Video: The stage summary - Stage 13 (Nasca - Pisco)

Hélder Rodrigues may have taken his first stage victory in the 2012 Dakar, but Cyril Despres was the real winner of the 13th special. Despres took advantage of Marc Coma's gearbox problems, with the Catalan leading the field and under pressure, to claw back 12'38". Just 24 hours away from the end of the race in Lima, he seized the overall lead with an 11'03" margin over the Catalan. Today was an eventful day for the leaders in the car category, with Nani Roma getting stuck and Robby Gordon's car doing a somersault. Once again, Stéphane Peterhansel thrived in difficult conditions and took his third stage win in 2012. He now leads the overall classification with a 42'57" margin.

Rodrigues for the honour, Despres for the win... France's Cyril Despres produced today's star performance, taking advantage of his fourth place in the field and the pressure on Marc Coma, who led the field today and had gearbox problems from km 25 onwards. The rider who lives in Andorra soon overtook the three pilots ahead of him and took Hélder Rodrigues on his wheel. He piled the pressure on the Catalan and forced him to attack with broken 2nd and 3rd gears, eventually "cracking" him when Coma got lost at km 207. As a result, Rodrigues took his first win in 2012 (fifth career win at the Dakar), while Despres finished second, 47" behind the Portuguese rider but 12'38" ahead of Coma...


With only 29 kilometres to go in the last special on Sunday, Cyril Despres climbed back to the top of the overall classification and will be able to take things carefully in the last stage thanks to his 11'03" margin over the Catalan. Coma is expected to replace his engine this evening, which entails a 45-minute penalty. Behind him, today's winner Hélder Rodrigues all but sewed up his place on the third step of the final podium with a 29'45" lead over Spain's Jordi Viladoms.

Gordon goes too far, Nani gets stuck and Peter consolidates his lead... Robby Gordon was on the attack from the very beginning of today's special in an attempt to prove his sheer power once again. But when you try too hard, you often end up making mistakes, and Gordon was no exception! He first lost several minutes on the dunes at km 182, but this only made him angrier and more eager to prove how fast he is! As a result, the Hummer flew over a dune 22 kilometres later and did a somersault Gordon was able to continue... after losing over 36 minutes!

The area near km 182 was quite tricky, as Spain's Nani Roma learned the hard way. The Catalan driver was stuck for over 25 minutes, until his Portuguese teammate Ricardo Leal dos Santos came to his rescue. He lost 22'57" to today's winner, no other than overall leader Stéphane Peterhansel! The Frenchman thrived in difficult conditions once again and made the most of his experience to avoid all the traps in the special. This earned him his 59th stage win at the Dakar (all categories included), 8'29" ahead of ever-consistent Giniel de Villiers and 12'55" ahead of his Russian teammate Leonid Novitskiy.

The nine-time winner of the rally in the car and motorcycle categories now leads the overall classification with a 42'57" margin over his Spanish teammate Nani Roma and 1 h 15'09" over South Africa's Giniel de Villiers, whose gamble with Toyota is paying dividends. Behind them, Leonid Novitskiy took advantage of Gordon's aerial acrobatics to move up to fourth, 7'09" ahead of the American.

In the quad category, the Patronellis probably took things carefully in the last big special, but their most consistent rival, Tomás Maffei, was no undeserving winner. He took his 3rd scratch this year and confirmed his potential. Just like Sergio La Fuente, who slipped in between the Argentineans to take second in today's stage. He had already finished second on the occasion of his double whammy in the first two stages, as well as in the Atacaman loop stage around Copiapó. Although this last battle did not change the status quo in the final classification (Alejandro and Marcos Patronelli, followed by Maffei), it did reveal who the contenders will be at the next Dakar.

Finally, in the truck category, Russia's Andrey Karginov seized his second stage win. The 12th rider to start this morning (after yesterday's mishaps) beat Brazil's André de Azevedo by 20'14" and the Netherlands' Hans Stacey by 22'09. The Dutchman was shadowed by his teammates Miki Biasion and Gerard de Rooy. No changes in the overall classification, where Gerard de Rooy still leads with a 53'16" margin over Stacey. Kazakhstan's Artur Ardavichus, 1 h 48'25" back in third, drove defensively to ensure Kamaz will place at least one of their trucks on the final podium of the 2012 edition.

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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.

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Video: 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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Stage 11 - Driver Quotes

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 Farres Guell:
Being able to finish 2nd is important for me and for the team. When I arrived at the neutralised stage, I was told that I was in the lead. I increased my speed from there on to continue like before and try and win a stage on the Dakar. In the end, it wasn't possible, but I'm happy because yesterday I was suffering physically but today I'm feeling much better. We are having a good Dakar. All the team is doing well. We are consistent and have managed some well placed finishes.

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.

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.

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.

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Video: The stage summary - Stage 11 (Arica - Arequipa)

For its arrival in Peru, the Dakar 2012 saw Cyril Despres win his 4th stage of this year's rally and gain extra time over Marc Coma, with a lead of now 2'22” in the general standings. More significantly, this 11th stage has genuinely proven that the confrontation between the two men is starting to resemble a chess match. Robby Gordon would have liked to play at this game right to the finish, but in the car race the American suffered mechanical problems and lost more than one hour today, leaving the way open for the general standings leader, Stephane Peterhansel, who won his 25th stage in a car on the Dakar.

Whilst the Dakar history books will note that Cyril Despres was the first rider to win in Peru, the 27th country to welcome the caravan of the world's biggest rally-raid, the records of today's stage will note that the Frenchman gained a bit of breathing space in the general standings between Arica and Arequipa. Indeed, by settling on catching up with Marc Coma, who set off just before him this morning, then following him all day, the Frenchman put in a strategically perfect performance to pick up his 30th stage victory on the Dakar and more significantly gain 2'01” over the Catalan.

He will definitely be needing it! This 11th special stage also saw a strategic battle from the Coma clan, who worked to place its leader in an ideal position in before the big special of dunes between Arequipa et Nasca. Catalan Gerard Farres Guell attacked all along the 478 km of special to finally achieve the 2nd best time of the day, 1'39” behind Despres. As a result, Farres Guell will start tomorrow in front of his friend Marc Coma, on the 12th stage, allowing Coma the possibility to “easily” regain 4 minutes over the Frenchman. Furthermore, another Gallic rider Johnny Aubert, promoted to water carrier for Coma after the withdrawal of Pedrero yesterday, also put in a superb performance to accomplish the 4th best time of the day and will now start the next stage just behind his leader.




However, for the moment, Cyril Despres has reinforced his position as general standings leader, with a lead that now stands at 2'22” over his best enemy. Behind them, Helder Rodrigues experienced a difficult day after stalling on a river crossing at the 21-km point of the special, which led to him losing 7'44” at the finishing line! The Portuguese rider is still well placed on the 3rd step of the provisional podium with a lead of 16'06” over fourth placed rider Jordi Viladoms.

In the car race, Robby Gordon has lost his chance of triumph on a day marked by a breakdown of his cardan suspension that stopped him for more than an hour of repairs, leaving the road open to the Minis for the final battle. In the inter-team duel that Stephane Peterhansel and Nani Roma are now involved in, the Frenchman took another step towards his 10th title, in all categories, by winning his 25th stage in a car on the Dakar, 3'44” ahead of his Catalan team-mate. In the general standings, “Peter” now boasts a lead of 22'49” over Roma. Benefitting from Gordon's problems, South African Giniel de Villiers has climbed on to the third step of the provisional podium, admittedly 1 hour 11 minutes behind the leader, but still has a good chance of keeping this position until Lima.

In the quad race, the game seems to be up in light of the Patronelli brothers' domination of their rivals. Alejandro, the title holder and category leader since the 7th stage, achieved his 10th stage victory on the Dakar and his 3rd in 2012, once again in front of his younger sibling, Marcos. Tomas Maffei, the only rider who is showing a fragment of resistance to the men from Las Flores, conceded more time today, finishing 18'57” behind, and seems to be resigned to the fact. This is not surprising, when in the general standings Alejandro Patronelli now boasts a lead of 1 hour and 20 minutes over Marcos and 1:55'43 over their countryman Maffei. In 4th, Ignacio Casale trails the leader by more than 5 hours!


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Video: The stage summary - Stage 10 (Iquique - Arequipa)

Despite injuring his right foot after 35 km of this 10th special stage, Joan Barreda confirmed his status as the major revelation of 2012 by picking up his first stage victory on the Dakar, ahead of Marc Coma and Cyril Despres. However, the Frenchman, who opened the road today, hangs on to his position as general standings leader, but only by 21 seconds ahead of the Catalan. In the car category, the day witnessed a third stage victory in 2012 for Nani Roma in front of the general standings leader, Stephane Peterhansel. The Catalan also took advantage of a mistake by Gordon and the mechanical problems suffered by Holowczyc to move into 2nd place in the general standings.

Joan Barreda Bort, the unquestionable revelation of the 33rd Dakar in the bike category, with 3 special stage finishes in the Top 5, displayed his full potential by winning his first special on the Dakar on the 10th stage. Not merely content with being quick, the young Spaniard also proved that he has a character to be reckoned with, by winning despite a severe injury to his right foot picked up after 35 km of the 377 on the day's programme.

In the end, Barreda beat Marc Coma and Cyril Despres by 1'32” and 3'39” respectively. Still engaged in a battle for outright victory, the two rivals again returned blow for blow and, after winning yesterday and having the disadvantage of opening the road today, the Frenchman saw the Catalan triumph in terms of time, with Coma taking 2'07” back from his main rival. As a result, in the general standings, whilst Despres is still leader, he is now only 21” ahead of Coma.

Behind them, however, the situation is starting to become clearer for Helder Rodrigues. With the 4th best time of the day, he took advantage of a fall by his countryman Paulo Gonçalves to gain a little more comfort in 3rd place in the general standings, boasting a lead that now stands at 32'56” over Jordi Viladoms in 4th. The day's main loser was Gonçalves, as today's mishaps added a further 19'23” to his time, relegating him to 7th in the general standings.


Cracks may be starting to show in Gordon's armour... The car race witnessed a fantastic duel between Robby Gordon, 1st to start this morning, and Stephane Peterhansel, the two main rivals for victory in Lima, with the role of opening the road exchanged several times. However, at the end of the special, whilst he was out in front, the American came off the tracks and damaged the front left wing of his car, leaving the road open for “Peter” to go on and win. But instead, Nani Roma had the final word in the debate. Third to start, the constantly consistent Catalan again put in a perfect performance to win his 5th stage victory on the Dakar.

More significantly, in the general standings, Nani Roma not only took advantage of the mishap suffered by Gordon, who in the end lost 14'14” today, but also the mechanical problems encountered by Poland's Krzysztof Holowczyc, whose power steering broke down after 50 km, to grab 2nd place in the general standings, 19'05” behind the unchanged leader Peterhansel, now 46” ahead of Gordon…

It should be noted that the car race officials' committee today published the following press release: “On completion of the 9th stage (Antofagasta-Iquique), following observation of technical non-compliance on vehicle No. 303 (Robby Gordon) (article 1P and 3P of the technical rules), the Car Race Officials' Committee has decided to disqualify No. 303 from the race. The driver has appealed against this decision. During appeals, decisions are placed on hold. As a result, vehicle No. 303 will continue the rally until the outcome of the appeal”.

In the quad category, the stages roll by with little change. Even if a Patronelli did not win today, an Argentinean was still victorious: Tomas Maffei achieved the best time of the day. He regained 12'56” on Marcos Patronelli in their fight for second place in the general standings, where he now only trails the winner in 2010 by 17'17”. The day's special also clearly pointed to the trend emerging at the end of the rally because the first 5 riders on the stage were also the first 5 in the general standings. Fourth-placed in this group, Ignacio Casale is 4 hours and 15 minutes behind Alejandro Patronelli in the general standings and fifth placed Sergio Lafuente trails the leader by 6 hours and 36 minutes.

Lastly, in the truck race, this 10th special saw the first stage victory of Kazakh driver Artur Ardavichus on the Dakar, but more significantly the first for a Kamaz on this 2012 edition, 2'18” ahead of his Russian team-mate Andrey Karginov. However, to achieve this feat, the two Kamaz trucks benefitted from a navigation mistake in the first few kilometres by Gerard de Rooy who led his “lieutenant” Hans Stacey with him. This has not had a major effect on the general standings though, where De Rooy still leads comfortably, 59'27” ahead of Stacey. However, the 2007 winner saw Ardavichus gain on him, with the Kazakh now lying only 4'50” behind the second placed driver.

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Stage 10 - Driver Quotes

Robby Gordon:

I hit a rock with both right-side tyres and as you can see this wheel is way out, so we've got some broken parts. Do I think I can win again? Of course. I was passing him [Peterhansel], he didn't move over and I clobbered a rock and got two flat tyres at the same time. So, we've got our work cut out for us. We've got a damaged race car that we're going to have work on and there's a lot of damage from what I can see. Now we'll push, push, push even harder.

Joan Barreda Bort:

After the rear wheel problems I had on the 3rd day, I've been taking it day by day. On the last stages it has been better and yesterday, for example, I saw that I could go on the attack, so I went for it. On today's stage, I had a problem with my foot. On a very quick bend, where I was at 120 kmph, I hit a stone with my foot and I thought that the impact had torn my leg off. When I arrived at the refuelling zone, I took some painkillers and it was ok until the end of the stage. I even sped up. We'll see what's happened to me. I thought I might have fractured my shin, but I don't think I have. I don't know how serious the injury is, but I think I should be ok and be able to finish in Lima.

Gerard de Rooy:

We went the wrong way and followed yesterday's special. We lost a lot of time there. The Kamaz passed us, but I overtook them again, so we didn't lose a lot of minutes to him today, a maximum of one minute or something, but that's life. The rest was good: the special was nice and the dunes were good. A lot of people were stuck in the dunes, but we didn't have any problems. I'm happy and I'm counting every day, hoping not to lose the gap that I have. I hope we will survive and make it to Lima.

Stephane Peterhansel:

Today it was a big fight with Gordon. At the beginning he was a little bit slower than us. We overtook him when he made a navigation mistake, but at the end he overtook me again. He was really fast on a very short corner to the left, very tight, and he went straight on and jumped off a small cliff. I was sure that he rolled, but when I saw again through the dust he was on his wheels. I think something happened with his car, I don't know exactly why or what – maybe the tyre? I don't know…

Cyril Despres:

It was all going well for me until the 225-km point and I'd managed to keep up a good pace. But I made a small navigation mistake and that's when Marc overtook me. He was with Joan Barreda, who I'd like to congratulate on riding a superb stage. At this level, every second counts! It's a scenario that I thought might happen, so I'm not surprised. I'm just happy to have got through another day. In any case, staying out in front for the whole 377 km whilst riding flat out isn't easy. If I finish in his dust or him in mine, it doesn't change that much.

Marc Coma:

It's the tone that's been set for the rally and I think we'll keep on battling until the end. We keep trying to make the difference all the time and the entry into Peru will be decisive. The race will hinge on the smallest of margins. When the performance level is equivalent with the same team and the same bike, it's very difficult, both for him and for me. But when it comes to the crunch, it will be entirely to do with one rider or the other.

Giniel de Villers:

I think it was the toughest stage so far. It was really tricky at the beginning with a lot of rocks and a lot of fesh-fesh and you really had to be quite sharp. In the dunes it was also difficult with the visibility, it wasn't easy to see, although the crossing were not too difficult. But for sure, there was the fesh-fesh and very bumpy roads and also in some places we had quite tricky navigation as well. We just tried to follow the road-book exactly and we didn't make any mistakes. The Toyota ran well again today, so no complaints. Well, I think the cars are running pretty good. We've had no technical issues and nothing from a reliability point of view. It's been excellent. We lack the power and performance to compete up front, unfortunately we cannot quite be there, but, like I said, we've got to look to the future. We're running with a new regulation already, with a standard engine and the front cars are running with highly modified engines, so if we take that we are doing pretty good. We tried to push. If we have stages like today I think anything is possible because on a stage like today a lot of things can happen. It's not easy, but that's what we're looking for: the more difficult it gets, the better it is for us.

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Video: The stage summary - Stage 9 (Antofagasta - Iquique)

By winning his third stage on the Dakar 2012, 3'54” in front of his main rival Marc Coma, Frenchman Cyril Despres has returned to the top of the general standings on conclusion of the mythical Antofagasta-Iquique stage and now leads the Catalan by 2'28”. As for the cars, after having finished 2nd on the last 3 stages, Robby Gordon finally managed to win a stage on the Dakar 2012, at the end of a day that rhymed with all out attack. In the end, the American won by 1'38” ahead of Stephane Peterhansel, moving back to within 5'58” of the Frenchman in the general standings. The only sour note of the day for Gordon was the withdrawal of his team-mate and the title holder, Nasser Al-Attiyah, leaving Gordon as a lonesome cowboy a long way from home… In the truck race, the 2nd placed driver in the general standings, Czech Alès Loprais, was forced to exit the race.

In the end Cyril Despres only needed a day to brush away the memory of his muddy mishap on the 8th stage. Seventh to get to grips with the day's special, altered to 606 km in length due to weather-related changes to the route, the Frenchman set off at a frightening pace. In the lead at all the day's check points, Despres displayed his talent at high speed to win his 3rd stage on the Dakar 2012 and the man with whom he is the best of enemies, Marc Coma, who finished 2nd today. Hindered by having to open the road, the Catalan nevertheless went out on full attack on both of the day's timed sections, but mainly to limit the damage in the general standings. Indeed, at the end of this very long special stage, all the Spaniard could do was hand back the command of the race to his sole rival, who he now trails by 2'28”… The duel is far from over, though, especially since both riders changed their engines yesterday evening and are therefore equal in strategic terms.

Still just as surprisingly consistent on his 2nd participation, Spaniard Juan Barreda Bort achieved the 3rd best time of the day, 8'28” behind Despres, but more than three minutes ahead of regulars on the event like Helder Rodrigues and Paulo Goncalves. Still in with a shout for the final podium, the two Portuguese riders are now separated by 26'38” in favour of Rodrigues. However, after blowing his engine at the 550-km point of the special stage, David Casteau will have to bid goodbye to the battle for 3rd place.

In the car category, American Robby Gordon finally reacquainted himself with triumph on the Dakar, by winning the 9th stage, 1'38” ahead of general standings leader Stephane Peterhansel. Absorbed in a day-long chase after the American, “Peter” came back to within 19” seconds of the Hummer at CP5 before Gordon put into play the full power of his orange monster over the last 80 kilometres and in particular the infernal final 32%-gradient descent to Iquique. At the end of the day, victory went to Gordon, his 5th stage win on the Dakar, enabling him to get back to within 5'58” of the green Mini in the general standings.

On four wheels, the situation also seems to be heading for a duel, since the 3rd placed finisher on the day, Nani Roma, clocked in more the 8 minutes behind! Taking advantage of a minor crash by Holowzcyc in the last few kilometres, the Spaniard cut the Polish driver's lead in the general standings over him in half. Holowzcyc is still 3rd, but is now only 2'37” ahead of the winner of the Dakar 2004 in the bike category.



In particular, this 9th stage witnessed the exit from the race of title holder Nasser Al-Attiyah! Once again let down by problems with his engine and alternator drive belts, the Qatari finally decided to drop out after 200 km of the day's special stage, leaving Gordon alone against the armada of Minis.

In the quad race, there are the Patronellis… and then there are the others. Whilst the first Argentinean stages seemed to show that the competition was well organised, by the midway point of the rally there is no doubt left. In Iquique, for the 4th day running, the Patronelli brothers were victorious and did not even leave any crumbs of comfort for their rivals. Finishing 44 minutes after the siblings, who rode together throughout the day, Tomas Maffei lost his 2nd place in the general standings, where the gaps have started to grow! As a result, whilst Tomas Maffei trails Alejandro Patronelli by 1 hour and 50 minutes, Casale and Lafuente, respectively 4th and 5th, are 4 hours 7 minutes and 6 hours seventeen minutes behind the leader.

Finally, in the truck race, the bad news came from the camp of Alès Loprais. After taking part in a superb struggle with Gerard De Rooy on the first half of the special, the Czech driver, 2nd in the general standings at the time, was forced to drop out of the race after an accident on the neutralised section of the route. Deprived of his most serious rival, the Dutchman logically eased off during the second timed section to cross the finishing line in 3rd place on the day, behind his faithful lieutenants, Hans Stacey and Miki Biasion. As a result, the Italian won his 2nd stage on the Dakar, 20” ahead of the category winner in 2007. In the general standings, Gerard De Rooy nevertheless comforts his lead and is now 47'32” ahead of his team-mate Hans Stacey and 1:06'40” in front of the first Kamaz driven by Kazakh Artur Ardavichus.

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Stage 9 - Driver Quotes

Robby Gordon:

It was a very good special for us again. Now it's just a waiting game to see how soon Peterhansel comes behind me. On the transfer stage, I think we had him beat by about a minute and a half. But we need more than a minute and a half, so I pushed very hard on the last section, as hard as I could go the whole time and it will be interesting to see how much time we put on him because we pushed, like qualifying hard, not really knowing where you're going. We had a couple of big scary moments. For us, we've got to make time. We're in a different position to him. He has to conserve his time and I've got to make it. We've got four days left, four real days of racing left and the Hummer's strong. 19 seconds? He made a lot of time up on me, then. I can't believe he could catch us there, because we were going crazy. So he's a madman; if he beats us, he's a madman. Madder than me!

Gerard de Rooy:

The first part was very hard, but we had a good fight with Ales. He made a mistake on a navigation part and I passed him then was just in front of him. That was the big goal today, just to stay close to him. So the rest of the day went great for Miki. Ales started again with a crash. I don't know how they are, but the truck is finished I heard. I don't know about the crew inside, but I hoped they wore their safety belts. But, yes, it was not good for him. It was a nice stage, especially the last part. Normally I would have had a good fight, but then it was a bit boring, though I was thinking about Loprais. We had a very good fight from day one and he was very close. Yesterday and today we were fighting together really hard, but I'm really sad it has to end like this. But that's life, I think.

Helder Rodrigues:

It's a mythical stage of the rally, very long and with lots of navigation. I rode at a good pace, to try and stay in contact with Marc and Cyril. I think that if I continue like that it will be a good rally. Marc and Cyril are fighting for the general standings lead and are very quick. Can they still make mistakes? Anything is possible.

Marc Coma:

We knew that this would be a difficult race. It was long and there was plenty of navigation to deal with. We're coming to the crunch part of the rally. Cyril is a major rival and we do battle over every single kilometre. But I think it's interesting, it's sport. Yesterday, the KTM technicians decided it was time to change our engines because we'd reached the half-way point. It's a very good idea.

Krzysztof Holowczyc:

95% of the stage was very good. On the last section, we missed the road, I tried to back up and rolled the car onto the roof. We asked spectators to help and a biker stopped as well. I must say a big, big thank you to him. We put the car back on its wheels and restarted, but we lost a lot of minutes. That's what happens when you push too much. But, for sure, we're still in the game, it's happened now and that's rallies, they're like that. We were pushing, pushing, pushing; nothing more, just 10 km from here. We missed the road and I tried to back up and that was it. One time we missed the road and Stephane overtook us. Afterwards we came back and on the stony area, I overtook him and we made a one minute gap again. It's not so bad, we feel confident and the road was good for me. But at the end there was just one mistake.

Cyril Despres:

It's feeling good. After a difficult day yesterday when you start to doubt, I had to get back to winning ways. It wasn't easy to psyche myself up for it, but I'm very happy with my day's work. We came into this looking at a battle for seconds or minutes. It's very competitive. Like any top level sportsman, if you don't like confrontation or squeezing the last ounces of strength out of yourself, then you're not ready for a fight. But, as for me, I'm up for it.

Stephane Peterhansel:

We limited the damage a bit, because it was still a special in the middle of the desert and rather tough. It depends on which special, but for a while we've been beaten fair and square. When the Hummers don't have any problems, they are a bit quicker than us. We're going to fight to hold on to the slender lead we have over him. I started to wonder if Nasser was having technical problems when I saw that he wasn't catching me up. It's true that we didn't see him all day long. It means that Gordon is on his own now and for us that makes things a little bit better. There are flaws with the Hummers. I just hope that we'll be able to take advantage of them.

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Video: The stage summary - Stage 8 (Copiapo - Antofagasta)

Despite being the first rider on the course, Marc Coma managed to avoid the muddy trap which later caught Cyril Despres. As a result, the Catalan took his 20th stage win at the Dakar and, most importantly, seized the overall lead, where he now has a 1'26" margin over Despres. In the car category, it was also a Catalan who claimed the win in Antofagasta: Nani Roma, who beat Robby Gordon by 5 seconds. As a consolation prize, the American gained over 5'30" on Stéphane Peterhansel, whose overall lead has now dwindled to 7'36".

Despres hands Coma his 20th win on a platter... Nevertheless, the 477-kilometre stage 8 between Copiapó and Antofagasta did not start well for Marc Coma, the first rider to hit the course this morning. After making a small navigation mistake in the first few kilometres, the defending champion was losing one minute... when everything changed at km 11. The Catalan, who was still riding at the front of the race, avoided a muddy río and forged ahead, while Cyril Despres fell into the trap. The overall leader's bike got stuck in the mud, taking Paulo Gonçalves with him... Both of them spent almost ten minutes and massive amounts of energy to get out of there. Suddenly, the path to victory had cleared for Coma. It was a chance he could not possibly miss! Aware of his rival's mishaps, the Catalan rider put the hammer down from the very beginning, until the risk of damage to his own motorcycle made him lower his pace near the finish. In the end, he bagged his 20th Dakar win (fourth one this year) with a 7'00" gap over Portugal's Ruben Faria and 8'44" over Hélder Rodrigues, another Portuguese rider.




Nevertheless, the motorcycle race officials rectified the situation after the end of the stage: given that the organisers had changed the route of today's stage after the seventh motorcycle had gone by (in order to prevent the caravan from getting stuck in the muddy río), the race directors decided to deduct the time lost by Coma, Despres, Gonçalves, Rodrigues, Farrés Güell, Ullevalseter and Casteu from their final times. As a result, Marc Coma seized the lead with a 1'26" margin over Cyril Despres. Behind them, the last podium step is still up for grabs, with Hélder Rodrigues in third place, 20'51" ahead of David Casteu, who today climbed to the fourth place. Paulo Gonçalves now sits fifth, 2'19" behind the Frenchman.

Roma beats Gordon by a "nani"-metre... In the car category, Robby Gordon gave it his all once more in an attempt to get his first stage win in the 2012 edition. And it seemed so close for eight minutes, until the ever-consistent Nani Roma arrived and ended up winning... by 5 meagre seconds! Nevertheless, this propelled the American up the overall classification thanks to his gains of 2'04" on Krzysztof Hołowczyc and 5'33" on Stéphane Peterhansel, who went down with a flat tyre 30 km before the finish. As a result, Gordon now sits in second place, 12" ahead of the Pole and, most importantly, "just" 7'36" behind "Peter".

Today's stage was once more marked by the bad luck of Nasser Al-Attiyah, whose Hummer was plagued by technical problems again. The Qatari, who was the first driver on the course, was forced to stop several times during the special due to reasons including wobbly spare tyres and alternator problems. Despite finishing the stage at full speed, the defending champion lost another 8'09" and is now 45'25" behind the race leader.

Throughout most of the special, today's quad race saw a lone rider: Alejandro Patronelli, who led the special at the first three checkpoints and only surrendered the lead in the last few kilometres, when his brother Marcos surged ahead to win by 38". This new stellar performance by the two Argentineans was only threatened from afar by the inevitable Tomás Maffei, who lost 9'50" but defended his second place in the overall classification, where Marcos Patronelli inched closer to him and now stands 12'52" back.

Finally, the truck category. After finishing the last two stages in second place, the Czech Republic's Ales Loprais has finally taken his first win in this edition, which is also his fourth Dakar victory. He won by 1'31" over general classification leader, the Netherlands' Gerard de Rooy, who nevertheless kept a comfortable margin of 15'39" over Loprais and 48'06" over his Dutch teammate Hans Stacey.

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Video: The stage summary - Stage 7 (Copiapó - Copiapó)

A war of nerves started today between Marc Coma and Cyril Despres, who spent the entire stage keeping an eye on each other while riding at full speed, on very fast sand courses in the first part of the special and then in strings of dunes which they crossed without blinking or losing sight of each other. On the other hand, many motorcycle riders will have no choice but to spend the night here! At any rate, Cyril Despres kicked off the stage by navigating at the front of the race. Marc Coma locked on to him to post the fastest intermediate times and had already put one hand on the stage win by the middle of the special. After the neutralised sector, the Catalan pilot overtook his teammate and started blazing a trail through the dunes. Despres played it safe by matching his rival's pace and conceded 2'03" at the finish, but managed to keep his lead in the general classification with a margin of 7'48".

Behind the two favourites, the battle rages on among podium contenders, who could still earn a bigger prize should the leaders collapse. It has happened before! Paulo Gonçalves proved his win in Iquique last year was much more than a stroke of luck by posting the third best time in today's special, 2'49" behind Coma (and just 46" behind Despres). His performance also moved him closer to his fellow countryman Hélder Rodrigues, over whom Cyril Despres still has a very comfortable margin of 49'39". Francisco "Chaleco" López produced the most disappointing performance of the day: the local hero started the first Chilean special in the 2012 Dakar with a fall which handicapped him for the rest of the stage. He finished half an hour down on Coma and almost fell out of the Top 10.




Nasser Al-Attiyah, on the other hand, is gradually upping his game and is now on a quest to climb up the general classification which could see him crack the Top 5, especially if he is able to keep up today's infernal pace. The eleventh driver to start this morning and his Hummer already held the sixth best time at the end of the first part of the special (km 143). He then morphed into the Usain Bolt of the desert and overtook five cars in the last 200 kilometres. And not just any cars: De Villiers' Toyota, Sousa's Great Wall and Leal dos Santos and Novitskiy's Minis. This earned him his 14th stage win at the Dakar and reduced by 7'53" the gap with Stéphane Peterhansel, who defended his overall lead.

Having a fighting spirit is obviously a shared value at Team Gordon. Just like his star draftee, team boss Robby produced a stunning performance. He lost some time at the beginning of the stage and only held the 42nd best time at km 31. But the Californian crossed the finish line after a spectacular drive, placing another Hummer behind Al-Attiyah's in the special classification, with the symbolic satisfaction of having beaten the Minis, including Peterhansel. In the general classification, as of the rest day the Frenchman still seems on track to take his 10th win at the rally. The gaps behind him are very small, with Krzysztof Hołowczyc 11'22'' back and Robby Gordon 13'09'' back in third. The Hummers have not had their final say yet.

It was also a very eventful stage in the quad category, with a never-seen-before Top 3: Alejandro Patronelli ahead of Ignacio Casale (+16'10'') and Sergio Lafuente (+33'59''). But the loop around Copiapó also yielded unexpected changes in the general classification, with a transfer of power at the top. Alejandro Patronelli toppled Tomás Maffei and now leads him by 58'53". Nevertheless, the main event of the day was the massive amount of time lost by Marcos. The 2010 champion finished the stage 1 h 20' behind his brother. Marcos still has a podium place, but the race is now Alejandro's to lose. This upheaval benefitted two young competitors: Lucas Bonetto, fourth in the general classification, and Ignacio Casale, fifth. Both are more than two hours back but their consistency has yielded its first tangible reward.

The De Rooy saga continues in the truck category. The team leader took his third win straight and seems poised to take the overall victory in Lima. While the Kamaz menace has been blunted by Eduard Nikolaev's disqualification, the Ivecos will have to keep an eye on Ales Loprais, the most consistent of their rivals. After finishing second yet again in today's stage, 3'59" behind Gerard de Rooy, he has so far been able to limit the gap between them in the general classification to 17 minutes. More or less the time lost in the event of a flat tyre!

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Video: The stage summary - Stage 5 (Chilecito - Fiambala)

Cyril Despres's 28th stage victory on the Dakar has allowed him to increase his lead over Marc Coma in the general standings. The competition is struggling to keep up with the two champions. In the car race, a special stage win goes to a fourth Mini, the one driven by Krzysztof Holowczyc, who picks up his first ever stage triumph on the Dakar.

As the saying goes, two's a company, three's a crowd, and the Dakar seems to prefer duos. Between Cyril Despres and Marc Coma, the battles are always intense. Their virtuosity behind the handlebars is starting to significantly distance them from their challengers. The bad weather conditions that forced the organisers to shorten the day's special also prevented Despres from making a genuine breakaway in the dunes near Fiambala. However, he was able to add 1'41” to his lead over Coma, by triumphing after 185 kilometres of tracks and river beds which he mostly tackled just behind his rival and, nonetheless, team-mate. In the general standings, the distance of 9'50” at which the title holder finds himself is not an insurmountable obstacle, bearing in mind that Coma is capable of resounding feats. Behind the duo, the gap is imposing, however, and is growing every day by approximately ten minutes.

Frans Verhoeven, who had managed to stay at a pace almost comparable to the two leading men, only lasted around fifty kilometres before stopping due to mechanical problems. The Dutchman was able to resume the race, but the time lost has probably damaged his objective of a Top 5 finish. For the moment, Helder Rodrigues remains the most regular pursuer, but is still 47 minutes behind. Having managed to hang in there after a catastrophic stage yesterday, Joan Barreda still has the profile of a possible special stage winner: he has shown once again, by achieving the day's 3rd best time, that his efforts pay off occasionally. The same is also true for Stefan Svitko, who finished 4th on the special stage, 13'05” behind Despres.




A stage victory, a first step to joining the club of competitors to take note of, was probably one of the intermediate goals of Krzysztof Holowczyc. The Polish driver, who just missed out twice already this year, deprived of a triumph in Santa Rosa by Novitskiy and in San Juan by Roma, was rewarded for his consistency by a prestigious stage victory on exiting the dunes around Fiambala. In the X-Raid team, four of the five Minis taking part have won a stage! Today's triumph could have gone to a Hummer, however. Robby Gordon and Nasser Al Attiyah continue to blow hot and cold over the race. Gordon finished the stage only 1'01” behind Holowczyc and is the leading pursuer of the Minis, with his 4th place in the general standings, 13'32” behind Peterhansel. As for Nasser Al Attiyah, he achieved the best intermediate times on the stage, only to be stopped by a broken coolant inlet pipe on his radiator. He is now eighth in the general standings, but this does not mean that the Qatari driver has finished putting on amazing displays.

Orlando Terranova is also capable of putting on a show and proved this fact yesterday with the second best time. However, after an argument in the evening with Andy Grider, his co-pilot, the latter decided to leave the rally. As a result, Toyota Hilux No. 308 did not take starter's orders this morning. These types of trials and tribulations are unlikely to happen with Giniel De Villiers, who lost a good quarter of an hour in the dunes, but who hung on to fifth place in the general standings, 21'01” behind “Peter”.

In the quad category, there was a third consecutive Argentine stage victory. Marcos Patronelli, winer of the rally in 2010, beat his brother Alejandro, the title holder, by less than two minutes and Tomas Maffei by 4'08”. Only Lucas Bonetto got anywhere near the infernal trio but finished the day's special stage 26'41” behind. In the general standings, the three riders are all alone out in front and outright victory, unless there are major mishaps, will be settled between Maffei, today leader by 35 seconds, and Alejandro as well as Marcos, who is in third, only by 2'04”'.

Today, the closest battle was in the truck category, between Gerard De Rooy and Ales Loprais. The trend apparent between the start of the rally continued: the Argentine tracks smile on the Dutch clan. De Rooy won his third stage this year, with a lead of only 14” over his Czech rival. Behind them, Miki Biasion and Hans Stacey were again the quickest, doing just enough to feature in the day's standings ahead of the Kamaz trucks driven by Nikolaev and Ardavichius.

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