Stephane Peterhansel is on the verge of an 11th Dakar Rally victory after driving cautiously through the event’s penultimate stage on Friday.
The X-raid Mini driver was only ninth quickest on the run from Copiapo to La Serene, almost 14 minutes off the pace.
But his advantage in the second half of the rally has been so great that even with that time loss Peterhansel still holds a 44-minute cushion going into Saturday’s closing 128 kilometre stage to Santiago.
The fight for stage 13 honours was a close one. Robby Gordon looked to be in control until a surge from Guerlain Chicherit, and ultimately the Hummer driver pipped his SMG Buggy rival by just 22 seconds.
Gordon’s second stage win in three days brings him up to 14th in the outright standings.
The major change to the leaderboard was for third place. One day after his fastest time on stage 12 brought him past X-raid team-mate Leonid Novitskiy, Nani Roma suffered early delays and fell back to fourth again. – autosport
