- It’s a whole new game
Today’s special stage proved to be extremely difficult and jumbled the overall standings completely. Having rolled, Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) and Mathieu Baumel (FRA) had to settle for finishing 14th but due to the problems of Peugeot’s Carlos Sainz they moved up to second place in the overall standings, nevertheless. The MINI ALL4 Racing pairing Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) / Michel Périn (FRA) finished 16th, thus defending their fourth position overall. Meanwhile, it was a great day for Nani Roma and Alex Haro (both ESP) who finished fourth. Other than many of their rivals, they completed the stage virtually without any mistakes and as a result, they leaped to seventh position overall, just 18 seconds behind the sixth-placed pairing. Orlando Terranova / Ronnie Graue encountered another difficult day and had to settle for finishing 26th.
Tomorrow’s stage 11 will take the field from La Rioja to San Juan and keeps any kind of sand ready: soft, hard, Fech Fech. At the same time, the 431-kilometre special stage also will feature several riverbeds. Altogether, the competitors will have to cover 712 kilometres.
Result stage nine (for latest verision click here)
1st S. Peterhansel (FRA) / J.-P. Cottret (FRA) Peugeot – 3h 58m 32s
2nd C. Despres (FRA) / D. Castera (FRA) Peugeot – 4h 04m 12s
3rd V. Vasilyev (RUS) / K. Zhiltsiv (RUS) Toyota – 4h 11m 28s
4th J. Roma (ESP) / A. Haro (ESP) MINI ALL4 Racing – 4h 13m 05s
5th S. Loeb (FRA) / D. Elena (MCO) Peugeot – 4h 16m 12s
... 14th N. Al-Attiyah (QAT) / M. Baumel (FRA) MINI ALL4 Racing – 4h 50m 57s
... 16th M. Hirvonen (FIN) / M. Périn (FRA) MINI ALL4 Racing – 4h 54m 36s
... 26th O. Terranova (ARG) / B. Graue (ARG) MINI ALL4 Racing – 6h 41m 29s
Overall standings with eight stages contested (for latest verision click here)
1st S. Peterhansel (FRA) / J.-P. Cottret (FRA) Peugeot – 32h 44m 59s
2nd N. Al-Attiyah (QAT) / M. Baumel (FRA) MINI ALL4 Racing – 33h 44m 59s
3rd G. De Villiers (ZAF) / D. von Zitzewitz (GER) Toyota – 33h 57m 30s
4th M. Hirvonen (FIN) / M. Périn (FRA) MINI ALL4 Racing – 34h 08m 50s
5th L. Poulter (ZAF) / R. Howie (ZAF) Toyota – 34h 18m 57s
... 7th J. Roma (ESP) / A. Haro (ESP) MINI ALL4 Racing – 34h 35m 24s
... 15th O. Terranova (ARG) / B. Graue (ARG) MINI ALL4 Racing – 37h 39m 09s
