• Just two more stages to go to Buenos Aires
The 11th stage, from Salta to Termas Rio Hondo, also was won by a MINI ALL4 Racing. This means that 10 of the 11 stages contested to date were won by the rally car designed and built by X-raid. Today, the Qatar Rally Team, represented by Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) and Mathieu Baumel (FRA), celebrated its fifth stage win and extended its lead over second-placed Giniel de Villiers another time. Behind Al-Attiyah, the Argentineans Orlando Terranova and Bernardo ‘Ronnie’ Graue, racing for the Monster Energy Rally Raid Team, finished second, thus repeating the result they had secured yesterday.
Al-Attiyah is getting closer and closer to securing his second Dakar win but he is not yet ready to be pleased. “There are another two days to go and we have to survive these days,” the driver from Qatar stresses. “We didn’t take any unnecessary risks today but we found a good rhythm and that’s crucial in WRC-like stages such as today’s.” Terranova also got on well and finished runner-up, 27 seconds behind the winner. “It was muddy and slippery at some places and you had to be rather careful. Therefore, we didn’t push to the max.”
By finishing fourth, Russian pairing Vladimir Vasilyev and Konstantin Zhiltsov also added another top-five result to their tally. “We had another good day but to be honest, we don’t really like these WRC tracks,” revealed Zhiltsov. “You are going flat out all the time – or there’s a corner. We rather see our advantages in the sand and the dunes.
The Dutch Van Loon racing crew, Erik van Loon and Wouter Rosegaar, came 11th today. “The track was nice and easy to drive but exciting, too,” said Van Loon who now holds fourth position in the overall standings. The previously third-placed Yazeed Al-Rahji was forced into retirement by a technical problem. “It goes without saying that we noticed that Yazeed was in problems and that we gained another position in the overall standings, thanks to this incident. There were rather muddy sections and I feared to make a mistake in every single corner. But we didn’t lose too much time. And that’s how we want to continue until the Dakar is over.”
The Astana Dakar Team with Aidyn Rakhimbayev (KAZ) and Anton Nikolaev (RUS) came 12th and holds ninth place in the overall standings, now.
Poland’s Krzysztof Holowczyc and his French navigator Xavier Panseri finished 18th, today. “When we saw Yazeed in the liaison section in problems we only thought that we may have the chance to climb up to the podium,” revealed the Pole who now holds third position in the overall standings. “This doesn’t mean that I want my rivals to be forced into retirement like that. But in motor racing, everything has to work perfectly – from the first to the final metre.”
The pairings Boris Garafulic (CHI) / Filipe Palmeiro (POR) and Zhou Yong / Andreas Schulz (GER) finished 21st and 22nd respectively, hold 11th and 12thpositions in the oveerall standings and still have got the chance of making it to the top 10!
Following their accident during the course of stage 10, Nani Roma (ESP) and Michel Périn (FRA) made it back to the bivouac with their damaged MINI ALL4 Racing at 22:45hrs. The team worked on the car throughout the night and at 05:15, it was taken out for a test ride. Later in the morning, however, the race director decided to not let Roma and Périn continue. Afterwards, they drove to the next bivouac via the service route.
Tomorrow, the crews will have to cope with an extremely long stage: on the way to Rosario they have to cover a total distance of 1024 kilometres, comprising of a 248-kilometre liaison section, a 298-kilometre special stage and another 478 kilometres to the bivouac.
