Stage three of the 2010 Dakar Rally saw Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel and BMW take control of the 2010 Dakar Rally with a decisive win.
"It wasn't an easy day, with a short special in terms of distance," said Stéphane Peterhansel.
"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 organization vehicles had trouble getting up," he added.
According to the Dakar Rally's web site:
"Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel (BMW) has picked up his first stage
victory on this 32nd edition of the Dakar, taking the record for
victories in all categories in the Dakar to 52. The rider from Vesoul
in France beat Spaniard Carlos Sainz by 5’44 and Qatari Nasser
Al-Attiyah by 10’01 (both VW). More importantly, this 19th special
stage victory on four wheels allows "Peter" to take control of the
general standings: he now boasts a lead of 4’33 over "El Matador"
Carlos Sainz and 7’31 over Qatari Al-Attiyah.
There were no surprises,
however, in the Open category, where American Robby Gordon took a stage
victory for the 3rd time, with the 12th best time of the day’s special
stage. "
On the bikes it was another Frenchman that took the lead of today's stage. Cyril Despres on his KTM showed that he had what it takes to win this year by taking the stage in style.
"This is one of those stages when you set out in the morning and you
think to yourself, 'okay, 180km, that will be easy. We'll soon be at
the bivouac'," Despres said.
"But there you are, we've just spent
three hours battling on the bikes. It was a really African-like stage:
physically tough with the heat, soft dunes and mechanical aspects to
deal with." he added
According to the Dakar Rally's web site:
"Frenchman Cyril Despres (KTM) has grabbed his first stage victory on
this 32nd edition of the Dakar and the 19th of his career.
More
importantly, with a time of 3.01:09, respectively 10’40 and 12’09 ahead
of Portugal’s Helder Rodrigues (Yamaha) and Paulo Goncalves (BMW), the
adoptive Andorran has already improved his chances of outright victory,
because at the same time his main rivals Spaniard Marc Coma and
Frenchmen David Casteu and David Frétigné all encountered problems.
In
spite of his battery problems, Casteu suffered the least, only losing
12 minutes to Despres, as opposed to the 22 minutes lost by Coma, due
to his engine cutting out, and the 1 hour 35 minutes lost by Frétigné,
who was hampered by electrical problems… As a result, in the general
standings, Cyril Despres has taken control, 10’03 ahead of Casteu and
17’57 in front of Rodrigues, whereas Coma lies back in 8th place, 42’04
behind the leader,"
Click HERE for today's currant stage 3 Dakar Rally race standings.
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Below is a video recap of Stage 2 of the 2010 Dakar Rally.
