29 kilometres to third place: Toyota on brink of Dakar coup
They initially set their sights on tenth place, hardly daring to dream of achieving their ultimate goal of fifth place, but an outstanding performance and hard work means they are now looking at finishing third: Giniel de Villiers (Stellenbosch/South Africa), Dirk von Zitzewitz (Karlshof/Germany) and their Imperial Toyota team are on the brink of a huge coup at the Dakar. Driving their privately developed and prepared Hilux pick-up, 2009 Dakar winners de Villiers/von Zitzewitz clocked the second fastest time of the day on the penultimate stage of the Rally Dakar between Nasca and Pisco – their best individual stage result of the rally so far. On another exhausting stage, on which almost all the top drivers got stuck at least once, the duo defended third place and now have almost an hour advantage over opposition who were regarded as being much stronger at the start of the rally. The Hilux pair was the first to reach the final section of the special stage and also the first car to arrive at the finish. Despite this, they still had to concede defeat to one rival. Stéphane Peterhansel won today's stage to ensure that the only works team in the car category at the toughest rally in the world, the X-raid Mini team, leads the overall standings with Peterhansel followed by Joan “Nani” Roma ahead of he positive surprise of the Dakar – “Ginny” and “Schnietz” – in third place overall. The South African/German team is well ahead of Peterhansel's Mini team-mates, who also started the race as hot favourites, as well as Hummer driver Robby Gordon, who lined up with an overall package well capable of victory in 2012.
29 relatively easy kilometres of special stage now lie between de Villiers/von Zitzewitz and third place when they arrive at the podium in the Peruvian capital of Lima – a short hop in marathon rallying. Concentration is still required ahead of the short final section, however. Nobody wants to undo all the hard work of the last two weeks and put one of the best sporting performances by driver, co-driver and team at risk due to carelessness.
Nine kilometres of small but nasty dunes at the start, then a further 21 towards the end of a selective Dakar stage: day thirteen's route took the competitors from Nazca to Pisco in the direction of Bahía de Caballas on the Pacific coast, through the Gran Tablazo de Ica and between the Cerro Blanco and the Morro Quemado. The 275- kilometre special stage featured a diverse range of terrain: as well as dune crossings and sandy passages along the beach, the drivers were also faced with harder loamy ground and gravel sections on Saturday. Together with yesterday's exhausting stage, this section of the rally formed the most demanding phase of the second week of the Dakar.
“Today's dune
crossings were
once again
extremely
demanding, and
we did not
manage all of
them without any
problems. We got
stuck once, but
otherwise we had
a good run. We
are obviously very
pleased to have
strengthened our
third place.
However, it will
only be safe once
we have driven
over the ramp in
Lima tomorrow. I
am really looking
forward to that, as
the fans in Peru
are absolutely
fantastic. They have created a
great atmosphere
and are extremely
euphoric. I like that
a lot.”
Giniel de Villiers
after stage 13 of the
Dakar Rally
We got stuck
again today, but
this time it
required me to get
physical. I had to
give Giniel a push
to get him over the
crest of the dune
and then chase
him for about 300
metres. We made
up a lot of the time
we lost there when
there was some
confusion with the
navigation at a
waypoint. I was
the first to find the
way out of there,
which enabled us
to be the first car
into the finish.
Both yesterday's
and today's stages
were great: they
were just as Dakar
stages should be.
That is what
makes the Dakar
so special.
Dirk von Zitzewitz
after stage 13 of the
Dakar Rally
