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Showing posts with label dakar stage 12. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dakar stage 12. Show all posts
Friday, January 13, 2012
Stage 12 - Driver Quotes
Robby Gordon:
We lost a CV joint boot and when we finished the first special we tried to change it. It took us too long to change and we missed the transfer section. At the end it was very bad and the silt is all inside the clutch, so we've lost the clutch and a wheel fell off… We've just had a bad day – we had a horrible day. The only way we'll win is if the other guys have problems, but I'm pretty sure De Villiers got past us too. But, you know, that's the Dakar. You fight, fight, fight and hopefully it doesn't get you, but today it just got us, for no reason. A 1 dollar part, a hose clamp broke. That put is in a position to miss everything else, so it was a bad day for us, but we'll just keep fighting until the end. We won't give up. You never know what will happen, so we'll ride to Lima.
Stephane Peterhansel:
We didn't drive at a really fast pace, but we didn't have any technical or navigation problems, so it was a good special, but not very pleasant to drive because of the fesh-fesh. There wasn't much visibility, even opening the road, because the wind blew the dust up making it difficult to see. I overtook Nani several kilometres from the finishing line: he got stuck on a little dune trying to avoid a biker, but he didn't even need to get out of the car to get going again. As for Gordon, whatever happens now, he will just be carrying on to Lima for the enjoyment. There's around twenty minutes between Nani and me now, with two big stages of dunes to come. There'll be a lot of dune cresting and we know that if we get stuck in a hollow between them we could lose a lot of time. We'll have to play it safe. It's always been like that. Each time I've won the car race, I always had a team-mate hot on my heels: Masuoka, Alphand… There's always been this sort of pressure to handle.
Gerard de Rooy:
Today was a nice stage, with a little bit of everything. It was fast with a lot of bumpy off-piste. The truck felt great, put we were not pushing. For me it was just a question of driving safely to the finish and not losing a lot of time to Ardavichus and Stacey, so I think it's been good. Hans passed us at the beginning of the stage, but he made a mistake navigating and we passed him again, so I think he lost a lot of time. Hans and Ardavichus are still behind me, so there's no problem with that.
Nani Roma:
I had two bikers ahead of me and a small dune and one of them fell in front of me, so I was stuck for two minutes, but it's not too bad. I didn't lose too much time, perhaps two minutes. Everything is ok, we're happy to be here now and with Stephane, we drove a very good race. I don't know if I have a chance because Stephane is quite far ahead. But I'm happy for all the team. There are twenty minutes between us and you can lose that much when you get really stuck in the sand. It can happen to anybody, but when I say that I'm not thinking about Stephane. With the experience that he has, he's someone who doesn't make many mistakes. In fact, I'm not counting on what the others do. I prefer to try and do my best by myself to finish in a good position in Lima.
Cyril Despres:
After a modification to the road-book, one of the tracks wasn't very visible. I rode 100 metres to far, but I saw that Marc was turning round, even though he started two minutes before me. The day already started with a bath in a stream, pushing alongside the bike. It was a tough day, all in all! An important development might be if someone moves in between Marc and me. In any case, apart from attacking and riding, there wasn't much to do today. Mind you, if Farres has actually finished 2nd, it's not good for me. Tomorrow will be complicated, but anything can happen on the Dakar.
Giniel de Villers:
It was a pretty tough stage, I must say. I've never seen so much fesh-fesh in my life. I think it must be really tricky if you're further back. I'm just happy we that we are running far up front, but it really wasn't easy. The first part of the stage was tricky and the second part of the stage was tricky, with a lot of rocks. There was one climb in the canyon which was really steep. I must say, I'm glad I had four-wheel driver there, the Toyota came out of there first off. I didn't know about Gordon, but it's good news for us, though the main thing is we have to focus because there are two more difficult days left for us and the rally is not over yet. I've seen many of these rallies in the past and the team needs to stay focused, we need to do a good job and get the car to the finish now. It will be like a win for us if we can manage that, but first we have to finish the stages.
Marc Coma:
We had a mixture of several types of terrain: earthy, sandy and stony. It was predictable that Cyril would gain time on me today. I'm going to try my utmost right until the end. There are three days left to give it everything. It's difficult to define a strategy when Cyril is riding flat out in front! I'll just have to follow him. It won't be flat out, but the pace will again be quick, like it has been since the beginning of the race.Watch Dakar Rally and F1 races live here:
TheFastCastorVideo: The stage summary - Stage 12 (Arequipa - Nasca)
Taking advantage of the starting order today, the third man out, Marc Coma, achieved a not inconsiderably splendid performance in the dunes at the end of the special stage to pick up his 5th stage victory of 2012. More importantly, the Catalan beat his main rival Cyril Despres by 3'57” and regained the lead in the general standings by 1'35”. In the car race, whilst American Robby Gordon picked up the gauntlet by winning his 2nd stage victory of 2012, the day especially saw a big fright for Stephane Peterhansel when he became stuck for several long minutes in the dunes, before finally conceding only 2'49” to Nani Roma, who he still leads by 20 minutes in the general standings.
Assisted by the strategy used yesterday, which enabled him to start the day's special in 3rd position, Marc Coma went on all out attack throughout the 197 kilometres of the timed section on the 12th stage, picking up his 21st stage victory on the Dakar. At the finishing line, the Spaniard beat his two countrymen, rally revelation Joan Barreda, 2nd 2'43” behind, and Jordi Viladoms, 3rd 3'10” behind.
Handicapped by having to open the road, Cyril Despres tried everything to foil the Catalan's strategy. Risking everything, the Frenchman managed to only concede a little more than thirty seconds before getting to grips with the unstable dunes on the last part of the special stage. On this tricky terrain, despite the enjoyment he claimed, the man from Andorra could not prevent himself from losing time whilst opening the road, finally conceding 3'57” to his main rival.
Two days from the finish in Lima, Coma has taken command of the general standings, 1'35” ahead of Despres, who nevertheless may have played a good strategic card, since he will have the advantage of starting in 4th position tomorrow, whilst his Catalan rival will have to open the road... Behind, the battle for the 3rd place on the podium is still close: Helder Rodrigues, 7th today 7'31” behind Coma, lost 4'21” to his main rival Jordi Viladoms, and now only has a lead of 26'45” over the 2nd Catalan in the Top 4.
Whilst Gordon put on a show, “Peter” got a big fright… After losing 1 hour and 50 minutes due to a mechanical problem yesterday, Robby Gordon only has stage victories to look forward to as a consolation on the Dakar 2012. Twenty-second to start this morning, the American went on the attack from start to finish on the day's special, annihilating the competition to pick up his 6th stage victory on the Dakar, 15'18” ahead of Russian Leonid Novitskiy, and 22'06” in front of South African Giniel De Villiers.
Respectively 1st and 2nd to get to grips with the tracks this morning, Stephane Peterhansel and Nani Roma both came close to a major setback today when they both got stuck in the sand for a not inconsiderable time. Stephane Peterhansel seemed to fair worse, losing almost 20 minutes to get out of a “sink hole” between dunes after 145 km. However, he hurtled back into the race over “the 50 km where I've attacked the most during the whole rally” in his own words. The man from Vésul eventually caught up with his team-mate and nonetheless rival just before the finishing line to only concede 2'49” to Roma, the Catalan having also encountered the same sort of problems after 155 km, but taking less time to get over the mishap.
Two days from the finish, in the general standings, Stephane Peterhansel therefore brilliantly limited the damage today and now has a lead of exactly 20 minutes over Nani Roma. Behind them, Giniel De Villiers still appears able to protect his 3rd place until Lima, but still has to steer clear of problems and keep a watchful eye on Robby Gordon in fourth who probably still has not given up hope of a podium finish, despite trailing the South African by 37'24”.
42 seconds separated the two Patronelli brothers on the finishing line in Nazca, but this time Marcos was king of the reduced pack of quads still in the race. After Alejandro on Thursday in Arequipa, the 2010 winner triumphed in a stage that was a carbon copy of the previous days' scenarios. The two Patronellis and Maffei are singing from the same hymn sheet without worrying about the other competitors, who are struggling to get themselves noticed. In spite of the difficulties announced and encountered during the day, none of the leading trio faltered and the general standings, with gaps in the region of an hour separating the three men, seems almost set in stone with the perspective of an all Argentinean podium.
Lastly, in the truck category, Andrey Karginov experienced both sides of the Dakar within the space of 24 hours. After winning in Arequipa, he had to admit defeat on the sandy tracks leading to Nazca. Out in front, Gerard De Rooy was victorious, for the 5th time this year. As a result, he retains a solid lead in the general standings. The stage saw the Iveco machines walk away with the first four places on the special, with Hans Stacey and Miki Biasion unusually finishing on exactly the same time, both 32 seconds behind De Rooy! Whilst the first three positions in the general standings are unchanged (De Rooy, Stacey and Ardavichus), Frenchman Joseph Adua has taken advantage of Karginov's mishaps to steal fifth place, a handful of minutes (22'03”) behind fourth-placed Ilgizar Mardeev, with perhaps the hope of placing a 3rd truck from Team De Rooy in the final Top 4.
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