Sebastien Loeb takes his first stage victory in the debut of the Dakar. Followed by his team-mate Stéphane Peterhansel and the Toyota from the Russian Vasilyev.
The 9 times champion of the World Rally Championship has not been especially walk. Second stage between Villa Carlos Paz and Termas de Rio Hondo, which has been shortened by the weather conditions, it was scheduled with 510km of special. A quick stage, with a little complicated navigation but conditioned because of the quagmire, made the French of Peugeot could show because it was the king of the WRC and is that only has forgiven the first control of step. From there has dominated the stage without making mistakes.
Followed by his team-mate Stéphane Peterhansel that has come to 2’23” achieving the one two of the French brand for the stage today. Completing the podium have reached the two Toyota Vasilyev and De Villiers at 2’38” and 3’01” respectively.
Have not been as lucky but the Mini drivers, the best qualyfied is also an old king of the world of the WRC, Mikko Hirvonen, who has entered in 5th position to 3’05” behind Loeb. In seventh position we found the ex-motorcycle pilot Cyril Despres, Nasser Al-Attiyah has left to escape a few minutes by the fault of a puncture. Carlos Sainz also suffered from a fault in his Peugeot has made him lose 11 minutes, nothing compared with the 45min that has lost Nani Roma because of a quagmire.
Carlos Sainz commented on the arrival: “The engine stopped suddenly and I was waiting until the engine restarted, but after that it went ok until the end. But there were no problems with the handling. We were stuck for thirteen minutes!”
Loeb also commented have had some problems: “That was quite good news at the end because I didn’t believe it. I was stuck in the mud at the middle of the stage and was lucky to get out. I got stuck for maybe two minutes, something like that. At that moment I didn’t believe I would get out like I did. Finally, I managed to join the field again and resume the stage, but it was really on the limit so I was a bit afraid. Apart from that, I had a good stage with no problems, trying to find a good rhythm and it was ok. The gaps are not a big, big difference, I have to say, but I’m really happy about the rhythm we were able to take on this stage with this car, because I didn’t believe it was a buggy stage.”
Tomorrow the third stage. Termas de Río Hondo to Jujuy.