Truck race - What will happen tomorrow?

Truck race - What will happen tomorrow?

January 17, La Serena

Chile is a narrow lowland squeezed between the sea and mountains throughout its length. The relief changes to the south, and the climate compared with scorching sands of the Atacama desert is cooler. The first thing you notice upon arrival in La Serena is the appearance of vegetation. The competitors of the Dakar-2014 left the Atacama today, which, however, was in no hurry to let the drivers go. The route El Salvador – La Serene included 349 km against the clock with the dunes for the last 150 km.  Everyone believed that Andrey Karginov could increase his advantage over the Dutchman on this 150 km sandy section. But it is not so simple. Performance and vehicles of these rivals are about the same, and the fight between them is very intense. It is with a lead of 2’51" over Gerard de Rooy that Andrey Karginov has reached the 4th check point on the 300 km. It is not a big gap, but if these minutes were added to the time of Andrey in the general classification, it would have an important psychological effect before tomorrow's short 157 -kilometer special stage La Serena - Valparaiso. Hypothetically the respectable distance of 10 minutes is more comfortable on the case of tyre change; it usually takes just as much time. But De Rooy managed to accelerate in the last 50 kilometers of today's special stage and win it with a gap of 31 seconds.

Ales Loprais has had to stop due to electrical problems with his Tatra truck. He lost for about an hour on today’s stage, he apparently drop off the leading group in the truck special: in the general standings after stage 12, 1:38'38" behind his team-mate and countryman, Eduard Nikolaev will have the best seat to watch this fight, especially as he is not particularly threatened by those below him: respectively 3:21'18" and 4:40'51 behind Karginov, Sotnikov and Shibalov will do no more than confirm the domination of the Kamaz team in the general standings. But the gap of 7’25" pays witness to the intensity of the fight of Dutchman Gerard de Rooy with Andrey Karginov.

There is about a similar situation in the car category. After nearly 9000 kilometers of the route 26 seconds separate first placed Stéphane Peterhansel from Nani Roma! Some rumors circulate in the press center: maybe the team orders setting by X-RAID team leader Sven Quandt won’t be respected? It seems that Peterhansel has moved in front in the general standings. Maybe Peterhansel want to take over the lead in the general standings over Nani Roma? What will happen tomorrow? It is anybody's guess…

12th Stage of the rally Dakar. Truck standings.

Overall after the 12th Stage