2013 Dakar Rally? competition heats up

With only two special stages remaining in the 2013 Dakar Rally, competition is heating up as the rally nears its end. Giniel de Villiers and co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz had a solid run on the 319km special stage 12 between Fiambala and Copiapo in Argentina, finishing third in their Imperial Toyota Hilux.

The battle for the 2013 Dakar Rally

De Villiers and Von Zitzewitz are currently placed second overall, some 50 minutes behind leaders and defending champions Stephane Peterhansel and Jean Paul Cottret (Mini). Nani Roma of Spain and French co-driver Michel Perin (Mini) won the stage ahead of Americans Robbie Gordon and Kellon Walch (Hummer) while De Villiers and Von Zitzewitz were only 7 seconds behind them to finish third. Roma and Perin are now placed third overall and are 40 minutes 45 seconds behind De Villiers and Von Zitzewitz.

Russians Leonid Novitskiy and Konstantin Zhiltsov (Mini), who were third overall at the start of the stage, finished in ninth place on special stage 12 and are now placed fourth overall behind Roma and Perin. Two special stages remain before the 2013 Dakar Rally winners cross the finishing line in Santiago, Chile.

Giniel de Villeirs had the following to say about the day’s proceedings, “We just wanted to have a clean stage, but for sure, today’s stage was a lot tougher than I expected it to be,” said De Villiers. “With a long liaison this morning at high altitude, that makes you really tired as well and then you have to do a tough stage like today. It needed a lot of concentration. There were quite long dune crossings and really tricky places in the dunes. Then, on the tracks there were lots of rocks, so you really had to be very precise so as not to hit any rocks. It was not an easy day, but we’re happy to be here. We lost about thirty seconds at one of the way points in the dunes. We couldn’t make it up to that one, so we had to turn around and sort of go around, because at that point I was quite close to Lucio (Alvarez) and I saw he put a gap between us again. I think tomorrow’s going to be tough as well, more tough than today. It’s not over yet.”

Dirk Von Zitzewitz commented, “We’ve studied the route very carefully each night and been well prepared for each stage. Our preparations certainly paid off today. On Friday we face another tough test, which could be even tougher than today’s. Celebrations would be premature today, too much hinges on the 13th stage. But we are ready.”

??Dakar Rally – Stage 13

Stage 13 will take place between Copiapo and Le Serena in Chile and will show respect to the meteorological phenomenon called Camanchaca. Camanchaca is a stubborn fog that will be dense in the morning and the race will commence once it has lifted. The competitors will tackle the last dunes of the 2013 Dakar Rally with the sandy part representing 441km of the special stage. The rest of the route leads south on wide tracks with lots of stones before the competitors reach the last bivouac of the rally. Stage 13 will start at 5:06 PM (SA Time) on Friday, 18 January 2013.