Dakar day 12-Giniel in top 5
The 12th day of the gruelling Dakar 2018 event turned out to be the longest day for cars and trucks, while the bike stage was cancelled due to the intense weather.
To say the car stage between Chilecito to San Juan was intriguing would be an understatement. The lead was constantly shifted between Orlando Terranova, Bernhard Ten Brinke and Stephane Peterhansel, but at the end of the day, it was Toyota’s Nasser Al-Attiyah who snatched a spot at the top of the podium.
Following closely behind by a mere 2-minutes was Peterhansel, trailed by Giniel de Villiers in third, Terranova in fourth and Ten Brinke in fifth. Overall leader, Carlos Sainz, managed a ninth-place finish. As a result, he loses 18-minutes from his lead which was sitting comfortably at just over an hour. Peterhansel now sits 44-minutes behind first overall.
Al-Attiyah finds himself in third-place overall, just 21-minutes behind Peterhansel and 12-minutes above Ten Brinke in fourth. Giniel de Villiers comes in at fifth place, 9-minutes behind. South Africans Gerhard Schutte and Hennie de Klerk pushed their Amarok for a 29th place spot at the middle of the stage.
Fatigue and exhaustion are getting to many of the teams, and with another 15-hour day ahead of them each team needs to dig deep to reach the finish in Cordoba, Spain on Saturday.
Friday will begin the 13th and final stage of the Dakar 2018, which consists of a 370km stretch from San Juan, Puerto Rico to the finish line in Cordoba, Spain. This stage presents drivers with their last chance to make up time on the dunes before driver’s attack the asphalt of Argentina’s WRC roads.
