Peterhansel on precipice of Dakar win
With Al-Attiyah in second and de Villiers in third, French driver heads field with two days left
>> SAN JUAN: French driver Stephane Peterhansel was happy to concede a little time on the speedy 11th stage on Thursday as he retained the Dakar Rally lead and closed in on a recordextending 12th victory.
Peterhansel finished the 431-kilometer special between La Rioja and San Juan eight minutes behind stage winner Nasser Al-Attiyah, but still a healthy 52 minutes up on his nearest rival and the defending champion.
Despite only two days of racing left, Peterhansel wasn’t thinking of victory yet.
“If you have 10 minutes, two minutes or one hour [in hand], and you have a big technical problem, then you’re stopped, and it’s finished for the overall victory,’’ he said. “It’s never over. I’ve had some good experiences like that, but also some bad experiences.’’
He only had to consider Peugeot teammate and former champ Carlos Sainz. The rally leader before Wednesday’s demanding stage, he suffered numerous problems before breaking an adaptor plate to the gearbox, forcing his withdrawal for a fourth straight year.
Al-Attiyah flew over the sand, pebbles, gravel and rios for his second stage win of the rally, six minutes ahead of Sebastien Loeb, who stalled just short of the finish line and got a tow from teammate Cyril Despres. Al-Attiyah’s Mini teammate, Mikko Hirvonen, was seven minutes behind in third.
Al-Attiyah cut some time off Peterhansel’s lead, and another past winner, Giniel de Villiers of South Africa, remained third overall but dropped six minutes to be 78 minutes behind.
Toby Price of Australia increased his lead in the motorbike class by 12 minutes to 35 minutes over Stefan Svitko, who struggled. Price, determined to win the Dakar at his second attempt, was second on the stage, only 18 seconds behind Antoine Meo of France.
The bike leaders finished the stage, but organizers eventually stopped it at the second checkpoint, about 190 kilometers from the finish, because the 40-degree heat was putting a large number of riders in difficulty.
POPE PRAYS FOR SCHUMACHER
Pope Francis prayed for racing legend Michael Schumacher on Thursday as he offered his backing for a Formula One-led road safety campaign aimed at reducing the number of children killed by cars.
The prayer came after Francis was visited by Jean Todt, the president of the Formula One’s governing body FIA, who showed the pontiff a shock three-minute video used in the “Save Kids’ Lives” campaign.
“I think it made a big impression on him,” Todt told Radio Vatican. “We informed him that 500 children die on roads every day and that another 20,000 are injured every day.”
Todt said he had also discussed Schumacher’s condition with the pope. “I asked him if he wanted to say a prayer and he happily accepted.”
Schumacher, a seven-time world champion in Formula One, suffered a serious head injury while skiing in the French Alps in December 2013.
He spent six months in an induced coma in 2014 before returning to his home in Switzerland to continue his rehabilitation.
Since then his family have released little information about his condition. Todt, a close friend, said in November that the German ace was “still fighting.”