, Peterhansel said. “It could have been better, though. At one point, I had regained 4 minutes on Carlos. In the end, our performance was okay. The first three places in the general standings are separated by three minutes. That’s good. I hope it stays like that until the rest day, that way we’ll have a thrilling end to the race. Everything is still possible for us”.

In the overall table, Peterhansel jumps Al-Attiyah into second. De Villiers, Holowczyk and Terranova are still fourth, fifth and sixth. Mark Miller made a big jump from tenth to seventh with a time good enough for fifth fastest on the stage. Miller is now 27 mins behind sixth placed Terranova.

Guerlain Chicherit is now in 11^th after setting 10^th quickest on today’s stage. The MINI driver, however, did not have a trouble-free stage. He crashed off the road, but help came in the form of BMW driver Krzysztof Holowczyc, who attempted to pull the MINI back onto the road, but the attempt was in vain as the Pole’s tow rope broke. Chicherit then rejoined the stage after Holowczyc left and posted the 10^th quickest time of the stage.

“Guerlain Chicherit went off the track so we just tried to help him.” Holowczyc said. “We tried to pull him out but his car is really heavy and now our rope is broken. So we left and I don’t know if we went through all the stage with the rope trailing behind us. We drove pretty well. The stage was clear of problems, apart from at the end for the last 30 kilometres when we missed the route and tried to find our way. We got stuck for a minimum of 10 minutes, which meant we lost everything at the end of the stage”.

In the truck category, Vladimir Chagin must have been celebrating his birthday too hard last night at the bivouac, because he inexplicably lost over 22 mins on the stage and the overall lead. The Kabirov/Belyaev/Mokeev team now lead by 13 mins 36 secs. Still third overall are the Loprais/Holan/Kalina team in their Tatra, they sit 25 mins off the lead.

Marc Coma still leads the bikes, but suffered a nasty crash 80 Kms into the stage. He then stopped at 91 Kms to repair his Yamaha, losing 10 mins in the process. Paulo Goncalves took the stage win by 2 mins 18 secs over Francisco Lopez Contardo, with Frans Verhoeven a further 2 mins 19 secs behind Goncalves on the stage. Despres is still second, unable to capitalise on Coma’s misfortunes. The Frenchman is still over 10 mins off the lead. The main story on the bikes today was Oliver Pain, who crashed his Yamaha at the 231Km mark, breaking his wrist in the process. He was airlifted by the medical helicopter, so his rally looks to be over.

Alejandro Patronelli now leads the quads, with Tomas Maffei in second, 1 min 27 secs off the lead. Maffei also earned himself a minute penalty during the stage. Third overall is still Sebastian Halpern, but he is now 42 mins off the lead. Yamaha have lost their grip of the Top 6, after Christophe Declerck moved into sixth, after Josef Machacek was given 4 mins 11 secs in penalties.

Dakar 2011: Leg 4

End of SS4: San Salvador de Jujuy-Calama Cars/Trucks: 207Kms Bikes/Quads: 207Kms

Carlos Sainz has brought his Dakar Rally stage wins up to 20 after winning today’s stage. The Spaniard looks to be driving towards his second successive Dakar title, but its only early days yet. He won the stage by 50 secs ahead of team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah, to extend his lead to 4 mins 24 secs. Stéphane Peterhansel is still third, 5 mins 41 secs behind the flying Sainz.

With today’s mileage down to 207Kms from yesterday’s mammoth 500Kms, Al-Attiyah had the honour of leading the crews into the stage, but with Sainz in hot pursuit. For the first time this rally, the bikes and quads ran the exact same route as the cars and trucks.

As the entire field moves into the Atacama Desert, the weather is staying hot. The Atacama Desert is the driest desert on earth, having never rained there. The extreme heat, and the problem of having to drive over soft sand, is sure to test the drivers and riders. The appearance of the sand dunes are sure to aid Peterhansel, who is chasing his third Dakar Rally win onboard the cars, and his tenth Dakar Rally win in all classes (the Frenchman has taken six wins in the bike class).

Sainz won his third stage of the 2011 Dakar Rally, which took his overall Dakar stage wins tally up to 20. He took the win by 50 secs over Al-Attiyah, with Peterhansel third, 1 min 22 secs off Sainz fastest time. The Top 3 drivers are still Sainz, Al-Attiyah and Peterhansel. The gap between to second now stands at 4 mins 24 secs, and the gap to third is now at 5 mins 41 secs.

The other VW drivers are now beginning to pick up speed. Ginnel de Villiers is still in fourth place, and still nearly 15 mins off third place, but is near enough to Peterhansel to capitalise on any mistakes made by the Frenchman. Mark Miller is now tenth, but is well over an hour behind his leading team mate, so all hopes of his first Dakar win are nearly gone, however, as we have seen during recent Dakar rallies, anything can happen.

The rest of the Top 10 remains the same as yesterday, save for Mark Miller overhauling Christian Lavieille for tenth. Miller is now only 4 secs behind ninth placed Nani Roma, but Roma is almost 10 mins behind Guilherme Spinelli, who is eighth.

MINI driver Guerlain Chicherit is 14^th, 1hr 27 mins behind leader Sainz. His time over SS4 was 4 mins 38 secs slower than Sainz, but it was still good enough for seventh place on the stage. The Frenchman is happy with the way the new car is performing, and is happy that the brake problems that dogged him on Sunday have disappeared.

“It was cool. We drove a great special with no mistakes. We didn’t push that hard and we really enjoyed the driving. During the last three stages we had problems with the brakes and I was hoping they would work today, and fortunately that was the case. Today, we weren’t concerned about the time. We just wanted to drive and get back into the rhythm without worrying about the rest. The car seems to be working well. There’s still a long way to go.” he said.

Robbie Gordon has been forced to retire his fluorescent orange Hummer H3 from the rally after serious mechanical damage halted his charge. He managed to get through the Paso de Jama pass, but the car never made it to the start of the stage.

Trucks now and the Chagin/Savostin/Shaysultanov team continue to lead the class after again putting in fastest time by 2 mins 18 secs over the Kabirov/Belyaev/Mokeev team, who move back up to second. The Loprais/Holan/Kalina team now fall back to third after losing nearly 6 mins on the stage to the leaders. The gap to second now stands at 8 mins 18 secs, with the third placed crew now 12 mins 36 secs off the leading truck.

On two wheels, Marc Coma now leads Cyril Despres with Francisco Lopez Contardo in third. Coma originally beat Despres over the stage by a slender 16 secs. However, afterwards, Despres was hit with a mammoth 10 min penalty. Lopez Contardo was then boosted up to second, 2 mins 5 secs behind Coma. In the overall table, Coma leads and Despres is now second, but is 10 mins 2 secs in arrears. Now third is Lopez Contardo, who is over 20 mins behind Coma.

In the quad section, Tomas Maffei now leads by 1 min 54 secs, even though he was given a 1 min penalty, over Alejandro Patronelli, who is second. 3 mins further back is former leader Sebastian Halpern, in third. The Top 3 are quite secure, with fourth placed Martin Plechaty over 24 mins off third. Jorge Santamarina’s charge to break the Yamaha hold on the Top 6 places took a hard blow when he was given a 5 min penalty.

Also, as it is truck category leader Vladimir Chagin’s birthday, I would like to wish him a Happy Birthday. For a nice present, he scored fastest truck time over today’s stage.

Dakar 2011: Leg 3

End of SS3: San Miguel de Tucuman-San Salvador de Jujuy Cars: 500Kms Trucks: 226Kms Bikes/Quads: 521Kms

Carlos Sainz still sits the top of the leader board after SS3 of this year’s Dakar Rally. On the run from San Miguel de Tucuman to San Salvador de Jujuy, he finished second to his team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah, who gained back 25 secs on Sainz. Stéphane Peterhansel took third, just under a minute slower than the Qatari driver.

Sainz lead the car class into the 500Km stage, the longest stage so far on the rally. Cyril Despres opened the proceedings today, running first on the road. The bikes and quads again made a detour, which made their route 21 Kms longer than the car’s route. Today, however, the trucks also made a detour. As part of the stage was run through a dense forest, the truck’s windscreens would be at the same height as the branches, a hazard to the safety of the truck crews. The trucks would instead drive an extended road section.

The weather stayed good throughout the stage, with lots of dust being kicked up by the cars. The stages are now beginning to move away from the WRC-type stages, instead moving towards more traditional Dakar stages.

Al-Attiyah won his first stage of the 2011 Dakar, beating Sainz by 25 secs. Third was Peterhansel, who was 59 secs slower through the stage than Al-Attiyah. Al-Attiyah was fastest through the first Checkpoint, and kept his foot firmly on the throttle, to stay there. Sainz still holds the overall lead but Al-Attiyah is now 3 mins 34 secs behind in second. Third is still Peterhansel, but the gap is now at 4 mins 19 secs.

The Top 3 are now well separated from the rest of the field, with VW driver Ginnel de Villiers over 12 mins behind Peterhansel. The rest of the Top 10 is basically the same as yesterday, but Nani Roma has begun to find his feet on this year’s rally, taking ninth from Christian Lavieille. Roma took just under four mins out of the Frenchman over the course of the stage.

Guerlain Chicherit is now making huge strides in the General Classification, jumping from 21^st to 14^th. The MINI is now beginning to show its potency on the Dakar stages. Chicherit took ninth on today’s stage. He is now sitting 1 hr 22 mins off the lead.

Moving to the ‘big boys’ (in tonnage terms, anyway), the Chagin/Savostin/Shaysultanov team now lead the truck class in their Kamaz 43269. They now take the lead from the Loprais/Holan/Kalina team (Tatra T185-2) after flying through the stage to take a massive 6 mins 50 secs out of the then leaders, Kabirov/Belyaev/Mokeev. The truck class is now the most spaced out class, with almost 30 mins separating third and fourth.

To the ‘little boys’ (again in tonnage terms), Cyril Despres retains his lead over Marc Coma but Spaniard Coma is now on a charge, with only 14 secs separating Despres and an on form Coma. Coma won the stage by 2 mins 14 secs, but it wasn’t enough to take the lead. The penalty gained by Ruben Faria now seems to have demoralised the Portuguese, who is now over 9 mins 30 secs off the lead. Faria is now coming under fire from fourth placed Paulo Goncalves, who took 2 mins 10 secs out of the Faria on today’s stage.

In the quads section of the rally, Sebastian Halpern now leads the class after former leader Josef Machacek lost over 20 mins to fall down to 5^th overall. Halpern holds 12 secs over second placed Patronelli, with Maffei, who won today’s stage, a further minute behind Patronelli. The Yamaha Raptor still seems to be the quad of choice for the class, with Yamaha Raptors holding the Top 6, and 7^th place Jorge Santamarina on his Honda TRX 700 XX over 10 mins behind 6^th place.

Dakar 2011: Leg 2

End of SS2: Cordoba-San Miguel de Tucuman Cars/Trucks: 324 Kms Bikes/Quads: 300Kms

Carlos Sainz continues to lead the 2011 Dakar Rally after taking the win on today’s stage, the 324 Km run from Cordoba to San Miguel de Tucaman. Sainz’ team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah came in second, 1 min 43secs behind the Spaniard. Third was Stéphane Peterhansel, who finished 2 mins 14secs behind the leading VW driver in his BMW X3.

Today’s stage challenged crews in the car and truck classes with 324Kms of racing, with the road surface much the same as yesterday’s stage. The bikes and quads again made a slight detour, which took 24Kms off their stage mileage.

The stage began in dry and dusty conditions as rally leader Sainz set off into the 324 Km test, but the rain returned mid-way through and towards the end of the stage. With the stage appearance again similar to a WRC stage, Sainz and Al-Attiyah again capitalised, with Al-Attiyah half-a-minute ahead of third placed Peterhansel.

Sainz showed the opposition why he has won three times at Rally Argentina, not to mention two World Driver’s titles, leading the stage from start to finish, with Peterhansel and Al-Attiyah in second and third, respectively, throughout the stage.

Their positions remain the same in the general classification.

Another VW driver, Ginnel de Villiers, holds fourth, while Krzysztof Holowczyk and Orlando Terranova are fifth and sixth. Leonid Novitskiy, Guilherme Spinelli, Christian Lavieille and former winner Nani Roma closing out the Top 10.

The easy-to-spot Hummer H3 of Robbie Gordon had a torrid stage. First, the American crashed off the road, losing 57 mins. Then, he blew up the transmission, having to be towed back to the bivouac by a fellow competitor. He now sits 21^st. Guerlain Chicherit is now 23^rd overall, gaining seventh place on the stage. The new MINI performing well, having cured the problems that so badly ruined his first stage in the new car.

The Kamaz-powered team of Kabirov/Belyaev/Mokeev continue to lead the truck section of the rally, but the Tatra-powered Loprais/Holan/Kalina team are only 9 secs behind, overall. The Chagin/Savostin/Shaysultanov crew are a further 22 secs behind in the general classification. However, the rest of the truck field is well spread out, with fourth place over 9 mins behind third and fifth over 4 mins behind fourth.

To the bikes and Cyril Despres still leads with Marc Coma now in second. Ruben Faria fallen to third. The Despres-Coma gap now stands at 2 mins 35 secs, with Faria now 6 mins 13 secs behind Despres. The KTM team still have the stranglehold over the podium places, with Aprilia-mounted Francisco Lopez Contardo almost 6 mins behind the leader, Despres.

In the quad class, Josef Machacek continues to lead the class. Alejandro Patronelli is now second after winning today’s stage. Still third is Sebastian Halpern. Machacek is just over 5 mins ahead of Patronelli, with Halpern 7 mins 45 secs further back. Yamaha have lost their stranglehold on the Top 10, but they still hold the Top 6.

Dakar 2011: Leg 1

End of SS1: Victoria-Cordoba Cars/Trucks: 222Kms Bikes/Quads: 192Kms

Carlos Sainz has gotten his 2011 Dakar Rally campaign off to a flying start by winning the first competitive stage of the rally. Sainz finished 1 min 31 secs ahead of BMW driver Stéphane Peterhansel. Another VW driver, Nasser Al-Attiyah holds third, a further 2 mins 26 secs behind Sainz.

The competition proper got underway this morning with all the crews onboard the cars and trucks facing 222Kms of racing while the bikes and quads made a detour which was designed to limit the amount of overtaking on the narrow roads. The detour shortening the bikes and quads stage down to 192Kms.

Sainz started the stage in clear and dry conditions, but these conditions were replaced with rain in the middle of the stage, leaving the road muddy and slippery. The stage resembled a traditional WRC stage, which Sainz would have been used to, having spent 19 years in the WRC. Al-Attiyah and Krzysztof Holowczyk, both having WRC experience, benefited from the stage’s resemblance, coming home third and sixth, respectively.

Sainz lead the entire 222Km stage, driving quickly and skilfully to lead home Peterhansel and Al-Attiyah. Sainz’ and Al-Attiyah’s team-mates Ginnel de Villiers and Mark Miller finished the stage in fifth and fourth positions, respectively. Holowczyk and Argentinean driver Orlando Terranova came in sixth and seventh.

Robbie Gordon made sure this year that he would be easily spotted should he go off course by having his Hummer H3 painted in fluorescent orange. He finished eighth. Guilherme Spinelli (Mitsubishi Lancer Racing) and Leonid Novitskiy (BMW X3 CC) rounded out the Top 10 in the car classification. Guerlain Chicherit finished 77^th overall in the all-new Mini Countryman, a beefed-up version of the equally all-new Countryman WRC.

To the truck class now and the Kamaz crew of Vladimir Chagin, Sergey Savostin and Ildar Shaysultanov hold a 4 min 41 sec lead over the all-Czech Tatra team of Ales Loprais, Milan Holan and Josef Kalina. A further 5 min and 52 secs behind are another Kamaz crew, this time an all-Russian crew, with Firdaus Kabirov, Aydar Belyaev and Andrey Mokeev. The Top 10 crews in the truck class are separated by over 20 mins.

In the bikes section, Cyril Despres leads the rally by 31 secs over Ruben Faria with last year’s winner Marc Coma in third. All three are on the factory KTM 450 Rally. Faria was fastest over the stage by 29 secs from Despres but lost his lead when he was handed a 1 min penalty by the officials, dropping him to second. Fourth, fifth and sixth are Juan Pedrero Garcia, Paulo Goncalves and Jonah Street. With the top three riders only separated by 46 secs, it could prove to be an interesting rally.

Joesf Machacek leads the quads section of the rally with 1 min 6 secs in hand over fellow Czech rider Martin Plechaty in second. Argentinean rider Sebastian Halpern is third, just over three mins behind leader Machacek. Yamaha riders hold the first 10 places, so it looks to be a good rally for the Japanese firm.

Full results from all the classes can be found on www.dakar.com

Finance harder to get: Solberg

Petter Solberg has conceded that he is finding it ever harder to gather money to pay for a WRC programme.

“It’s tough, very, very tough. This time last year I had more [sponsors], but I won’t give up – I [will] keep on fighting. Nothing is decided, but we are getting closer.”

Solberg has run his own team since Rally Norway 2009, appropriately called the ‘Petter Solberg World Rally Team’, which is comprised of former Subaru World Rally Team employees.

Recently, however, funding has proved difficult to come across, with the 2003 World Champion having to pay his own way during the Rally Catalunya and Wales Rally GB, after a sponsor deal fell through. He finished second on both rallies in his Citroen C4.

The Norwegian is working towards a deal to get a Citroen DS3 WRC for next year, but has admitted that he is short of money. A space has been made available at the Citroen Junior Team after the departure of Dani Sordo, but Solberg would need to continue running PSWRT to keep the sponsors happy.

Solberg is due to get his 2011 rally calendar underway at the Rallye Monte Carlo in two weeks time. He will drive a works-supported Peugeot 207 S2000 on the infamous event.

“I like the rally [Rallye Monte Carlo] a lot even though I have not always had the best result. Because it will be the 100-year anniversary the rally will be very, very special.” he said