Peterhansel: Stage win a step to Dakar victory

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-06 09:20

FIAMBALA, Argentina: French veteran Stephane Peterhansel won stage three of the Dakar Rally on Monday and claimed it was a step towards overall victory in the testing event.

Peterhansel, having threatened to pull down the curtain on his career after quitting following stage seven last year with a broken engine and then seeing his then-team Mitsubishi leave the sport for financial reasons, steered his BMW (pictured) to what was his 52nd special stage victory in the Dakar and his 19th on four wheels.

"We've had a good day. We started sixth and finished first," said the six-time winner of the motorcyles event and a three-time auto section winner.

"It wasn't an easy day, with a short special in terms of distance," he said of the 182km timed run from La Rioja to Fiambala.

"There were soft dunes, quite complicated off-road parts, big tufts of camel grass and then a big sandy climb which even the powerful race organisation vehicles had trouble getting up.

"In short, it was hard. We also saw plenty of bikers who had stopped. The difference today could be seen right from the start, when some riders and drivers got lost, but we got it right with our navigation.

"Afterwards, we continued to attack and didn't let the pressure drop. For the moment, I'm not interested in stage victories, I'm more bothered about outright victory in the general standings.

"Today is a step along the road to victory. We'll see what the rest of the race has in store."

Peterhansel finished 5min 44sec ahead of VW's Carlos Sainz of Spain, and the Frenchman now heads the overall standings, 4min 33sec ahead of the Spaniard.

Mixed fortunes

Zhou Yong was the top Chinese performer of day, finishing in 41st place. His overall rankings moved from 104th to 54th.

Veteran Lu Ningjun, driving a Chery's Rely X5 in his sixth trip to Dakar Rally, dropped in the overall standings, going down from 52nd to 58th. Lu was 68th in the third stage. Teammate Jiang Yaohuan, also at the wheel of Rely X5, fell from 51st to 59th. He was 69th in the third stage.

Zhao Yongguo and Zhu Jinzhong moved up from 100th to 70 and 103rd to 76th respectively.

In the motorcycling section, China's Wei Guanghui and Su Wenmin finished 104th and 11th in the third stage.

AFP/China Daily