January 4, 2010: The third stage, marked by mechanical problems for Coma and Frétigné, as well as the withdrawal of Viladoms, was won by Cyril Despres, new leader in the general standings. He now boasts a lead of 10’03’’ over David Casteu. In the car category, Stéphane Peterhansel picked up his 52nd special stage victory on the Dakar and his 19th on four wheels. In the truck race, Vladimir Chagin won his third consecutive stage, picking up the 50th triumph of his career.
January 4, 2010 - 5:18pm - by Ramses Perez
Today’s special that started in La Rioja and ended in Fiambala was one of the most difficult specials the drivers have seen in a very long time. It is almost 9 o’ Clock here and only 35 cars have finished the stage.
Team Hummer took a big blow today when only a few kilometers in to the stage a rear driver inflation line ruptured. Andy and Robby were forced to pull over and fix it. After they got going again the roads were very dusty. This province of Argentina is very famous because of its huge beautiful white dunes. These dunes have very strange powdery silt that sticks to everything and is very difficult to see through.
January 4, 2010: The third stage, marked by mechanical problems for Coma and Frétigné, as well as the withdrawal of Viladoms, was won by Cyril Despres, new leader in the general standings. He now boasts a lead of 10’03’’ over David Casteu. In the car category, Stéphane Peterhansel picked up his 52nd special stage victory on the Dakar and his 19th on four wheels. In the truck race, Vladimir Chagin won his third consecutive stage, picking up the 50th triumph of his career.
January 4, 2010: Team X-raid GmbH’s Stéphane Peterhansel entered the record books by taking his 52nd Dakar Rally stage win in all categories and his 19th in a car on the third 182km special stage between La Rioja and Fiambalá in Argentina on Monday.
The stunning performance catapulted the Frenchman and his co-driver Jean-Paul Cottret into the outright rally lead in their Trebur built-BMW X3 CC. The pair will now take a 4m 33s advantage over Spain’s Carlos Sainz into the fourth stage across the border in Chile on Tuesday, having beaten the two-time World Rally Champion by 5m 44s on the short stage, which featured the first dune crossings and off-road sections of this year’s event.
January 4, 2010: Volkswagen continues maintaining its hold in the group of the front runners on the third leg of the Dakar Rally: Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz, Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk and Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford with their three Race Touareg cars are ranking in positions two to four at the world’s toughest desert rally. The overall lead was taken by today’s stage winners Stéphane Peterhansel/Jean-Paul Cottret from the X-Raid BMW-Team, best Nissan was the South-Africa Alfie Cox together with his German Co-driver Juergen Schroeder on 7th position.
Jan 4, 2010: "The Dakar Rally started in earnest today" said Volkswagen´s Kris Nissen after the Day. "We knew that as of today things would be getting much more difficult. Nevertheless, we were a little surprised about how difficult it really was and how slow the average speed was on the course. With Carlos Sainz´s second place in front of his team-mates we continue doing well in the race and have every reason to be optimistic."
Results from Stage 2:
Al-Attiyah/ Gottschalk
Chicherit/Thoerner
Neves/Maestrelli
Sainz/Cruz
Miller (USA) /Pitchford
Peterhansel/ Cottret
Lavieille/ Forthhomme
De Villers / Von Zitzewitz
Sousa/ Baumel
Terranova/ Maimom
Gordon/ Grider (USA)
Novitskiy/ Schulz
Holowczyc/ Fortin
Leal Dos Santos/ Fiuza
Misslin/ Polato
Barbosa/ Ramalho
Cox/ Schroder
Roma/ Perin
Van Deijne/ Rosegaar
Spinelli/ Palmeiro
Results from Stage 1:
Poø. St. è. Posádka Národ. Vùz Èas
1. 501 Vladimir Chagin, Semyon Yakubov, Sergey Savostin RUS Kamaz 4326-9 2:35:47
2. 502 Ales Loprais, Milan Holan, Jaro Miskolci CZ/SK Tatra 815 4x4 + 0:27
3. 500 Firdaus Kabirov, Aydar Belyaev, Andrey Mokeev RUS Kamaz 4326-9 + 4:00
4. 505 Ilgizar Mardeev, Viatcheslav Mizyukaev, Andrey Karginov RUS Kamaz 4326-9 + 9:50
5. 506 Martin Macik, Jan Bervic, Josef Kalina CZ LIAZ 4x4 SP + 10:59
6. 508 Marcel Van Vliet, Herman Vaanholt, G. Van Veenendaal NL Ginaf X2222 SP + 11:25
7. 504 Andre De Azevedo, Jaromir Martinec, Maykel Justo BR/CZ Tatra 815 4x4 + 11:36
8. 510 Marek Spacil, Radomir Smolka, Mila Janacek CZ Tatra 815 4x4 + 14:32
9. 545 Martin Kolomy, René Kilian, Zbynek Kotal CZ Tatra 815 4x4 + 23:41
10. 513 Johan Elfrink, Serge Bruynkens NL Mercedes-Benz Axor 4x4 + 24:17
