Dakar Rally – Stages three and four

Posted by Ray | 7 January 2009 | Comment

[u][b]Stage Three[/b][/u] – As Marc Coma has now won his second stage on the 2009 edition of the Dakar and takes some serious lead in the overall rankings, Cyril Despres keeps sinking down the rankings after having had to fight tyre problems during the whole special stage of the day. In cars, Nasser Al Attiyah ends up with the best timing of the day and gets dangerously close to Carlos Sainz, still in the lead in the overall rankings.

[b]Stage three video[/b]

Between Cyril Despres and Marc Coma, it often used to be “one day you win, one day I win”. But the lion’s share achieved by the Spaniard on the third special stage today seems to be saying that there might not be a lot left for the other contenders. Despres might have learned patience and proven that enduro racing is not won on the first day, the consequences of his recurring tyre trouble are putting an increasing distance between him and even those positions in the rankings where he might benefit from a potential breakdown of his usual rival. After his trouble of the day, the title holder is timed 1h32’50″ behind Coma, who is still the fastest on the trail and who has been spared by technical trouble.

The role of outsider in the race therefore comes on to David Frétigné, the “little-kid-who-decided-to-hit-on-the-biggest-fishes-in-the-pond”. Behind the wheel of his Yamaha 450cc, Fretos still comes as a surprise, as an astonishment, making the best of the hard times of other contenders. Indeed, the 39’11″ between him and Marc Coma makes it hard to even imagine he might come back in the race if nothing happens to Coma, but his aiming at the final podium is slowly starting to take shape. In order to keep his position in the Top 3, the names of his rivals are now getting clearer as the days go by and they are the likes of Frans Verhoeven, winner of yesterday’s stage, who finishes the provisional top trio and will be amongst those to watch out for. Another one to watch out for is Pal-Anders Ullevalseter, who got the second fastest time today ex-aequo with Viladoms, but still 17’49″ behind Coma!

Tyre stories have also made the race in the lead of the car category as the fastest man of the day even had time for a small stop to repair a flat tyre before racing for his second special stage victory of the year. Nasser Al Attiyah, who promises every day to stay put and not push the accelerator too hard, launched a successful counterattack on 551km in the special stage. Starting 7th this morning, the Qatari passed his team mate Argentina’s Orlando Terranova, then Mark Miller, Poland’s Holowczyc and Luc Alphand, delayed by a fuel leakage issue.

In total, the winning BMW stole 35″ to Carlos Sainz, who ends up with the 10th time. The Spaniard remains in the lead of the overall ranking 3’40″ ahead of Al Attiyah and 5’45″ ahead of De Villiers. Stéphane Peterhansel, the first Mitsubishi driver, follows the top trio by 8’47″.

In the production category, the race between the Toyotas of Nicolas Gibon and Jun Mitsuhashi is taking shape. They respectively finished 31st and 32nd of today’s stage with only 7 seconds separating them after 550 km! In the overall standings, the Japanese driver has a 21-second lead over Gibon.

Vladimir Chagin also led a similar counterattack that brought him to winning his first special stage of the rally in the trucks category. Starting fourth this morning, the “Czar” passed by the trucks of Van Vliet, Kabirov, and Gerard De Rooy. The leader in the overall rankings, who is not yet directly threatened by Chagin, does feel the threat of the Kamaz trucks getting clearer and clearer as all three Russian trucks in the race are now in direct pursuit in the overall rankings of the race.

[u][b][u][b]Stage Four – [/b][/u] COMA NICE AND EASY, SAINZ ON TIME[/b][/u]

Over the 380 kilometers of the day’s special stage, Marc Coma boasted the best time and continues to increase his lead at the top of the general standings. In the car race, the struggle continues between Sainz and Al Attiyah, with a slight advantage for the Spaniard.

[b]Stage four video[/b]

What more would Marc Coma need to feel good? He had a relaxed start to the day, with the prospect of a long journey through Patagonia as the pathfinder. Since there were few navigational constraints, there was no worry about getting lost and losing time, especially since his nearest pursuer in the general standings, David Frétigné, was 39 minutes behind him. All the conditions were combined for the Catalan to continue widening the gap, riding at a pace that others would consider supersonic, but which he considers to be gentle. That said, on a bike, everything is relative…

On the finishing line, in spite of a few cattle gets that he was careful to open on the way, Coma grabbed the day’s best time. He won his 7th stage victory on the Dakar with a lead of 1.17 over Cyril Despres and 1.21 over Jonah Street. With this display, the American rider pushed David Frétigné back into 3rd position, but with only 45 seconds between the two, the battle for second place is far from over.

Spain continued its distinguished display in the car category, with a new victory for Carlos Sainz. Arriving in Neuquen with 6 seconds less on the clock than Nasser Al Attiyah, the VW driver brings his total of triumphs on the Dakar to 11. After four days of racing, it would appear that the duel which has the spectators holding their breath is the one being fought out between Sainz and Al Attiyah, who have shared the stage wins this year so far and are only separated in the general standings by 3.49. However, will their vehicles continue to be reliable? After all there are still more than 6,000 kilometers of the race to go…

The expected rivalry with Mitsubishi could occur, as often is the case, later on in the race. In any case, it was not during this fourth stage that “Peter” and his team-mates were able to charge back up the standings. Far behind the leading Hispano-Qatari duo, Nani Roma was the best representative of the Japanese constructor, driving his Lancer to a 5th placed finish on the stage, 6.54 behind the day’s winner. In the general standings, after Masuoka’s withdrawal and the misfortunes of Alphand during yesterday’s stage, only Peterhansel and Roma are in a position to ambush the leaders, less than 20 minutes behind, in 4th and 5th place respectively.

Close pursuit is also a method used in the T2 category. Today, Jun Mitsuhashi was again the quickest in the category, with the 28th best time of the day, followed this time by Ronan Chabot, also a former winner in the Production category. Having arrived in Neuquen 2.26 behind his Japanese team-mate, Chabot is also well placed in terms of the final podium, because Nicolas Gibon, who lost almost 30 minutes during the special, only hung onto his third place by three minutes.

With his third stage victory in the truck category this year, Gerard De Rooy has strengthened his status as a legitimate pretender to the title. However, his rivals behind him are starting to apply pressure, meaning there is no room for error. The Russian fleet of Kamaz trucks lies in wait, with three drivers pursuing De Rooy. Indeed, Chagain is only 10.14 behind in the general standings…