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SPORTSThursday 14 January 2016
Peterhansel wins decisive 10th stage to lead Dakar Rally
Peugeot driver France’s Stephane Peterhansel and co-driver Jean Paul Cottret, race during the ond overall, and panicked soon after the start and
the 2016 Dakar Rally, in Belen, Argentina. outside Belen when he lost broke his ceiling and cool-
time looking for the first ing system. Not prepared
(AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) waypoint en route to La to take more risks, the Qa-
Rioja, then got a flat tire. tari finished 14th and more
LA RIOJA, Argentina (AP) sixth in a car, was on the vived a complaint by Mini That made him push his than 50 minutes down in
— Stephane Peterhansel, cards for Peterhansel this that he refueled in an unau- Peugeot harder. the stage, but managed to
the most successful pilot in weekend after winning the thorized area on Monday, “We took risks and threw rise to second overall.
caution to the wind,” he Giniel de Villiers of South
Dakar Rally history, gained 10th stage on soft sand and but Mini filed an appeal on said. “We pushed very hard Africa finished sixth in the
decisive control of the race grabbing a lead of an hour Wednesday to motorsport because we knew today 245-kilometer stage, which
when he flew through the on his nearest rival, defend- governing body FIA which was the decisive stage. It was shortened by 30 kilo-
was a stage with very tricky meters because of a rio
Fiambala dunes and main- ing champion Nasser Al- will be heard before the navigation, off-track sec- swollen by overnight thun-
tions, drainage channels ... derstorms, and climbed to
ly avoided the problems his Attiyah. end of the race. Peterhan- everything that makes rally third overall, 72 minutes be-
raid hard.” hind.
rivals suffered on Wednes- The Frenchman could yet sel could be penalized six What he didn’t know was Sebastien Loeb, the nine-
his rivals were faring even time world rally champ,
day. lose his lead in an appeal hours or disqualified. worse. endured a car roll, getting
Carlos Sainz, who grabbed stuck in the sand, and two
A 12th championship, a hearing. Peterhansel sur- He began the day sec- the overall lead on Tues- punctures, and still man-
day, two minutes up on Pe- aged to finish fifth in the
terhansel, couldn’t find the stage to rise into the top 10.
first waypoint, punctured, In the motorbikes, Toby
got stuck in the sand, then Price of Australia, the lead-
stopped 30 kilometers from er since Monday, rode cau-
the finish after a strut broke tiously to avoid mistakes af-
under his engine. He had ter his KTM took a thrashing
to wait hours for assistance, on Tuesday. He finished six
bringing an end to the 2010 minutes behind stage win-
champion’s hope of a sec- ner Stefan Svitko of Slova-
ond title. kia, but still led the latter by
Al-Attiyah rolled his Mini 23 minutes overall.q
