MOTORSPORT: Favourites come to the fore on Dakar

MINI All4s and Sainz’s buggy make up top five
The Dakar Rally regained some normality on its second day with the favoured X-Raid MINIs, especially that of French legend Stephane Peterhansel, and Spaniard Carlos Sainz’s buggy coming to the fore after the surprise first-stage win of the Chinese-made Haval.

And Australia’s top bike rider in the two-week rally across South America – from Argentina through Bolivia and then down through Chile to the finish at Valparaiso – finished sixth in that category on day two.

That rider, Ben Grabham from Bathurst on a KTM, headed Spanish ace Marc Coma (ninth on a KTM) and French star Cyril Depres (10th on a Yamaha ) on the 359km second special stage and is now ninth outright in the two-wheel section and behind Coma and Depres overall.

Young Englishman Sam Sunderland gave Honda its second straight stage victory (his first) in the bikes and is third outright behind Spaniard, fellow
Honda rider and day one winner Joan Barreda Bort and Chilean Francisco Lopez Contardo on a KTM.

Grabham’s time on the second stage was 7 minutes 15 seconds slower than Sunderland’s and he is 10 minutes and 5 seconds off the overall lead.

The Australians in the car section lost a lot of time on day two, Garry Connell and Swedish co-driver Annie Seel in a Polaris SSV finishing 83rd, almost 6 hours and 40 minutes slower than Peterhansel’s MINI All4 over the 433km stage to San Rafael, and Peter Jerie and Garry Watman in an Isuzu D-Max 96th , 8½ hours behind Peterhansel.

They are now 82nd and 91st overall among the car field.

As on the opening day from Rosario to San Luis, air temperatures hovered around 40 degrees Celsius – and were furnace-like in the cars.

Stage one winner Carlos Sousa of Portugal ground to a halt 33km into the second special stage as the turbo broke on his Haval H8 made by Great Wall
Motors, robbing him of any hope of victory or even the podium in the torture test in which the manufacturer always has finished in the previous four years.

In winning his 62nd stage in Dakar history, Peterhansel – the event’s most successful competitor both in Europe and Africa and in recent years in South America with five victories on four wheels and six on bikes – jumped from sixth after day one into the outright lead.

“It was a nice stage, really fast at the beginning because the average was more than 100kmh,” Peterhansel said. “It was a mix with a lot of fast tracks, then it was rios [riverbeds] with a lot of rocks and the risk of getting a puncture.

“At the end there were also very nice dunes, but the navigation was easy in the dunes because there were a lot of people everywhere in the dunes. At the top of each dune, it was necessary to follow the public, so it was easy to do the navigation.”

Sainz was 46 seconds behind Peterhansel on stage two in his SMG buggy and has moved up from fifth to second overall, just 28 seconds off the lead.

“It was a good stage - we didn’t have any problems and we just went through very fast,” said Sainz, a former world rally champion and a Dakar winner.

“Some parts were very fast, there were some difficult dunes as well, but everything was okay. We didn't have any punctures. I was a little bit careful to stop the tyres wearing.”

South African Giniel de Villiers recovered from his poor first day to be third on stage two in his Toyota Hilux but more than five minutes behind the victorious MINI. However, MINI All4s occupy the three spots on the overall classifications behind Peterhansel and Sainz as the field heads for San Juan on day three.

These MINIs are driven by Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah (who had three punctures on day two), Spain’s Nani Roma and Argentina’s Orlando Terranova.

De Villiers is now sixth overall, 17 minutes and 10 seconds off the lead, while the second Haval, driven by Frenchman Christian Lavieille, is seventh but almost 21 minutes behind Peterhansel.

The lead Team Ford Racing Ranger from South Africa and driven by Argentines Lucio Alvarez and Ronnie Graue largely made up for the disappointment of day one, when it ended only 140th, by clocking the ninth fastest time on stage two to jump to 38th place.

“We had a much better day with a generally clear run. We picked up a puncture halfway through the stage but it only cost us four minutes,” Alvarez said.

However, the team’s second Ranger is out after a heavy rollover in the Nihuil dunes after which South African driver Chris Visser had to be rescued by helicopter with a neck injury.

Stage three, overnight tonight Australian time, comprises a 301km special after a similar distance in liaison. The altitude on the stage varies from 1800m to 3100m for the first two thirds, then drops as low as 1000m near the end. The 6962m Aconcagua Volcano towers over the route.

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