Dakar 2013, étape 9 : Peterhansel prend une option sur la victoire / Peterhansel takes a step closer to victory

Although it was won by Spaniard Nani Roma, the longest leg of the 2013 Dakar saw Mini/Michelin’s Stéphane Peterhansel strengthen his overall lead after Nasser Al-Attiyah’s buggy sustained damaged.

Remportée par l’Espagnol Nani Roma, la plus longue étape du Dakar 2013 a conforté Stéphane Peterhansel en tête du rallye sur sa Mini/Michelin. Nasser Al-Attiyah a endommagé son Buggy.

Etape 9 : San Miguel de Tucuman-Cordoba (852 km)

After pulling off Ruta 157 to the right, we still faced a drive of some 80km before reaching the end of Stage 9, the longest of this year’s rally (593km, including a 120km neutralisation). It’s here that we started to see the first roads signs indicating place-names like La Falda, Cosquin and Capilla del Monte, all of which are visited by the WRC’s Rally Argentina.

Indeed, the Dakar resembled a WRC event today, with a menu of twisty, occasionally fast mountain stages which were technically challenging for the drivers. Orly Terranova, who was second on the road this morning, was the first driver to show at the finish control where he was noisily greeted by his home fans. “I had trouble overtaking Chicherit along a narrow, dusty portion. My brakes had a tendency to lock, reported the Argentine driver.

It was a brake issue, too, that prevented Giniel de Villiers from taking today’s win. The intermediate classifications showed the South African Toyota Hilux driver in the lead before his front-right brake disc failed: “We didn’t have any spare rear discs, so we continued after isolating the rear brakes. It’s a shame because it would have been nice to earn a stage win for Toyota.”

Despite his disappointment, the 2009 Dakar winner has emerged in second place overall after Nasser Al-Attiyah hit a tree with 100km remaining. Lucio Alvarez suffered the same misfortune and badly damaged his windscreen. “A branch entered the cabin, but we were lucky.” Guerlain Chicherit was also reported to have stopped with a damaged wheel by Carlos Sousa who was himself troubled by the smell of transmission oil.

The day’s winner was Nani Roma who collected his second stage victory of this year’s event. “I spent more than 200km in Robby Gordon’s dust,” the Spaniard grumbled at the finish.

“We were travelling at the same speed as him but we had to pass a high number of bike and quad riders at the same time. It wasn’t easy for anyone,” noted the American driver.

Après avoir quitté la Ruta 157 sur la droite, il nous restait environ 80 km pour accéder à l’arrivée de cette 9^e spéciale, la plus longue du rallye (593 km dont 120 de neutralisation). C’est là que nous avons vu les premiers panneaux - La Falda, Cosquin, Capilla del Monte – des hauts lieux du Rallye d’Argentine.

D’ailleurs, le Dakar est passé en mode WRC aujourd’hui avec des pistes montagneuses, sinueuses, parfois rapides, en tout cas très techniques. C’est « Orly » Terranova, parti 2^e ce matin, qui est arrivé le 1^er à l’arrivée, sous les vivas de ses fans. « J’ai eu du mal pour doubler Chicherit, c’était étroit et poussiéreux. Mes freins avaient tendance à rester bloquer », expliquait l’Argentin.

Les freins, c’est justement ce qui a privé Giniel de Villiers d’une victoire promise. Au volant de son Toyota Hilux, le Sud-Africain était pointé en tête aux intermédiaires jusqu’à la casse de son disque de frein avant droit : « On n’avait que des disques arrière en secours, alors on a continué ainsi en déconnectant le circuit. C’est dommage, j’aurai bien voulu offrir une victoire d’étape à Toyota. »

Le vainqueur du Dakar 2009 accède malgré tout à la 2^e place du général puisque Nasser Al-Attiyah a tapé un arbre à 100 km de l’arrivée. Même mésaventure pour Lucio Alvarez dont le pare-brise était carrément éventré à l’arrivée : « La branche a traversé le cockpit, on a eu de la chance. » Guerlain Chicherit était lui aussi signalé arrêté après une touchette et une roue endommagée, d’après Carlos Sousa, perturbé par une odeur d’huile de boîte de vitesses.

Le vainqueur du jour est Nani Roma, qui remporte sa seconde victoire d’étape sur ce Dakar : « J’ai pourtant roulé plus de 200 km dans la poussière de Robby Gordon », pestait l’Espagnol à l’arrivée. « On roulait à la même vitesse et il y avait de nombreux quads et motos entre nous qu’il fallait doubler, ce n’était facile pour personne aujourd’hui », se défendait l’Américain.

Classement étape 9

1. Roma/Périn (Mini), 5h36min28s – 2. Peterhansel/Cottret (Mini), +6min54s – 3. Terranova/Fiuza (BMW), +6min54s – 4. Gordon/Walch (Hummer), +8min37s – 5. De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz (Toyota), +9min39s…

Classement après étape 9

1. Peterhansel/Cottret (Mini), 24:11:43 – 2. De Villiers/Von Zitzewitz (Toyota), +49min31s – 3. Novitskiy/Zhilstov (Mini), +56min03s – 4. Roma/Périn (Mini), + 1h34min16s – 5. Terranova/Fiuza (BMW), +2h01min08s…

Dakar2013 - Leg 9: Despres strikes a blow

Cyril Despres (KTM/Michelin) has made strong progress in the overall classification of the 2013 Dakar Rally today (Monday), by winning the ninth stage as rivals David Casteu, Olivier Pain and Chaleco Lopez all lost time. Ruben Faria has moved to the top of the leaderboard.

Leg 9: San Miguel de Tucuman - Cordoba (852km)

Between San Miguel de Tucuman and the heights of Cordoba, Ruta 157 is essentially a long straight line stretching some 500km across plains characterised by farming and cattle breeding. At Km280 (Recreo), where competitors paused after completing the first part of the stage, the tension was palpable...

It was during that first section that leader David Casteu almost certainly lost all hope of victory by colliding with a cow. Suffering a shoulder injury in the impact and subsequently treated by the medical team at Recreo, the Nice-based rider bravely pressed on despite the discomfort. His team-mate Olivier Pain also fell, though thankfully less seriously, 370km into the stage, thereafter complaining of back ache. Another faller was fellow erstwhile rally leader, Chile’s Chaleco Lopez.

Meanwhile, four-time Dakar winner Cyril Despres truly threw down the gauntlet to his adversaries today by prevailing to the tune of more than four minutes over Joan Barreda: "I need to thank both my physical trainer for helping me to develop solid legs and Michelin for supplying me with Bib Mousse-equipped Desert Race tyres. Without their help, I wouldn't have won this stage," declared the KTM rider after a magnificent 5h41m36s effort. "I had made a special note of this stage from the start, and I pushed hard from start to finish…”

Despres has consequently advanced in the overall standings to now lie second behind his team-mate and new leader Ruben Faria, who remarked: "It was a long and difficult stage, with 90 per cent of the tracks running through the forest and countless turns. My mission is to help Cyril win his fifth Dakar Rally, and I have every intention of doing just that…”

Behind Barreda, Alessandro Botturi was third-fastest, making it two Husqvarna/Michelins in the day's top three: "That reminded me of my time in Enduro," smiled the Italian at the stage end. Meantime, Portugal's Helder Rodriguez (fourth-quickest today) still has his sights set on a podium finish in Santiago.

Stage 9 classification:

1. Despres (KTM), 5h41min36s – 2. Barreda (Husqvarna), +4min03s – 3. Botturi (Husqvarna), +5min14s – 4. Faria (KTM) + +7min47s 5. Rodriguez (Honda), +8min47s...

Provisional standings after Leg 9:

1. Faria (KTM), 25:57:12 - 2. Despres (KTM) +5min23s - 3. Lopez (KTM) +9min03s - 4. Jakes (KTM) +16min56s - 5. Botturi (Husqvarna) +22min58

Official lists for 2013 Manufacturers’ championships

The FIA has published the official list of the teams which have registered for the 2013 'Manufacturers' and 'WRC Teams' championships. The list is not final, however, since the closing date for entries is May 21, 2013.

With just days to go before the opening round of the 2013 season (Rallye Monte-Carlo), the team names, cars and number one drivers entered for the 'Manufacturers' championship have been released:

- Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team / Citroën DS3 WRC / Mikko Hirvonen

- Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team / Ford Fiesta RS WRC / Mads Ostberg

- Volkswagen Motorsport / Volkswagen Polo R WRC / Jari-Matti Latvala

The list continues with the following teams which will battle for the 'WRC Teams' title:

- Abu Dhabi Citroën Total World Rally Team / Citroën DS3 WRC

- Lotos WRC Team / Mini John Cooper Works WRC

- Qatar World Rally Team / Ford Fiesta RS WRC

Qatar WRT will run two cars, although the rallies contested by each one are likely to be different. Meanwhile, Lotos WRC Team will be looked after by Motorsport Italia who will enter a single car for all 13 rounds.

Last but not least, the crews officially entered by these teams for this week’s Rallye Monte-Carlo are…

- Citroën Total Abu Dhabi: Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena and Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen

- Qatar M-Sport: Mads Ostberg/Jonas Andersson and Evgeny Novikov/Ilka Minor

- Volkswagen Motorsport: Jari-Matti Latvala/Mikka Anttila and Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia

- Abu Dhabi Citroën Total: Dani Sordo/Carlos Del Barrio

- Qatar WRT: Juho Hänninen/Tomi Tuominen and Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul

- Lotos WRC Team: Michal Kosciuszko/Maciej Szczepaniak

MotoGP: Valentino Rossi's 2013 Yamaha YZR-M1 renderings

A loyal reader of our twin site Motoblog.it, Mr.Samuel Laurora a.k.a. Samuxx, has sent us a couple of very interesting renderings that envision how the 2013 Yamaha YZR-M1 ridden by prodigal son Valentino Rossi could look like next year, in light of the new recently announced sponsorship agreement with Monster Energy Company.

It goes without saying that what we are looking at here are a couple of shots in the dark, two wild guesses from the very talented Signor Samuxx, but nonetheless we cannot help but appreciate both graphic concepts, which are very professional and well made. The first one adopts a mainly black-and-white color scheme, which is somewhat reminiscent of the all-black livery of the Yamaha Tech3 satellite team. Since the latter is expected to retain the same graphics, we would expect the new M1 of the Factory team to use more ‘blue’ (though we are guessing as well). As for the second one, it is a very Valentino-oriented rendition that the Italian rider could use - hypothetically - on some special occasion, such as his home GP at the Mugello track. Sure thing we won’t see team mate and reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo riding anything like that.

We will have to wait quite some time to see how the actual 2013 Factory Yamaha M1 will look like, but that’s not the case for its main rivals: the new livery of the Ducati Team should be unveiled tomorrow at the 2013 Wrooom - the traditional happening that takes place at the begining of every year and brings together the Ducati MotoGP and Ferrari Formula 1 teams as well as journalists from around the world in the popular winter resort of Madonna di Campiglio, northern Italy - while the new Honda RC213V will be introduced to the world the next 24th of January in Madrid.

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