MOTORSPORT: Sainz and Price clear out
Heat plays havoc on the latest stage of the Dakar Rally, but the cards are falling the way of the Aussie and 'The Matador'The heat is well and truly on in the Dakar Rally – with motorcycle ace Toby Price closer to a historic first victory by an Australian and Spaniard Carlos Sainz now out in front of the cars.
‘The Matador’ Sainz leads the cars by more than seven minutes after the latest stage around Belen in Argentina was shortened for the safety of exhausted competitors because of the extreme temperatures – almost 40 degrees.
Two-wheel-drive Peugeots are still one-two in the overall classifications with France’s “Monsieur Dakar” Stephane Peterhansel second to Sainz – but then come the four-wheel-drive MINIs of Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah and Finland’s Mikko Hirvonen, followed by two Toyota HiLuxes and another two MINIs.
Nine-time world rally champion but Dakar rookie Sebastien Loeb got going after his multiple rollover the previous day but, after more problems overnight, is now 2¼ hours off the pace after leading the first week.
Price went further ahead in the motorcycles overnight, perhaps leading by almost 25 minutes – the latest stage results are taking time to finalise because of the cancellations – with four days remaining.
Price has won five of the eight completed stages in the bikes and the event website described his effort overnight on his factory KTM as a “show of force”.
The 28-year-old from NSW’s Hunter Valley called the cancellation of much of the latest stage for many competitors after he had completed it as “a bit of a bummer”.
“But I guess that’s just the way it is,” Price said.
He said he had made a couple of errors and briefly got lost, but “the bike seems really good, really strong”, while the Portuguese rider who had been his main rival, Paulo Goncalves, had more problems with a tree branch puncturing the radiator of his Honda.
Another KTM factory rider, Slovakian Stefan Svitko, is now second.
The Australians in the car category, Peter Jerie and navigator Dale Moscatt in a Toyota HiLux, were 47th on the latest stage, but they took more than twice as long as the leaders.
Sainz’s stage win was the 29th of his Dakar career.
The world rally champion in 1990 and ’92 in Toyota Celicas, he won the Dakar in 2010 in a Volkswagen Touareg.
A surprise second to Sainz on the stage overnight was Erik Van Loon of the Netherlands in a MINI, just 10 seconds behind, with Mikko Hirvonen seven seconds further back in another MINI.
South African Giniel de Villiers was fourth for the day, only 38 seconds slower than Sainz, with last year’s outright victor Al-Attiyah fifth in his MINI.
Peterhansel, 11 times the Dakar winner on two and four wheels, was seventh on the stage overnight after two punctures and twice getting stuck in sand, while Loeb was 73 minutes slower than Sainz – 22nd for the day and now 13th overall.
Loeb said his crash the previous day had been “frustrating” but the event now was about “experience first and foremost” for him and navigator Daniel Elena.
“There was a dip and I didn’t see it,” Loeb said of the crash.
“We arrived on it, fell in and it threw the car off balance and we rolled.
“We broke a lot of things on the car. We had to change two wheels and change the transmission.”
Peterhansel admitted that tonight’s second leg of the “marathon stage” on which competitors were only allowed to change tyres and wash their machinery after last night’s action would be crucial to him overhauling teammate Sainz and scoring a 12th Dakar win.
“The race is still open,” said Peterhansel, now seven minutes and three seconds off the lead.
He said the stage overnight had been “very, very hot, with soft terrain, soft sand”.
“It was like slaloming between the vegetation, so it wasn't easy,” he said.
“Tomorrow it will be a really complicated stage again.
“So if we have another chance to take first position again, I think it will be tomorrow.
“[Last night] we had two punctures, not due to the road but due to the vegetation because we were always close to small trees – really aggressive trees.
“And we got stuck two times – not on the dunes but on terrain that was very soft.
“So two times we got stuck and two times we got punctures.
“At the end of the stage we also had to deal with high pressure in the engine.
“It’s harder for the bikers though.
“For the cars we have more litres of water inside the car, but for the bikers I thought it was at the limit.”
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